Kızıltoprak
October 2023 - May 2024
ISTANBUL
The documentary Kızıltoprak tells the story of Hazal, who was born and raised as the daughter of a father who lived the last thirty years of his life without identity. Fifteen years after her father's death, Hazal initiates the legal process necessary for the recognition of the lineage between him and her. However, in order for the case to proceed, she must prove that her father Bülent Kızıltoprak actually existed. Throughout the film, we join Hazal in her pursuit of the remnants of the past and follow her process of building her own identity in parallel with the paternity case.
Hazal’s father, Bülent Kızıltoprak, was born as Bernardo Schilton in 1937 to a Jewish family from Bursa, who reside in Istanbul. Years before Hazal’s birth, in the 1970s, he adopted the name Bülent Kızıltoprak and lived the second phase of his life without any official identity.
Hazal mentions her father, who was known as Bülent Kızıltoprak in the second phase of his life and used the name Bülent in all his works and social relations, “He lived against institutions and property as if he did not exist, just like a ghost without a trace.” Almost nothing remains from Bülent to prove that he once existed, as his identity has never been verified by authorities since he avoided any and all situations that would require submission of an ID. Hazal, who was 16 years old when her father died, is now entering a new phase in mourning while questioning her family's past as an adult woman.
This journey, where we accompany Hazal in her gaze on the hidden face of the past, takes us to the cities, streets, apartments and cemetery where both Bernardo’s and Bülent’s roads have crossed. On the other hand, we witness Hazal writing her own story step by step, realizing that her own identity was missing even when her father was alive.
