Our Old Friends

For many of us, we learn about cinema through our old friends: Cartoons. Every cartoon is like a cinematic history. They got it all: framing, composition, audiovisual storytelling, and even character identification. All these elements educate us as an audience from a very young age. Take the classic Tom and Jerry. It has been shaping the minds of generations. The narrative language is simple. There is no need for words; everything is conveyed through visuals and sounds that evoke our senses and move our imagination. Think about the hidden face of the famous landlady, Mammy Two Shoes, that we can’t help but imagine. Everyone I ask can immediately remember her.

Windows to Imagination

My all-time favorite cartoon is Life with Louie. It’s about American comedian Louie Anderson‘s childhood memories, which show the ups and downs of his life under the watchful eye of his strict dad. It injects such mature storytelling into children’s entertainment, and also serves as a strong reminder to me: Our life’s narrative is shaped by our ties with our families. Perhaps my focus on family dynamics in my films comes from the themes planted in my mind during those years.

Alongside cartoons, of course, there are video games, where interaction becomes key. Here, we are not just spectators, we are active participants in the stories and adventures. Then, TV series and films. We passively consume the content that surrounds us. Or we curate our tastes as we grow up: We seek out key films, follow visionary filmmakers, and expand our cinematic horizons. But I don’t think we have to abandon cartoons and games. They are still rich sources for our imagination and cinematic perspective if we give them a chance.

Fixed Perspectives, Fluid Words: Monkey Island

Monkey Island has inspired me since I was a child. It is a game series that follows the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, who wants to be a pirate in a Caribbean setting. What I love in this game is the brilliant art direction and the harmonious melodies that accompany the gameplay.

The first three games of the series are my favorites. In those games, our hero, Guybrush, explores various locations and encounters colorful characters while trying to solve the mysteries around him. Each place he visits offers a wide-angle view, mostly with a fixed perspective. And they have a unique atmosphere and music throughout the game. We continuously return to them, solve mysteries, and connect the dots as the narrative develops.

I borrowed this aspect of Monkey Island, for my first feature film, A Hero of Our Time (2023). This film consists of just 32 fixed frames, with our protagonist visiting different places, and having lengthy dialogues with other characters. We observe those places from the same angles each time he revisits them, and every return reveals another layer in the ongoing narrative. Of course, we can’t control the conversations like in a game, but I believe the film’s gapped structure invites the audience to actively contribute to the storyline.

A Naive Effort: Crazy Mahir

Monkey Island also raised my interest in game design when I was just 12 years old in 2001. I couldn’t make the interactive adventures I imagined, but I made a game with a bit of action, a simple storyline, and humor by using just a few basic commands. The game is called Crazy Mahir, and it revolves around a clumsy but courageous hero who seeks revenge for his mother, who was killed by an enemy soldier during a war.

Crazy Mahir received a warm reception from my friends. Beyond my friend circle, some gamers on the internet enjoyed the game too. I even began making another game alongside a friend I met online. However, the demands of high school entry exams forced me to set it aside. Then, I got into filmmaking with a VHS camera gifted by my father. So I lost touch with game design. But even though I never mastered programming, I believe that I can still contribute to game design in areas such as art directing, storytelling, and character development. I am always eager to collaborate with people who share the dream of bringing an adventure game to life.

Here are a few stills from Crazy Mahir:

Here is a memory from 2016 when two enthusiastic gamers, my brother and my cousin, enjoyed Crazy Mahir:

By the way, if you want to play the game, just send me an email.

Psychological Investigations: Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium fired up my passion for game design again. This role-playing game is more than controlling a homicide detective; it’s about becoming one. What strikes me the most is how the game explores human psychology and nature. It displays many human features of the main character such as logic, rhetoric, empathy, primitive instinct, visual calculus, endurance, perception, and more.

As you develop these skills, the narrative evolves in a character-specific manner and offers various paths and endings. All interactions in the game go beyond the surface as they involve both intellectual and psychological dialogues. And its atmospheric ambiance and music take the experience to a whole new level. I may never have the chance to contribute to designing such a game, but the cinematic qualities of Disco Elysium will certainly influence my future films.