Dinner with Kötü Kiz [Wicked Girl]
An interview with Ayce Kartal, director of Kötü Kiz [Wicked Girl]
How did you get the inspiration to make Kötü Kiz?
As you know, child abuse is unfortunately happening all around the world. But in the last few years, it has dramatically increased in Turkey. After reading an article on the newspapers about a group of men who raped an eight-year-old girl, I decided to make a film about this issue. Because two days after reading this kind of bad news, I noticed that I was forgetting about it and my brain started to normalize the situation. One of the reasons why I made this film is “not to forget”.
Why did you want to deal with child abuse?
There are many reasons, but the most important is that sexually abused children usually can’t release this problem out. Most of them can’t mentally and verbally explain what happened to them and mostly they hide this problem even from their own family. Children are defenseless, more fragile than adults. So, child abuse problems are the most hidden psychological disasters on this planet and I wanted to release this hidden tragic problem out. After I decided to make a film about this subject, I started to research articles, I visited Pediatric Psychology Departments of hospitals, made interviews with doctors and had a chance to observe child victims.
How did you work on the different graphic styles and designs?
After my research, I understood that most of the victims fall into schizophrenia after rape. And the most significant behavior of schizophrenia is “rapidly changing moods”. I wanted to represent these rapid mood changes with my pencil. That’s why there are lots of chaotic moods in the film. Changing the graphic styles depending on the main character’s mood is one of the ideas of revealing the psychological problems of the main character.
How did you record the voice-over?
It was another challenge for me. There are not that many children voice-over artists in Turkey. The families of those children did not allow them to work for this film (for their psychological health). Only one family accepted and allowed their daughter to work for this film. I didn’t get to choose the voice-over artist. But even though it was her first time, she did a very, very good job! She was really great and I was lucky.
What were you interested in with the child-animal relationship?
The story is set in a village and village children are much closer to animals than city children. Animals are literally close friends of village children.
Why did you pick memories to tell the different stages of the child’s story?
The physiological problem of schizophrenia is related to the victim’s memories. If the patient’s mood is fine he/she recalls nice memories but in a second this mood can change to a very dramatic, fantastic or unreal mood and everything changes in the patient’s mind. Chaotic, disassociated storytelling of the film is an artistic way of presenting the victim’s flying moods.
What sort of freedom would you say the short format allows?
Shortness of time enables you to find smarter solutions and present the story in a smarter way. “Less is more”.
Kötü Kiz is being shown in National Competition F4 and schools sessions.
