After Once Upon a Time in Indian Country (2017), I Was, I Am, I Will Be (2019), and Stowaway (2021), it’s with 2023’s The Teachers’ Lounge (read ★★★½ review) where German filmmaker İlker Çatak broke out big, first at the Berlinale (winning multiple prizes including the CICAE Art Cinema award in the Panorama section) and then securing one of the five slots in the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars. A filmmaker who likes to explore themes of identity, power structures, and social conflicts, Çatak has swiftly completed his fifth feature film project – a politically charged family drama. Here is Everything We Know So Far … about Ilker Çatak‘s Yellow Letters (aka Gelbe Briefe).
Directly after the wave of support for The Teachers’ Lounge, Çatak moved into production on Yellow Letters in the summer of 2024 on location in Hamburg (doubled as Istanbul) and Berlin (doubled for Ankara). So this is easily a year and a half in post production.
Çatak co-wrote the project along with Ayda Meryem Çatak and Enis Köstepen. This explores a marriage under extreme pressure. Derya, a famous actress, and Aziz, a university professor of dramatic arts, experience state arbitrariness in Turkey and lose their jobs and livelihood overnight. Forced to travel to the professor’s parents in Istanbul after being unable to pay rent, the couple must radically redefine their way of life. The story tracks the erosion of their private lives and the challenge of defending their morals and ideals in the face of financial ruin. The dynamic is further strained by their differing reactions: Derya becomes pragmatic, while Aziz remains idealistic.
Özgü Namal plays Derya, the famous actress. Tansu Biçer plays Aziz, the professor. Leyla Cabas stars as Ezgi, their 13-year-old daughter.
Çatak reunites with his core team from The Teachers’ Lounge: cinematographer Judith Kaufmann, editor Gesa Jäger, production designer Zazie Knepper, costume designer Christian Rõhrs, and composer Marvin Miller. In terms of producers, we have a collection of Euro folks in Ingo Fliess, Carole Scotta, Nadir Öperli, Enis Köstepen, and Mustafa Sönmez.
We figured 2025 was in the cards but we can pencil this in as a Golden Bear competition section hopeful at the Berlinale in February, especially with a domestic release in March of 2026 in the cards. Be For Films handles the sales.
