THE PALACE a short film by Anthony Maras PRESS KIT Contact: AntHouse Films Level 3, Charlicks Building 31 Ebenezer Place Adelaide, South Australia, 5000 Australia +61 8 8463 1111 [email protected] PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 1 REVIEWS EXCERPTS "'The Palace' is riveting, suspenseful first class filmmaking. In just its short running time it manages to be every bit as accomplished, compelling and provocative as any full-length feature. 'The Palace' marks the emergence of a major filmmaker in Anthony Maras." Pete Hammond (Boxoffice Magazine) “One of the best short films I’ve ever seen..” Morgan Spurlock (Academy Award Nominated Director of Super Size Me) “Director Maras' choke-hold on the audience only tightens, suspense building not to a point of release, but asphyxiating hysteria… sixteen minutes of non-stop action that rivals the highest Hollywood standards and on more than one occasion surpasses them with blitzkrieg duck n' cover staging.” DVD Outsider - Timothy E. RAW “"The Palace is regal! Congrats!” Al Ruddy (Producer: The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) ”This is pure film-making to the highest degree..” Peter Krausz, Chair of the Australian Film Critics Association “The Palace is a poignant and tragic tale about the realities of war. Realistically portrayed with beautifully performances and gripping suspense, Anthony Maras is a director to keep an eye on.” Vincent Sheehan (Producer: Animal Kingdom and The Hunter) "The Palace is one of the most emotionally affective and powerful short films that I’ve ever seen." The Co-Op Post "One of the most impressive and ambitious Australian shorts I’ve seen at the Sydney Film Festival so far. Or ever." Australian Film Review Blog “What’s so special about The Palace is its ability to show both sides of the horror of war and at an essence the spirit of humanity against the atrocities of war…an outstanding film which echoes a quality set by war films such as The Hurt Locker in style. Thought provoking, tense and thoroughly recommended.” Richard Lennox, Filmoria.co.uk 1 PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 2 “Spanning a mere 17 minutes and inspired by true events, the film’s biggest triumph is its ability to capture and hold captive audience emotion… I was left breathless afterwards… a captivating masterpiece. How Maras managed this in the space of 17 minutes highlights his talent as a filmmaker.” One Lifetime Is Not Enough Blog “..a very well managed tension within a very tight frame of play and it's Maras' economical use of space that is key to The Palace's success.” John-Paul Hussey - Neos Kosmos “Anthony Maras has crafted a powerful narrative that shows permanent scars and wounds that leave their mark each time humanity reveals its worst side.” A Nutshell Review “The Palace is a film that immediately throws the audience into a tense situation and manages to maintain that tension to the very end…” AUDIENCE RESPONSE (Feedback received on www.facebook.com/thepalace1974) “Τhank God,you make a film speaking in our hearts!!!!!!” June 2011 - Demetrius “Brilliant film. Still talking about the film to friends and family after seeing it on Saturday.....actually I am still recovering from the 17 min experience...love it when a film takes you in, takes through a journey and shakes the hell out of you” August 2011 – James “I couldn’t fight back the tears watching this film, and the emotion injected in 17 minutes was unlike anything I’ve experienced before. It grabbed a suffocating hold from the very first minute, and I felt a similar breathlessness to the mother in the film clutching her baby while she watched the horror unfold... in front of her.” August 2011 - Penny “Saw the Palace at The Sydney Film Festival 2011. It was riveting. Want to see more. Would love to see a feature film. What you are doing is really important.” June 2011 - Linda What I really felt set it apart from most of what I see is the obvious awareness of the audience experience. I saw plenty of flourishes that played with what the audience knows or think they know, and what the characters know, and used it to the full to really get the viewer on the edge of their seat. That to me is one of the key skills that sets real directors apart. August 2011 - Mike 2 PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 3 CONTENTS Summary of Key Points 4 Synopsis 5 Director's Statement (as featured in The Huffington Post) 6 Festivals and Awards 10 Reviews 12 Technical Details 23 Sales Contact 24 Cast Biographies 25 Filmmaker Biographies 27 Credits 30 3 PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 4 SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS • First official Australian/Cyprus film collaboration. • Shot in October 2010, entirely on location in Cyprus, along the United Nations Green Line in Lefkosia, in buildings and streets still ravaged by the 1974 Cyprus conflict. • Depicts the tragic human loss and suffering, endured by both civilians and soldiers, during the events of 1974. • Latest film from multi-award-winning Australian director Anthony Maras. • The story is inspired by true events, including the shocking confession [later retracted] of a now prominent Turkish actor, who detailed on live Turkish television how as a 19 year old conscript in 1974, he had killed 10 unarmed people on the orders of his superiors. • Brings together Turkish and Greek Cypriot cast from Cyprus, Turkey, London and Germany to present the story. • Shot on location at the House of Hadjigeorkakis Kornessios (1779), a landmark Ottoman Era residence which was home to the ‘Dragoman of Cyprus’ – the chief tax collector in Cyprus during Ottoman rule. The House has been restored to its former glory and now serves as a museum administered by the Department of Antiquities. • The opening scenes were shot near the Archbishop's Palace - a religious, national and political monument in the heart of Lefkosia that is closely associated with modern Cypriot history. This was the scene of much of the fighting during the struggle for independence from British rule in 1956, as well as during the 1974 military coup and subsequent Turkish invasion of the North. • Shot with an international crew from all corners of the globe, with people coming from Australia, Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Morocco, England and South Africa. Including Nick Matthews (DOP – 2:37, Broken Hill), Sebastian Meuschel (Steadicam: Inglorious Basterds, V for Vendetta) and Karim Rahmani (focus puller, The Ghost Writer). • Development, pre and post production took place in South Australia from May 2010 to February 2011. • The Palace has won top honours in all 6 major Australian film festivals and awards ceremonies to which it was entered: AACTA Awards (Best Short, Best Screenplay), Melbourne International Film Festival (Best Australian Short), Sydney Film Festival (Best Short), Flickerfest (Best Australian Short), Adelaide Film Festival (Audience Award), IF Awards (Rising Talent Award). • Featured track Friday on My Mind was voted "Best Australian Song" of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as determined by a panel of 100 music industry personalities. 4 PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 5 ONE LINE SUMMARY Cyprus 1974. When a young Turkish Cypriot army conscript comes face to face with a Greek Cypriot family in hiding, he is forced to confront the brutal reality of war and his role in it. ONE PARAGRAPH SYNOPSIS Cyprus 1974. A Cypriot family flees advancing Turkish forces and takes refuge in an abandoned Ottoman-era palace. When a young Turkish Cypriot conscript comes face to face with the family in hiding, he is forced to confront the brutal reality of war and his role in it. Shot on location around the United Nations Green Line in Lefkosia, the world's last divided capital city, The Palace brings together an international cast and crew including Erol Afsin, Tamer Arslan, Daphne Alexander, Christopher Greco and renowned Turkish-born actor Kevork Malikyan (Midnight Express, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade). From the opening scene of The Palace, filmed around the 17th Century House of Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios – a key landmark of Lefkosia at the heart of the 1974 hostilities. 5 PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 6 DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT - “FROM THE GREEN LINE TO THE RED CARPET“ By Anthony Maras as featured in THE HUFFINGTON POST Late last year an international film crew descended upon the battle-scarred streets of Old Town Nicosia to film The Palace, a searing war time drama based on true events arising from the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus . Production took place along the United Nations Green Line that still divides the small Mediterranean island in two - amidst armed guards, war ravaged buildings and tense UN-brokered negotiations which after 37 years have bought the situation no closer to a resolution. The Palace recently enjoyed its international premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and was nominated for Best Short Fiction Film in the 2012 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. We track The Palace's journey from the Green Line to the Red Carpet with the film's writer/director Anthony Maras. ______________________________________ S everal years ago while interviewing refugees for a documentary project I was working on in Australia, I heard a story that shook me to my core. The story took place in Cyprus -- a small island nation in the East Mediterranean that has been at the cross roads of East and West since the Bronze Age -- and whose history has been defined by nearly constant war, invasion and foreign rule. One only has to look at the structures that dot the Nicosia skyline to see this - - 12th Century Frankish cathedrals next to imposing Ottoman mosques, alongside British colonial buildings encircled by the forbidding Venetian Walls. War and an eternal struggle for independence is in the blood of every native of this island -- be they Turkish-Cypriot or Greek-Cypriot. So back to the story... I'd been told of a Cypriot young mother, who was faced with an impossible decision after war suddenly broke out on the morning of 20 July 1974. A coup' d'état lead by extremist Greek nationals had toppled the president of Cyprus Archbishop Makarios, and in response the Turkish government sent in some 40,000 troops on the grounds of protecting the island's Turkish-Cypriot minority. In the face of all this, our young Cypriot mother had fled her home village and gone into hiding with nothing but her children and the clothes on her back. As soldiers closed in on their hiding spot -- her young baby boy was restless. Any sound, even the slightest of whimpers could see them all facing the darkest of 6 PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 7 consequences. One immediately thinks of the eternal question posed in Sophie's Choice -- does one risk the loss of one child, in order that the other be saved? I could never rid this scenario from my head and used it as one of the key story threads for what was to become our film The Palace. The Palace was also inspired by the shocking confessions (later retracted) of Attila Olgac, a prominent Turkish actor who confessed on live television to killing 10 unarmed people during the 1974 hostilities. As a 19-year-old conscript soldier, Olgac's commanding officer ordered him to execute an unarmed Cypriot POW. Olgac protested saying he couldn't kill anyone, he was an artist, not a killer. His Sergeant rebuked, "Well this is where art ends and real life begins. Pick up the gun and do it for real. We are not playing here." He told of being emotionally crippled ever since, and still struggles daily with his memories. He spoke of being unable to ever eat meat again, of seeing the victims in his dreams, of walking aimlessly in the war-torn streets for days after the first killing. This notion of this conscript soldier being both unwilling participant and victim really interested me. The question as to whether he is lucky for surviving, or unlucky for having to endure the ongoing emotional pain for the rest of his life, is at the heart of our film. From the outset I was interested in the human story behind the war. We really focused on what war means to everyday people. To young soldiers. To innocent civilians. What does war mean to a mother and her kids? What does war mean for a young a soldier who doesn't want to be there? The Palace is set in a very specific time and place its underlying theme translates to any conflict zone. It deals with the way people function in the most egregious of circumstances -- war. Peering into the UN Buffer Zone, at the Old Venetian Walls - Lefkosia, Cyprus 7 PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 8 The Green Line Initially we had considered shooting the film in rural Australia -- which I hoped could double for a remote Cypriot village. But within minutes of my first walk through the enchanted back streets of Old Town Nicosia, I knew we HAD to film here. Much of the city that borders the UN Green line remains completely untouched, a morbid time capsule of the 1974 hostilities. Bullet holes still in walls, bomb-blasted buildings wherever you turned -- we even visited a car dealership inside the UN Buffer Zone that had taken a shipment of new vehicles a few days before the war. My jaw dropped to the floor when my guide pointed out the car odometer readings -- still on 0 kilometers! On both sides of the Green Line people have been reluctant to repair their buildings or develop their land for fear of it being confiscated or destroyed in future conflict. Whole chunks of the city are crumbling in the 'Dead Zone' -- no man's land between the Turkish controlled north, and Greek Cypriot south. All these elements provided a sense of authenticity that would be impossible to find anywhere else. I was determined to film The Palace in these very streets and buildings in which the fighting took place. Our main filming location, our 'palace' - was the stunningly beautiful 'House of the Dragoman Hadjigeogakis Kornessios -- the main residence of the Ottoman Sultan's official representative, interpreter and tax collector in Cyprus. Hadjigeorgakis had amassed a fortune during his 30 year rule before just escaping with his life when the fed up locals revolted in 1805. He fled through a secret underground passageway (that still exists!) between his residence and the nearby Archbishop's Palace. Hadjigeorgakis was ultimately put to death upon reaching Istanbul however, as he had denied the newly appointed Ottoman Grand Vizer any assistance some 15 years earlier, when the Grand Vizer was merely an Ottoman general retreating through Cyprus after his forces were defeated in Egypt by Napoleon. I never would have imagined when writing this 8 PRESS KIT: THE PALACE 9 film that I'd get the opportunity to film it in such an exotic locale so steeped in history -- it was a dream come true. The bunker in which the civilians hide in our opening scene is the real thing - the 44-gallon drums, sand bags and machine gun turrets haven't moved an inch in over 37 years. Many of the props and costumes were on loan from locals, and even some of the soldiers guns were the genuine article -- de-activated army- issue firearms. But more than anything else, it was the PEOPLE. Our cast and crew were constantly surrounded by people who had lived through the war, and who had been living with its repercussions ever since. The one-time army colonel turned cab driver who regaled our actors with stories from the front line. The old woman in the stationary shop who drew detailed sketches (for our production designer) of the bunker she called home for 7 straight days after the fighting broke out. From day one, our whole cast and crew had been cocooned in first hand knowledge that penetrated every aspect of our filmmaking experience. I still think of one survivor whose village remains locked in the 'dead-zone'. As incoming forces approached, he said to his wife as they fled their house 'don't worry about putting the chicken in the fridge. Let it defrost and we'll cook it when we get back tonight'. Fast forward to present day -- 37 years later -- and he is yet to return home. I just hope The Palace does justice to his story, and the countless others like his. Anthony Maras http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-maras/the-palace-_b_1105036.html 9