Lale Gurbanova, one of the directors of the short film called "Beyond the Lines", aims to raise awareness in society by announcing the violence her mother and other women had faced. Lale, who affects more by the violence against women and children after coming to Turkey, won in the short film competition called “From Captivity to Courage”. Lale emphasizes that the lines we are stuck in are completely our own and that we create them in our minds. She says that everything is in our hands and that those who can find a way out are us.

PERİ  BAYAV

İzmir- The short film titled "Beyond the Lines" directed by Lale Gurbanova and Ekrem Özgenç, who won the short film competition called “From Captivity to Courage” themed “Combating violence against women and children”, challenges everything imposed by society and restricts our freedom. “Beyond the Lines,” says a woman cannot be collapsed alone no matter under whatever conditions she is and she should keep her struggle to live. While the film is also deemed worthy of the best director award, it also breaks down the perception against women such as “accommodationist, wife, good mother, modern female model, poor, requiring protection, constantly crying”

Lale and Ekrem, who are 3rd-grade students of the Communication Faculty, Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema at Ege University, comment on their short film as the trailer of the better. “Beyond the Lines” shows how the students think about the violence against women and children and aims to raise awareness in society.

‘I wanted to show that they can break the taboos’

An Azerbaijani woman Lale Gurbanova started to be affected more by femicide, violence against women, and sexual abuse incidents in Turkey after coming to Turkey to study. Her mother also faced violence and she stressed that her mother was always very strong against violence she faced. Lale asked herself, “Why don’t we go beyond the lines?” and started to write the script for the short film. Underlining that nobody can do anything to a person who does not do anything for herself, Lale says that the important thing is their will. Lale states that women should know that we are with them whenever they want. Lale talks about her mother and she says her mother is one of those women.  She says her mother is the most powerful woman she has ever seen and she raised them alone.

“Beyond the Lines is actually a spontaneous story for us. We usually try to write scripts for competitions. But I also try not to write those that are not interesting to me. We are no longer the princess waiting for her prince in the tower. We have a tower that we can climb on our own, even if we cut our hair. We built that tower. We can destroy that tower. All of us see the facts but I think it is up to us to direct the facts as filmmakers. If we say to the women in our films: “You are a loser, but a man can protect you,” then, they would have already accepted it. They will surely wait for men who are very in love with them, but the men who can shout at them. But I think going out of those lines alone is really important. Yes, we all grow in a patriarchal society, in a society where sultans (men) are raised. Yes, our parents push us to be like that. But as I said, it is entirely up to us to destroy those structures and taboos. I wanted to show that they can break the taboos,” says Lale.

‘She wants to break those nails’

Talking about her film, Lale points out that the audiences only see feet while watching the film. She didn’t want the faces to be seen, “When they see the feet, they understand those feet are their feet and that path is their path. Yes, they draw a path. But it's totally up to you to cross that line. Young elephants are chained with nails. They try to get rid of them but they cannot. When they get older, they think they will never get rid of them so they never try. I want to break those nails. Those lines we are stuck in actually belong to us. They are lines we create in our minds. When we are children, we follow some rules. We are forced to follow. Wanting to see that is very important. As long as you want to see, you will already see the way of freedom.”