Mahmut Fazýl Coþkun Turkish cinema kicks off this year’s international adventures with a welcome surprise. Award-winning documentary director Mahmut Fazýl Coþkun’s impressive feature debut “Uzak Ýhtimal” (Wrong Rosary) is enjoying its world premiere here, at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009.

"Wrong Rosary” is the simple story of a fresh-faced muezzin called Musa, appointed to Ýstanbul’s Galata region, and falls in love with Clara, a reticent and devout Catholic nurse who lives next door. The story might sound like a contemporary version of the TV melodrama “The Thorn Birds,” but do not be fooled. It is simply a contemplative and quiet journey about an impossible love between two very nice people. Big words are not spoken, there is no schmaltzy drama, just the fact that these two people never dare express their adoration for each other. Coþkun’s style is not a judgmental one, and his strange mixture of compassion and humor toward his characters are touching. In one scene, Musa is talking with his superior at the mosque, a wise and pious imam. The imam cheekily probes him over whether he has a love interest. Musa denies it only to get the reply: “Come on, I know you are thinking of a girl. I hope she’s also a believer, because you’ll never get hurt by a believer,” a beautiful line that sums up the irony of the situation.

For Coþkun, his film does not have any political undertones and is not predominantly about the unspoken walls between religions. Rather, it is about the very universal situation of humans not being able to fully express themselves and communicate their feelings. We also talk about the process of the production of his film.