_{Burning Days by Emin Alper}

Since then, Bosklopper has always stayed in touch with Öperli and has continued to work with him. Their latest film together, Burning Days, directed by Emin Alper, is screening in Un Certain Regard in Cannes. It follows on from Alper's 2019 Berlinale competition title A Tale of Three Sisters*, which Bosklopper also co-produced.

She is planning to shoot a new film herself (Mnk Boy) in Istanbul this summer which will be directed by Dutch-Turkish filmmaker Mete Gümürhan (whose previous credit was festival hit Young Wrestlers) and on which Öperli will serve as Turkish co-producer.

“It is really a very cordial relationship that has been lasting for a long time,” the Circe boss says of her partnership with Öperli.

Burning Days (sold by The Match Factory) is a dark psychological thriller about a state prosecutor who goes to work in a little village and uncovers evidence of corruption. As in Roman Polanski’s classic Chinatown, there are secret battles going on around water distribution.

“Very soon, the DA gets entangled in all kinds of suspicion but it is also about his personal isolation, being a city guy in a rural area... a lot of things are inside his head,” the Dutch producer explains. “Also, he gets involved in a rape case, first as a prosecutor but also as a possible suspect.”

Paranoia and fear are rife, and some will see parallels between the film and the real-life situation in present-day Turkey.

This was not an easy project to finance. The weakness of the Turkish lira meant the production was relying heavily on backing from abroad. In the end, six co-production partners were involved: Circe in the Netherlands, Horsefly in Greece, 4Film in Croatia, Gloria Films in France, Pola Pandora in Germany and Zola Yapim in Turkey.

To the producers’ surprise, Burning Days was turned down by Eurimages but they still managed to get it greenlit.

“It was a project you could hardly say no to because of the track record of the director and the strength of the co-production, but nevertheless the film was made on a very tight budget in quite difficult circumstances in Anatolia, in the middle of nowhere,” Bosklopper recalls. “It was really an amazing job that Emin did. The imagery is really fantastic. All the actors are amazing.”

Post-production was completed at Warnier Posta in Amsterdam. “All the foreign productions that I do love to work there,” Bosklopper says of the renowned Dutch audio services company.

Like many other companies, Circe slowed down on its production activities during the Covid lockdowns. The upside, though, was that Bosklopper had extra time to spend on developing projects like her new film with Mete Gümürhan. The servicing collaboration she has enjoyed over the past three years with Kaap Holland Film (also a local co-producer on Burning Days) has proved very helpful in this respect too.

The Dutch producer has several other films on the boil, among them Nanouk Leopold’s latest feature Whitetail and Isabel Lamberti’s second feature Qué fácil me has olvidado (which was recently chosen for the Torino Feature Lab). Circe is also producing Three Days of Fish by Peter Hoogendoorn (the director of the well-received 2014 family drama Between 10 and 12), which was developed at Torino’s Script Lab.

On the animation front, Circe is working on the latest short from Nina Gantz (a young Dutch filmmaker based in the UK and who already has a Bafta to her name).

Bosklopper is a writer as well as a producer. Her script for the romantic drama Comfort is in development and has Netherlands Film Fund support. It will be directed by Ivan Barbosa (a young filmmaker of Dutch-Cape Verdean descent). She is also working on a crime series.

“It is really a lot of things going on…” the Circe boss sighs as she contemplates her ever increasing workload. The pandemic may have slowed down production for a few months but Bosklopper is clearly making up for lost time now.

Burning Days is co-produced by Circe Films and sales are handled by The Match Factory. The film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund. To see the full screening schedule of all the Dutch (co-)productions at Cannes, click here.
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