How did this film affect your career?

This film was a really good opportunity for me and the "An Eye for a Tooth" team to show our potential, and for me to experience being a director and producer. It helped me to build up my team and gain more contacts in England and Turkey. I have started the company Flare Productions now. We aim to produce more films and documentaries, factual lifestyle programs and commercials.

  Why did you choose the subject of blood feud?

Actually I have been brought up quite remotely from the subject of blood feud. Yet the concept has always affected me strongly. Since my childhood I couldn't understand why people did it and I always thought it was unfair. Also Yilmaz Guney's film Suru inspired me to make a film on this subject. It is a good story for a film. I think every director has a film they have to do and this one was mine.

  Were you worried that it might attract criticism for presenting Turkey in an undesirable way?

Yes I did. But I don't think I made the film that way. I like Turkey. I don't think people who watch the film will feel it is unsafe to visit Turkey because it is quite obvious that this is happening between two families. If that were the case nobody would go to Italy, either because of all the Mafia films! Screenwriter Chris Adams and I did some research about it and we found that blood feuds happen in some Balkan, Middle East, Asian and African countries and it works exactly the same way. I don't think I'm showing Turkey in a bad way. If you look you'll see that family values and relationships are represented in a good way. If there is a problem and you don't do anything to point the problem, then that's bad. Blood feud is a problem and that is what I wanted to point out.

  You made this film with a crew of volunteers in Turkey and England and on a limited budget. Was it difficult to make that happen?

For crew we already had some contacts but for the people we needed to find, we advertised in industry websites. We then met up with the actors and crew and told them about the project and it went from there.

Working back in Turkey was a great experience for me. I met so many great people and they made a huge difference to the film. I really appreciated Harika Uygur who built a great cast for us and Funda Odemis who managed and brought together a great team of people. Also my old friend from TRT Huseyin Ozden was great for his help for technical equipment. It was a privilege to work with all cast and crew in Turkey and in England. It was a challenging experience for all of us but I believe we did a quite good job with the budget we had.

  You worked in TRT in Turkey as an editor before you came to England. How would you compare the working environments in these two countries?

TRT was the only TV company in Turkey when I was working there. The training in TRT was very good. The trainers were mostly from England. When I came to England I found that the machines they were using were exactly the same so I could start immediately. It only took me 3 months to find a job here. My only struggle was that I was speaking English too properly in the beginning! (The English I spoke wasn't daily spoken English as I learned from books)

  Do you wish to get the attention or sponsorship of a Turkish body?

If there is anybody out there, of course I would like to hear from them. Naturally, money is a big issue in filmmaking. For example, due to the hotel and holidays companies that sponsored us, I was able to take my Director of Photography Dan Rack to Turkey with me which enabled me to work with the same cameraperson throughout the film, produce a more professional quality DVD and do our premier in one of the best cinemas in London to an audience of around 150 people. I would like to thank both companies for their support.

  What are your future plans?

My career at Sky is going quite well and as I work shift work that will still give me plenty of opportunity to work as post production supervisor and editor from my own studio. Actually I am already quite busy until January to work on 16mm short film called "Coming Close" directed by Andreas Eigenmann. Also I have some documentary projects that I am already looking into. And finally, I may work on a feature film project which is called "Little Cyprus". It is an excellent story about Cypriot Community in London. It is written by Kenan Hudaverdi and we will direct the film together. Watch this space!

More information about the film can be found at www.aneyeforatooth.co.uk