Ümit Ünal

@asyadada.bsky.social

2037 Followers 1172 Following

Film Director/Writer from Istanbul living in Glasgow. Writes in English and Turkish. https://asyadada.wixsite.com/umitunal

Close up of white rose buds in Glasgow West End.
Me, a middle aged man with grey hair and glasses, sitting on a rocking chair, feet up on the window sill, looking out in a summer night.
The ticket for The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan resting on the banister of Glasgow Film Theatre.
A watercolour painting depicting a surreal scene where "witches" congregate around a walnut tree under a huge chandelier hung in the sky.
Istanbul skyline seen from a ferry crossing the Bosphorus.
Mum, 84, a grey haired woman with glasses, standing in front of red flowers.
My mum, my sister and I standing by the shore of water reservoir lake in Biga, Turkey.
A group of characters from The Star Wars made of crochet, on top of a post box.
A political poster on a post box on Dumbarton Road. Gramsci's words in big yellow letters on black background: The old is dying, the new cannot be born. (original wording is slightly different)
At the corner of the Dowan Hill park, on the wall : a water tap and a tiny frog among the water drops under it. All made of ceramic.
Colours of pride.
A tiny green car in front of green grass, bushes and trees, in Great Western Road, Glasgow.
After a heavy rainfall a group of random Turkish people and some stray dogs are standing on a tiny island in the middle of a flooded square in Istanbul, waiting for help. Photo by Can Erok.
Adam Smith's book The Wealth of Nations, screwed on a metal structure, displayed in a gallery. A sculpture by George Wyllie.
Me, standing in the main gallery of Wyllieum in Greenock.
The screen in GFT, showing a still image of "Everybody to Kenmure Street" today, before a special screening.
Night view of Grosvenor Hotel on Great Western Road, with Oran Mor bell tower with its blue hoop around it in perspective.
The camera moves in an empty living room and ends up seeing a framed photo of an old couple on a small jetty in Istanbul.
An old Greek style window featuring arched, dark green metal shutters set within a weathered stone frame. Bright sunlight filters through overhead foliage, casting intricate shadows on the surface of the shutters.
A black and white street cat looking into the camera like a very serious man, in Izmir-Turkey.
The poster for the film Goya's Ghost.
The neon writing on the wall of a cafe in Tınaztepe, İzmir: Hello Tınaztepe. You're looking gorgeous today.
The shadow of the crochet work on the orange curtain in my mother's home.
Book cover of "Scriptnotes" a book by John August and Craig Mazin.
Two posters from Berlinale Instagram account: Winner of Golden Bear, Yellow Letters by İlker Çatak. Winner of Silver Bear, Grand Jury Prize: Salvation by Emin Alper.
A vibrant, red-background mural by Kay Nicolson in Glasgow featuring stylised elements of the city's Coat of Arms.
A rainy afternoon in the campus of University of Glasgow. The pavements are wet and reflect the yellow street lights.
Me carrying my daughter Asya in a sling, standing in a field of wheat in Western Turkey, all the way back in 1995 summer.
A still frame from an ad about a documentary on Turkish state TV. An elephant whose trunk is painted in rainbow colours, enters a glass shop and destroy everything. The doc is called "Rainbow Fascism" and apparently it is about how LGBT issues are forcefully imposed on Turkish culture, destroying family values etc.
A cartoon of a dog lying on its owners' double bed thinking. Caption: Buster would sometimes spend entire afternoons going over and over the idea of an ever expanding universe with its pulsating cepheid variables in the large Magellanic Cloud and what his role within it all.
A scientific eye model from Wardlaw Museum, St Andrews, it depicts an eyeball.
Yıllar önce bir festivalde seyrettiğim "Torino Atı", gördüğüm en çarpıcı filmdi. Bildiğim hiçbir filme benzemiyordu. Onunla karşılaştırınca bir çok film gereksiz süs ve özentiden ibaret kalır. Bela Tarr'ı tanımıyordum ama bu filmden sonra her filmini gördüm. Kendi yaptığım, yapmayı hayal ettiğim ya da yapabildiğim sinemadan çok farklı filmlerdi bunlar. Bir dersine katılmıştım, "Senaryo hiçbir şeydir!" diye başlamıştı, bu görüşüne de katılmam imkansızdı. Bütün bunlara rağmen dünyada en hayran olduğum ve sevdiğim yönetmenlerden biriydi. Dünya sineması için çok büyük bir kayıp. "Torino Atı"nın sonundaki kandil söndü.
The final shot of The Turin Horse by Bela Tarr, close up of an oil lamp.
A man (me) stands on the beach in St Andrews, it's very cold but very sunny.
Fire works in Edinburgh. A group of people sing Auld Lang Syne.
View from Dean Village. A fountain by the river.
Clear sky reflected on still Linlithgow Loch.
A pair of jet trails create a perfect saltire in the sky above Glasgow.
On the wall of Tron Theatre, close to the top, there's a sculpture by Kenny Hunter. A skull sitting on a niche.
A very quiet lake reflecting the blue sky and white clouds perfectly on a crisp sunny morning. Linlithgow Palace is seen on the other side of the lake.
A swan in Linlithgow Loch. In the background the Linlithgow Palace.
Linlithgow Loch as the sun goes up this morning. The silhouette of the Linlithgow castle is seen on the other side of the lake.
A puddle in the entrance of University of Glasgow reflects the street lights, a clear sky and a star that I drew. (Photo by Ümit Ünal.)
Blackout poetry: On a book page all words are blacked out except for: "This World is and embarrasment come on world"
A lost soft toy, a monkey on a park bench.
Kelvingrove park in the fog
Great Western Rd in perspective, in the distance the tower of Oran Mor is seen.
"This is the first thing I have understood: Time is the echo of an axe Within a wood." Philip Larkin
George Monbiot talking in a lecture hall.
The poster for Ümit Ünal's latest film, Evcilik (Playhouse), features two bungalow-style hotel rooms reflected in the swimming pool in front of them. Each room has a couple standing by the window. However, their reflections are reversed; each couple's reflection shows the other couple.
A statue by Shona Kinlock in Glasgow. A chubby naked man standing with his arms crossed, behind him a peacock stands. Like many other statues in the city, he has red and white traffic cone placed on his head.
Blurred glare of the lights in Clyde Tunnel, looking like red and white brush strokes on a dark background, on a rainy day.
A small naked human figure made of ceramic (or plastic, I really don't know) getting out of a cage. A small statue hung on a tree trunk.
Entrance of a Glasgow tenement flat. Stairs going up in the dim day light, warm yellow light coming from a half open door.
A black and white poster from 1982 for Citizens Theatre, depicting a surreal landscape.
Kelvin Way view with the tower of university of Glasgow in the background.