We talked to Filiz Kutlar, one of the bright faces of our country and the writer of our newspaper, Onat Kutlar – Last Minute Culture and Arts News

Poet, writer and film critic Onat Kutlar will be commemorated on the 30th anniversary of his murder with a program called “Onat Kutlar: Days of Rebellion and Festivities” prepared by Beyoğlu Municipality and his friends. The memorial ceremony held at MetroHan will be held on January 12 at 18.00.

The participants of the program organized in memory of Onat Kutlar, who died on January 11, 1995, are as follows: Beyoğlu Municipality Mayor İnan Güney, writers and artists Adnan Özyalçıner, Filiz Kutlar, Halil Ergün, Nazan Kesal, Selçuk Metin, Tayfun Eraslan, Zeynep Avcı, Zeynep Oral. The event will be open to everyone.

A CHRISTMAS THAT NEVER CAME…

Onat Kutlar was one of the bright faces of this country.

In 1965, he founded the Turkish Cinematheque Association and Yeni Sinema magazine. Between 1965 and 1976, he directed the Turkish Cinematheque Association. He wrote the scripts of the award-winning films “Yusuf ile Kenan”, “Hazal” and “Hakkâri” as well as “Bir Mevsim”. He was a jury member at the Berlin Film Festival in 1985.

He served on the Istanbul Film Festival Organizing Board and the Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation Executive Board. In 1994, he was honored with the L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Award given by the French government.

On the last day of 1994, he was injured in a bomb attack in the middle of Istanbul and then passed away. So that New Year’s Eve never came.

LIKE A MOVIE STRIP…

“We all know that life is never certain, anything can happen at any moment, and such things cross our minds from time to time. “December 30 was such a day that if I watched something like this in a movie, I would say that they put a lot of things on top of each other, and this was too much.” These words belong to Onat Kutlar’s wife, Filiz Kutlar.

‘HE WOULD WRITE EVERY DAY IN CUMHURİYET’

Look how Filiz Kutlar tells us about that day: “A nice, cheerful morning conversation over coffee, our fifth wedding anniversary today, five beautiful years that went by like so much. You are making a dinner show at a restaurant you like for the evening, and the next day is New Year’s Eve… You live the nightmare of your life in the evening of such a day. The days pass in hope, pain and waiting until January 11th, and the moment comes when you don’t want to believe it. That terrible ending, of which I still feel every moment as it was that day, is a great pain. I never forget it, but on December 30, all this comes to my mind like a movie strip. “30 years have passed, the pain does not go away as others think, you don’t get used to it, but you learn to live with that pain,” he says.

When asked if she would share her future plans with you, Filiz Kutlar answers: “Who knows what else that wonderful person, whose writings we cannot get enough of, would have written in 30 years. He was thinking of writing a novel set on the island of Corfu, and we started making plans to go to the island next summer. He was going to write every day in the Cumhuriyet newspaper in the new year, and he wanted to focus more on writing. I talked about the games I wanted to play and the photos I wanted to take. We talked about these in the morning.

We used to dream of taking long journeys like in the old years. Who knows what kind of nice article Onat would write about the place we went, and I would take photos. We had beautiful dreams, it was a very beautiful, happy life. We would often meet with our friends in the evenings, Onat’s presence and laughter would light up the table. The jokes he made with dear Hüs and Hüs’s teasing of Komet made us burst out laughing. After Onat, Hüseyin was no longer in a good mood. There was no trace of the old joy in the friendly gatherings where we came together. “His absence was so felt.”

‘LIFE IS A DREAM’

I wonder how you feel and what goes through your mind on the 30th anniversary of his absence. Filiz Kutlar answers: “What passes before my eyes. Some days I would watch him leave from the window and wave. When I reached the corner, he would turn and wave at me enthusiastically. That day, I looked after him and he turned around and waved, smiling as usual. Two days ago, as I was waving to him, I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, what a joy it is to watch him go, I hope I can watch him go for many years, I don’t want anything else.’ I always felt like something was going to be taken away from us.

I would like to write about our beautiful memories about Onat, but these days, these pass before my eyes. Calderon De La Barca’s book ‘Life is a Dream’ tells something different, but indeed life is a dream. I had a beautiful dream, a short dream… But there are so many people who cannot experience this beauty, such love. I am saddened by the early departure of that wonderful writer and wonderful person. How many more of our values ​​were destroyed in this way? Unfortunately, we live in such a country… What has happened in our country in 30 years, what suffering. The massacres of women are endless. Journalists have been kept inside for years and still are. Our dear friend Osman Kavala’s crime has not been detected, but he is in prison.

Onat didn’t like despair, I try not to lose hope even though sometimes despair shakes me,” he says.

Source: www.cumhuriyet.com.tr