San Sebastian Winner Yesim Ustaoglu Returns to Competition With ‘What Remains’ (Exclusive Clip)

The Hollywood Reporter can unveil a never-before-seen clip from San Sebastián competition feature What Remains.

Turkish filmmaker Yeşim Ustaoğlu returns to the Basque festival following her Golden Shell win in 2008 for Pandora’s Box, which also earned lead actress Tsilla Chelton the Silver Shell for best actress.

With What Remains, premiering on Sept. 22, the prolific director tells the story of Elif, a poet who breaks free from her suffocating life to “reconnect with her inner voice and conscience and allow her creativity to flow again.” A plot synopsis continues: “As she begins to question the conventions of family, identity and the meaning of life, her journey towards self-discovery challenges those around her to reconsider their own lives — taking the whole family in a new direction.”

Turkish star Öykü Karayel plays the protagonist, with Metin Akdülger co-starring as Mehmet, Ali Kayra Kul as Selim and İlyas Salman as Mustafa.

The clip released through THR on Monday — which you can watch below — shows a painful conversation between Elif and Mehmet, where he puts to her: “Do you even love me anymore?”

Ustaoğlu said What Remains began to take shape “precisely when I started asking this question again.” She said that the feature is a personal project: “It grew out of a desire to break free from a sense of suffocation and weariness — one I had begun to witness not only in myself, but in the people around me. A suffocation that traps our lives in a systemic cycle, standardises us, grinds us down, and eventually drains our ability to create. The only way out seemed to be to stop everything, step outside it all, leave, look, and try to understand.”

The Match Factory is handling global sales on What Remains. Mubi, which owns The Match Factory and is a co-producer on the film, has acquired all rights in Turkey. The movie is a Ustaoglu Film production from Turkey, with Luxembourg’s Tarantula, Bulgaria’s RFF International and France’s Cite Films. Mubi is a co-producer alongside Pak Ventures and Yuvision, with What Remains made in collaboration with Istos Film.

The 74th San Sebastián Film Festival runs Sept. 18-26. Watch the clip from What Remains below.