Interview with Ezel Akay

Ezel Akay is a Turkish film actor, film director and film producer. He was born in 1961 and he studied engineering at the Bosphorus University. He later started his education on theatre arts at Villanova University. One of his recent movies is Killing the Shadow (Karagöz ve Hacivat Neden Öldürüldü?)

1) What do you think is the biggest difference between your generation and ours? One difference is that we had difficulty communicating with each other. You’re not going to have that problem. Communication is one the most important ways of learning something from another person. This keeps changing from year to year. These past few years there have been many changes that have increased the possibility of better communication. This is the biggest difference of our generations and it is going to lead to many changes.

2) How much influence do you think the condition of a country has on our decision of our future jobs? Unfortunately it has a lot of influence. We need to break free of these influences and start thinking as free individuals. Without fighting against the conditions of the country, a person can’t hope to find what is right for him or her. The conditions of our country, especially the government for the past twenty years has let young people make their own choices in life, as well as put obstacles in their way to prevent them from making these choices. I think we need to push these conditions to the limit. This country is not a country that will present everything to you in a golden platter. We can only hope to change this country when we, as individuals, take heed of our own strenghts. Otherwise everything will be handed down to us.