The shooting of the TRT co-production "Elisa" film began in the Underground Salt City in Çankırı

The dystopian film tells the story of seven people who take refuge in a cave and struggle to survive after a nuclear war when most of the world's lands have become uninhabitable.

The director of the film, Sinan Sertel, told AA that he joined the project in September last year and was excited after reading the story.

Sertel underlined that the film has a heavy load and a design atmosphere, and said, "I am trying to do what I think (during the shooting) regarding the steps of making this design atmosphere convincing enough and strengthening the story. I hope it will have a lot of viewers."

"The film goes beyond the present and projects into the future"

Stating that the story began in the time of Jesus Christ, Sertel continued as follows:

"The film also goes beyond the present and projects into the future. I was very struck by a story that covers so many periods. It also tells these in a very different setting. All of our characters are stuck in a cave, their chances of getting out are very low and they need to survive. Each of them is valuable in their own way, they have their own moral values. However, when they come face to face with death, these start to shake and in the background of this shake, we always see mythological and religious elements from the past."

"We have 8 main characters in the movie, but we can say that the 9th character is the cave"

Regarding the shootings taking place in the Salt Cave in Çankırı, Sertel said, "This work could not have been shot anywhere else, I can say that with ease. It is a huge area. After seeing this place, we made an adaptation in the script. We have 8 main characters in the film, but we can say that the 9th character is the cave."

Sinan Sertel, who mentioned that they tried to create a world focused on undefined characters in the film, explained the following:

"After the world is destroyed, the concept of the state as you know it disappears. Then small groups want to establish a government. Not all of them are malicious. Some are prone to violence, some are really concerned about how to establish a new civilization, how to create a space of existence by ignoring the mistakes of the past. We used one of the most prominent of these as Solisvita. We combined them because in Latin solis means sun and vita means life. It represents a hope for the future. We designed our logo that way."

Sertel stated that they achieved good communication with the actors, that the story of the film also affected the actors, and that the actors supported the script with various suggestions.

"Our journey started 4 years ago"

Producer Hakan Sancaktutan also stated that he has been working in the cinema sector for about 16 years and has always wanted to do projects that have concerns, and said, "We always thought about what we can do in cinema, what we should do. After about 10 years, while drinking coffee in Bosnia, something came to our minds. We believe that nuclear wars could happen under today's conditions, and when we were thinking about global climate conditions, this project came to our mind."

Sancaktutan, who stated that they first wanted to tell the story of 7 people trapped in a cave after a nuclear explosion, said, "Our journey actually started 4 years ago. We had a meeting with our scriptwriter Selman Kılıçaslan and when we explained it, the current script emerged. We applied to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Our project won the competition. Afterwards, we got together with Sinan Sertel. He worked on the script over and over again for 4 months. He made very good contributions. With his contributions, the project became much more valuable to us."

Sancaktutan said that they first went to the caves in Nevşehir to tell the story of the early Christian period in the film, but since shooting there was problematic, they came to Çankırı.

Sancaktutan said that the film will first tour national and international festivals and then be released, adding that they plan to show the production on TRT screens.

- "It is not a very common type of film in our country"

Berfu Öngören, one of the actors in the film, expressed that she was excited when she first read the script and said, "It is not a very common type of film in our country, so it was exciting for me. I could not have predicted this atmosphere when we started on set. It is very impressive, everything works so well on set, we work very well. Everyone is very concentrated."

Öngören stated that she plays the character of "Doctor Meryem" in the film and said, "Meryem is pregnant when they enter the cave. She has a professional responsibility towards people and she is also a character who thinks about and controls everyone. She is always doing her best to keep everything in order here."

Actor Cemil Büyükdöğerli stated that the film is a dystopia genre and said, "The film is being shot in a very interesting location. It is exciting because it is a different work that has not been done before."

Stating that he played the character of "Emre" in the film, Büyükdöğerli gave the following information:

"There are people who have come together for a project in the cave. We can think of Emre as the project manager. He feels more responsible than anything else. He has to deliver a project to a group that is trying to rule this world, and in order for him to succeed, they choose this cave to conduct their research. But things don't go as planned."

Actor Serkan Altıntaş stated that they were like a family with everyone on the set and said, "Our friendship that started during the reading rehearsal was reflected on the set. The set became like a home. I don't want the shooting of the movie to ever end."

Altıntaş, who mentioned that the character "Efe" he plays in the film only looks at events with his mind, said, "He has no conscience, no mercy, he acts smart, he is a character who may not be liked when the film is over but who tries to live in a place where we can say 'he did the right thing', who struggles to survive and does this with his mind. He is a character who is the complete opposite of me in life."

The film, whose script was written by Selman Kılıçaslan and Sinan Sertel, also includes Ekin Türkmen, Mehmet Çepiç, Sabahattin Yakut and Ulvi Kahyaoğlu in the cast.

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