In 2015, Deniz Gamze Ergüven wowed moviegoers with her feature-length directorial debut, Mustang. Mustang, which she also co-wrote, is one of 2015’s best-reviewed movies. The film’s success translated into major awards consideration – including a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Awards nomination. But long before Mustang arrived in theatres, Ergüven set her sights on another project. And with Mustang completed, she resumed working on her long-gestating film, Kings.
Kings stars Halle Berry as the matriarch of a South Central foster family faced with the civil unrest stemming from the Rodney King trial and its explosive aftermath. The thematically complex film offers astute viewers a lot to unpack. Kings examines family bonds, community relationships, and America’s simmering racial tensions, all from Ergüven’s distinct perspective. Ergüven worked on Kings for over a decade and once it wrapped, she came to Toronto and spoke with the media about her new movie.
Discussing Kings With Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Ergüven worked on Kings for 11-years before she screened her final cut for audiences. She sites two initial events that kicked off King’s long road to completion. “In 2005 I was refused French nationality for the second time,” she said. “And this is just the tip of the problem of me being in France as a Turk, which was heartbreaking. It’s a country that I love deeply.” It was three weeks of rioting in France that brought her idea into focus. Ergüven added, “It was as if a deep societal issue was coming to the surface and it crystalized and it embodied something that I felt.”
An inspired Ergüven dove down a research rabbit hole where she read and spoke about riots so that she could better understand them. She remembers seeing the LA riots from across the globe as a teenager and she was struck by the emblematic images of Rodney King and Reginald Denny. Ergüven says she relates to a lot of riots because she knows, “The bottom feeling of being in a country you love that rejects you, and you haven’t chosen to be there, as a minority in the first place.”
Something felt different for Ergüven when she read about the riots in 2005. “All of a sudden I could completely see every nuance of what I felt in that story,” she says. “There was something of a resonance, a bridge of deep emotions that I lived which were an abstraction and a story that had happened.” It’s at this point where the outline of a film began taking form. “For me, the first intuition on a film is almost like a private, secret little moment where you, as if you know the shape of a film.” An inspired Ergüven travelled to Los Angeles as fast as she could for a month of research. “Every single day of research in South Central was confirming that initial feeling.”
Ergüven couldn’t have guessed that Kings would take her over a decade to complete. She spoke about how her perspective in front of and behind the camera changed over those 11-years. “First of all, so much happened in 11-years. In terms of filmmaking, I’ve learned a lot and then in terms of life happening, a lot happened as well,” she told me. “Well, first of all, a detail, I became French and my heart was fixed. So, the object of focus of the film literally shifted progressively to the heart of Jesse and Millie’s story, which are both based on real-life characters.”
Ergüven continued, “And I think there has been a shift from my sorry little problem of being heartbroken, and granted, the immigrant, to something more essential and more important, which were their problematics. And which are embodied in the film for Millie and Jesse, seeing parents fighting for their children is a huge… It’s palpable. And then the threat on the children as well. So, it was those things that shifted the focus of the film throughout the 11-years. And then a lot of things, even the riots arriving in Turkey, and living events of that nature. All those things add up to becoming a different film over the 11-years. And then I learned a lot, changed my mind on a lot of things. Eleven years is a long time.”
