12 hours
ABOUT THE FILM
12 hours
Directed by Emre Mirza
Genre Social/Thriller/Chamber Drama
Length 32min
Language Turkish
Location Turkey
Written by Emre Mirza, Asma Nabeel
Casting Olgu Caglar
Music by David Bessler
Executive
Producers Adnan Mirza, Raheel Waqar, Usman Zahid
Co-producers Moskitos Films
Synopsis
The last 12 hours in the life of a patriarch who cannot have any physical contact with his family due to covid-19 restrictions. The conflict brings out long-festering issues amongst the family until a 9-year-old girl ventures close to the dying man. She makes a connection with him that catalyses confrontations and resolutions.
About the Director | Emre Mirza
Emre Mirza grew up in London, Los Angeles and the middle east. An early career in acting began with the British theatre group ‘The black ensemble'. He then moved into writing short scripts and comedy sketches for british television. He studied film and video production at UCLA and specialized in Editing at NYU's Tisch Film School. After working as an editor for several years on TV shows, films and commercials, Emre moved on to directing music videos and short films with brands such as Coca Cola, Red bull and Levi‘s. Post - 9/11 he created five hour-long docunentaries about Afghanistan and Pakistan amidst the american invasion for the BBC. Emre developed a keen interest in feature narrative films based on true stores and pursue this with his first feature, a docu-drama entitled ’Hashashin‘ which was made in southern Afghanistan during the American offensive of 2002.
Emre went on to create and co-write ‘beyond the wire‘ which was part of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and is currently being produced by award-winning filmmakers Cherein Dabas and Rick Rosenthal. Emre also wrote and directed the feature drama ’East of West’ which tells the true story of an Iraqi refugee's escape to Europe during the Iraq war.
Currently, he is a writer and producer on several genre-spanning series and feature projects for cinema and SVOD platforms through his London-based company, AfterThought Media. His approach to immersive storytelling has also led him into developing platforms for audience-driven storytelling that allows community building through co-creation between writers and their audiences. His more recent projects, the sci-fi thriller 'The Printer ‘and ’12 hours’ are a natural extension of his multi-genre approach to exploring complex social issues in the world.
Our Late Co-Writer Asma Nabeel
1972-2021
The CEO of link warrior films, asma nabeel was a renowned screenwriter, pget, producer and motivational speaker from Pakistan. Having written several award-winning TV dramas, she was also known for her tireless work to support women diagnosed with breast cancer. After living with cancer for many years, ’12 hours’ was her first project after coming out of remission.
Sadly, during this project, her illness reemerged and she lost her battle against her second bout of cancer on 1st july 2021. The final script was read to her approval in her final days in hospital. Asma leaves behind a legacy of courage and creativity.
Cast
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Tülin Özen
Tülin Özen was born in Iskenderun in 1980. She studied at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Istanbul Technical University, but left the University and continued her study at Yeditepe University. She joined Yeditepe Oyuncuları (Actors). In 2003, Özen made her film debut with the film “Melek Oyunu.” Since
then, she has acted in many films and TV series. She acted in Semih Kaplanoğlu’s film “Meleğin Düşüşü” and received the Best Actress Award for her performance in the Golden Orange Awards (2004). She also won the Best Actress Award for the film “Meleğin Düşüşü” in the Nurnberg Turkish / German Film Festival (2005) and Ankara Film Festival (2005). In 2008-2009 Özen received the Best Supporting Actress awards in the Sadri Alışık Awards, Adana Golden Ball Festival, and SIYAD Awards. Özen currently lives and works in Istanbul.
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Muhammed Cangören
Muhammed Cangören was born in 1951 in Afghanistan. He is an actor, known for Argo (2012), Sorry for Leila (2000) and The Valley of the Wolves (2003). He is best known for his role in “Valley of the Wolves”, except for the characters he played before. Although many spectators did not know his name, they were
very interested in this game against him. In the film “Don’t Be Crazy Crazy (2009)”, he played the character of “Allahyar”. In 2010, she successfully played the character of “Sitki Seyitoglu” in Osman Sın’s series “Sakarya Fırat”.
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Görkem Kasal
Görkem Kasal was born in Ankara, 1989. Graduated from Bilgi University of Performing Arts and studied Master Degree in cinema at Marmara University. He’s known for movies such as Baskin (premiered at TIFF) and When I’m Done Dying (premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Festival) and also TV Movies, series such as My Dangerous Wife and Impossible Probability. He is a stage actor and known for the international work of Project Phakama which is based in London called “Message in a Bottle”. and currently acting in a theatre play called “Lan!” in Istanbul. Gorkem is also a Sarajevo Talents Alumni.
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Umut Kurt
Umut started his theatrical career as an amateur in 1997. After graduating from Müjdat Gezen Art Center Conservatory, he joined Besiktas Cultural Center players. Along with his acting, his performing and singing of folk songs are prominent aspects of his work. He has starred in the plays Women, Bus Stop, Freedom for Men, This World is Ours, Watching Godot, Fairy Tale Shambles, Cat in Boots, My Sweet Angel and the Company of Share Wonders. He is well known for the role of Mazhar in the popular Turkish series ‘Love Me Like This’.
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Sinem Toygar
Sinem was born on 03.11.2010 in Istanbul. 6th grade student. She started acting in 2018. She continues to receive training in acting. Apart from that, she loves playing the piano, doing sports, dancing and animals.
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Şenay Aydin
Senay Aydin was born in 1983 in Bitlis, Turkey. She is an actress, known for Hidden Faces (2007), Present Tense (2012) and The Protector (2018).
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Tayfun Yilmaz
Tayfun was born in 1964 in İstanbul and I started acting later in life in 2013. He has appeared in the films ‘Mutluluk’, ‘Lady Winsley‘ ‘Ev Kira Semt Bizim’ and TV series Eşkiya Dünyaya , Baraj (FOX tv as well as working extensively in Theatre with Tiyatro Kedi in Istanbul
From Screen to Script:
Online Screen Testing Feedback Experience
We work regularly with community feedback and behaviour change elements of data collection, so we were curious to see how we can combine digital tools with creative narratives to understand how people truly feel about 12 Hours.
How could we, as creatives, find out if our audiences connected to the message of this film?
So we designed the screen test experience:
Making of
