PLANET GALATA

The Galata Bridge in Istanbul is a cosmos of its own. Between shops, restaurants and inrushes of tourists, we meet people for who the bridge is home, hope and purpose in life.

Among these are: restaurant owner Kemal, Gaffur and Erkan, who work as cook maids at the rival next door, paper collectors Bayram and Erdogan, Sadiye, who after her husband´s death comes to the bridge every day to fish, and Ömer, the controlling director and secret „King“ of the bridge.

Renowned media artist Florian Thalhofer has been engaged with non-linear storytelling for more than a decade. For this cross-media project on the microcosm of Istanbul´s Galata bridge, he teamed up with Turkish filmmaker Berke Baş.

Florian Thalhofer is a media-artist and documentary-maker and co-founder of the Korsakow Institut. He is the inventor of the Korsakow-System and the chief-architect of the Korsakow-software.

Thalhofer started in 1997 to tell stories via computer. That led him to the development of the Korsakow-System, a software and a principle for a new way of structuring narrations. These narrations are rule-based, non-linear and (usually) interactive.

Thalhofer made numerous Korsakow-films and one linear film. He taught at the University of the Arts, Berlin at DFFB and at Deutsches Literatur Institut, Leipzig and gave talks and lectures on every continent except Australia. He also works in the newsroom of DW-TV as picture editor.

Director
Florian Thalhofer

Co-Director
Berke Baş

Cinematography
Florian Thalhofer
Berke Baş
Ahmet Sel

Editor
Gunther Kreis

Music
Ilja Pollach
Jim Avignon

Producer
Stefan Kloos

Production
Kloos & Co. Medien