I'd been following them since
the big city. They were fugitives.
At first I didn't understand why they
were coming to this secluded seaside town.
Your father had been involved
in some covert work for years.
That's why the organization
kept a close eye on him.
My youth, when I look
back at those years,
I could never have imagined my
life would turn out like this.
It'd been six months since I began
the assignment. I was a real novice.
I spent the six months doing absolutely
nothing. Then, one day they called on me.
I was really excited.
Your father was my first job.
They assigned me to watch your father.
He was considered
dangerous from the start.
You wouldn't know;
you weren't around then.
It was winter, January or February.
The town was completely deserted.
What if I lost sight of them,
even for a minute?
How would I explain that to my bosses?
I constantly lives that fear.
Do you know your father did that to me?
How could I have known that I would
spend my whole life obsessed with him...
that I would witness
his frenzy, his pain?
I didn't understand why
they came to this town.
Were they planning to escape
to some other country?
But then, they didn't leave for anywhere.
They just got married.
After that I understood everything.
Then something very strange happened.
I guess they assumed I was a
local and picked me up by the road.
All of a sudden I found myself
a witness to their wedding.
Your mother's family had no idea about
that clandestine wedding ceremony.
And your father, he had
no one during those years.
The story of your father's life is
also partly my life story.
I must confess I'm having this
feeling for the first time in my life.
It's like I'm descending from the moon.
Is this my country or is it not?
I don't really know.
But I think I have some
idea about what to expect.
I'm going to visit your grave, meet your
friends, visit this country where I was born,
like a tourist, and then return to where
I live my life. And that's about it.
I'm just a singer.
Recording, film-clips, TV.
I couldn't' care less about them.
I like what I do, that's it.
I will never forget he said " I found you
in the womb where you were conceived."
- May he rest in peace.
- Hey, give us some money.
- I hope you won't get too frustarted
with all of this. - Why's that?
Oh come on... these graves, the dead.
We've prepared a list of the
people we're going to see.
- It looks like they're a pretty
colorful bunch. - Is that so?
Yes they really look interesting. Have you
really not seen this face for forty years?
Yes. The last time... the face.
I remember is very vague.
Anyway, he was always
going off somewhere.
Now, as I look at my house.
I think I begin to see him.
My childhood seems so remote.
Everything is just like it was
when I was a child, isn't it?
- I don't know you. I don't know.
- This is where you were born?
I think it was in this room...
Wasn't it?
- I don't know.
- But I'm his son.
He doesn't believe me.
- Did he live here before he died?
- I don't know.
Listen, he just wants to speak
with people who knew his father.
- This is very important for him.
- I don't know.
Who knows how many times I'd
been up and down these stairs.
So it happened all at one, did it?
You woke up one morning and realized
that you missed your country.
- Just like that. Does that seems funny
to you? - No, just a little strange.
Sure you'd find it strange,
you're still so young.
- What does this have to do with my age?
- If only I were your age.
- Are you ever presumptuous!
- I am not. I wonder what you'd do.
If you hadn't seen your
father for forty years?
- What are you laughing about?
- Oh, nothing.
- Am I really so old?
- Where is that coming from?
- Well, what is it then?
- You see that woman over there.
- She's been eyeing you for some time.
- Just give her the tongue.
- Nilufer, you're on.
- I'm coming.
I really missed him.
He left, and never returned.
- I didn't know he had a son.
- How do you do, madam.
Do you know that his father did to me?
He called to me to the train station in that
awful town and said: The idiot is going
to India, to New Delhi. He wrote to
the university there and got registered.
I shouted out," Are you going
to come back?" as he left.
But he left, and never returned.
At least that's what I thought.
But he deceived me.
On top of that he had a child:
This kid standing right here across from
me in a daze, staring at me, not eating.
Don't you like it? I know you don't
like it. Who do you think you are
- not eating me food? Who
are you? - We will eat madam.
- Just a minute... - We will eat
madam, we were listening to you.
No, I don't need any love.
Just tell me frankly you don't like it.
- If you don't like it, then just leave.
- Please, just a minute...
- You've misunderstood us. - Get out
of my house right away. I said, go.
- Please just a minute. You've misunderstood us.
- Get out of here. Get out.
- So you don't like me you don't
like my food. - No I don't.
But you're going to eat it.
You'll have to eat it until you die.
Well, I'm eating it and I'm dying.
That woman has really aged. They say
she was really beautiful in her youth.
- So, what did your father do in India?
- He studied medicine
and became a pediatrician. My mother always
used to say, "Your father's an Indian."
- So? -I don't know. My mother
never said anything about this.
Maybe because of my step-father.
In any case, It was my mother who always
told me about this country, about my father.
I married an important woman from Prague, did
important work, became an important person...
all for my mother. The state
has always protected me.
- You opposed to nuclear energy? - I say,
"Tender is the night." - Oh, that's great.
Well, I can't beat you at this game.
I go to work every morning by
helicopter. It's always the same.
I work at a research center
in the desert. And at night
I also return to my important
home, my important wife,
my important mother and my important song
by helicopter. That's my important life.
- What about you?
- Just what you see.
You sing... and you also work as a tour
guide to make some extra money.
- True, that's about it. -So, you're
a free spirit. You don't have to go back
- to that desert like me. - And now you've
come here to get to know your father.
There was a film director who was
hung up on his father. You're like him.
- Who was that?
- Bertolucci, I think.
Are you dissatisfied with your life? Are you
one of those miserable middle,aged people?
- No, I'm happy with my life.
- I can see that.
Sure, I knew him from poker.
He was completely fearless.
I've watched him play a lot. No one can
call his bluff. Later I heard that he had
gotten mixed up in some political business.
Not something I know much about.
I guess was an important person.
You see that woman?
They used to say something was going on
between the two of them, but, maybe even...
He wanted to celebrate my
being chosen beauty queen.
He did it in his very own way.
It was fantastic, just fantastic.
All of high society had its
eyes on him. It was love.
I understood that. He said that
experiencing love elevated a person.
He set the sea on fire for me. But my father
never liked him as far back as I can remember.
He could never understand his practicing
medicine in those poor Anatolian villages
like a missionary. Later on
he and I used to meet secretly.
Then one day I really felt desire for him.
We were at home... with no one around.
He kissed me on the cheek.
I'll be back wait here, he said.
And I waited him in bed. That
was it. I never saw him again.
Who knows, maybe he's dead.
Beshir, Beshir Sedat, maybe he's dead.
Beshir Sedat, maybe he's dead...
Beshir... Beshir...
We're up our knees in this
swamp of life, he said.
But only up to our knees.
Too bad it's not all the way.
If he were here now that's
probably what he'd say.
He was like a spoiled
child when I first saw him.
He was like a spoiled kid who chooses
an exotic country for vacation.
They'll take your children
from you right from your womb.
They'll take them.
Killers, blood, blood...
- Not many people liked your father.
- You should've heard my mother:
- Everyone is saying pretty much the
same thing. - Does all this get you upset?
- No, I don't know a thing.
- Right, we're really just getting started.
I can feel this trip with you will be great.
How about spending the night with me?
- Or are you too shy?
- Stop the car, please. I want to get out.
Hello. Speaking.
What sort of information?
Health? Medicine?
Hello, okay, I'm writing
it down. Who are you?
Okay, okay, I'll bring it.
How much? What?
- Step on it Come on, step on it.
Did you bring the money? - Yes.
Give it to me. Hey, you don't look
at all like him. Come on hurry up.
You're right being scared.
I was also really scared that day.
It was my first day on the job as a
reporter. The Ministry of Health or
Somebody sent me over there.
Ridiculous speeches, you know. All lies.
The speeches were over, and just when
the minister was coming down the stairs,
Something were strange happened. A lot
of screaming, pandemonium. Your father
had the minister pinned to the ground and
was punching him. Everything happened so fast.
And so the Minister of health was getting
beaten up in front of everyone in broad daylight.
Nobody knew what was behind all
of this. You know what it was?
You dear patriotic father just
couldn't stand the kind minister
because he was on the take for some
business with counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
On top that, the minister was
his old friend. Did you know that?
Actually he was an awful person.
- Who?
- Your father.
- Get out of here! - What's going on?
- Get out of here, get out.
- He, stop it, stop it. Stop it, what's
going on? - Get out of here, you bastard.
Hey, leave me alone. Leave me alone you
filthy bastards. You're just like your father.
- I've got to talk to you.
- What's up? - Come over here please?
It won't take alone.
You've left me all alone today.
- You deserved it.
- Did I really hurt you that badly?
No, Yo can say whatever you think,
but I don't like you being so insistent.
I just needed to be
with you at the moment.
- But that's no way to do it.
- I'm sorry.
Gee, this has really
gone to my head. Try some.
- I'm so happy I've met you.
- Hmm.
He was the oldest one of us.
Like a father to us.
You know, the doctor was an incredible
mathematical genius. He worked out the details
of the hold-up all by himself. -How's that,
did he also take part in the robbery?
What do you mean did he take part!
We were little nothings next to him.
He went like a storm. We just
tried to imitate what he was doing.
He even know where the
money was going to be spent.
He had this idea of setting up
dispensaries in some poor neighborhoods.
Years later we all split up. But he remained
completely faithful to his principles,
- to his beliefs.
- You seen angry at him.
No that's bot it. We
thought we had changed.
I became the owner of this place, but it was
all really a matter of keeping up the pace.
- Well we kept up, more than kept up.
- What about him?
So what did my father do? Tell me more.
"Tell me fine friend, where's our other
meeting spot?" He taught this song.
Anyway, forget it, this is it.
"Tell me fine friend,
where's our other meeting spot?
Our old spot by the side
of the stream our old spot"
Listen that old guy, well,
you never know about him.
He'd never stay put, you can be sure of
that. He hasn't died. No, I don't believe it.
- How's that? He's not dead? What do you
mean he hasn't died? - He won't die.
I don't believe it. For sure he's viewing us
from some place. Listen, I'm not kidding,
call me whenever you want. Come over
and let's talk whenever you want Okay?
So, go now. God be with you.
Play a walking tune.
- So, did he have a gun with him?
- I suppose so. How else could he rob a bank?
I don't think he would lie.
Come on, he knows everything.
He didn't kill anybody, did he?
I just don't understand things like this.
Yeah, but he gave the money to some
poor kids... That's really something.
- Were you expecting someone?
- No.
Hey stop. What do you think you're doing?
Where are you going?
You've got the wrong
number, the wrong room.
- Who are they?
- How am I supposed to know.
- Or did you invite there Russian
call girls? - Don't be ridiculous.
- Mr. Ragip, Mr. Ragip.
- She just said my name.
I thought it was the wrong room.
Somebody sent them I guess.
Can't you ever be serious?
What kind of scientist are you?
- You just love to abuse yourself. - I guess it
wasn't such a good idea to have come here. Hello.
"Tell me fine friend where is our other
meeting spot." Did you like my girls?
Okay, okay, forget them and listen to me.
The police just raided this place last night.
I've got somebody. Someone who knows
your father very well. He's willing to talk.
You have a pencil?
All those stories about juntas are a thing
of the past now. Don't give it a thought.
Years ago I was the watchman at the mansion
where Trotsky was staying on Princess Island.
Your father used to row over once a
week and try pull up at waterfront.
You know why he wanted to get close to the
mansion, my son? To see Trotsky on the balcony.
At first I thought he was a cop, but then I
saw that he would even have been happy
to steal a glance at Trotsky's shadow. Then
got to know him and we became friends.
It was just last year we
were together drinking raki.
Last year? Last year? Isn't he dead?
But he's in his grave...
They wrote that he died ten years ago.
No, no. During the past ten years I've
had raki with him at least ten times.
So you've seen him. You're sure?
- You're sure he's my father?
- For God's sake, my son...
Don't you think I'd
recognize Beshir Bey.
We've been together since the War.
You see that talk piece?
The pilot died in my arms.
And Beshir Bey...
- What happened to Beshir Bey?
- So you saw him?
You saw him, didn't you? You drank
raki together with him, didn't you?
You're not lying to us? You're not
misleading us? If It's a matter of money
here take the money Onat Usta.
Just tell the truth.
Please take the money
Onat Usta. Here, here.
- Did you believe him? - Something
inside me says he's telling the truth.
What do you mean, do
you think he's alive?
Yeah, yeah. My father... We were
always together, he was always at home.
- I don't remember him doing any
kind of work. - Where is he now?
He never left his room. He used
to do one puzzle after another,
- stare out at street trough his
tiny window. - Where is he now?
One morning we found him dead. With
the newspaper, the puzzles in his hand.
I wasn't even able to cry. We threw
away a whole room full of newspapers.
So you're also able to be
merciless now and then.
I'd like to believe that
your father is still alive.
He said that we live like frozen food.
We wait around for the day when
they'll take us out of the freezer.
I think his life was also
filled with such moments.
I wanted to speak with you alone because
I have some private things to say.
- I'd like you to help me. - Of course,
of course, I'll do whatever I can.
When they told me you wanted to speak with me,
I thought you were picking up your shares.
Shares? I don't know anything
about them. What shares?
- Don't you really know? Try and be up front
with me. - No, no, I don't know a thing.
Okay, okay, I understand. I'm sure you
realize that this isn't the first time I've
confronted a situation like this. In any
case, secrecy was your father's forte.
I'm going to tell you
everything, don't worry.
We did two things together, one successful,
one not. You know which one didn't work?
- As I said, don't know a thing.
- Yes, you're right, I forgot...
A national concern. No one can
know the importance of this factory.
This factory was a matter of national
concern for us. We didn't make a mess.
Of things as we did with that unfortunate
junta. We were first to build a factory
- like this in the country. My daughter...
Mr. Ragip. - Have you found your father?
Would you like walk along with us?
- I'm going to try and explain a few things
to our visitor. -You're living in L. A?
- Yes. Have you been there?
- A few times. Very interesting city.
Everything's interesting.
Yes, very interesting.
Tell us about your mysterious life, father.
It'd really be interesting to Mr. Ragip.
- But he has to know, my child.
- Everything?
Please, don't put any pressure on me.
Is there anyone other than Mr. Ragip
- who's curious about his father, who wants
to see him? - Yes, there's you, father...
Bye. I'm leaving...
Good luck, Mr. Ragip.
After me wife died my daughter became
everything to me. I have one else.
These are the pictures of my life. At one time
your father and I were very close friends.
But after the junta he thought I had betrayed
him. The fact is we were all betrayed.
This was the kind of a defeat we'll never
forget. We had gone hunting in Indochina.
He wanted to kill me there. He was
quiet, calm. He wanted to get rid of me.
Now do you understand why I
don't want to remember him?
I've never come across anyone
as pure as he was. I miss him.
It was he who taught us
the abc's of so many things.
Now we're stuck in the middle of this
swamp with that alphabet... helpless.
He lived own life died his own death.
I could never have imagined that after
thirty-five years in the police force,
after tailling your father and writing hundreds
of reports on him that this would happen.
One day, I don't know where it came from, he
began to talk about that strange plan of his.
"Go and find one" he said.
For days and days I walked in
and out of village cemeteries.
I bargained with diggers.
So after having followed your father for
thirty-five years, I bought a corpse for him.
Because I was a faithful friend.
I couldn't survive without
him. I moved with him.
Soon I began taking care
of almost all his business.
So I bought a corpse and I made sure
that everything was done realistically.
I was in charge of the funeral.
Absolutely everybody was there:
communists, fascists,
liberals, high ranking officers,
ministers, workers. Absolutely
everybody. Except that no one
but he and I knew that this was in
reality the funeral of a poor peasant.
Your father planned the
whole thing: I executed it.
Can you imagine, we were
able to fool all of Istanbul!
Everything went like clockwork. They
all believed your father had died.
From then on he was free to live
elsewhere under an assumed name.
We watched the whole thing
from a flat I had rented.
The deceit of a man who watched his
own funeral from a distance so he could
free himself before
getting completely soiled.
- Is all this true? How can we believe it?
- He's alive. My father's alive.
Fine, but why all these deceptions?
I don't understand.
This was, at the same time, the deceit
of a man who observed his own funeral
and disappeared so he could save himself from
getting soiled That's what the video says.
- Didn't the general give you
any other leads? - No.
Well, maybe the old housekeeper
will tell us some more tomorrow.
He'll tell us some more, won't he?
Hello...
Was it you who gave my number to her?
No, she must've gotten it
from the American bodyguards.
This is all we needed.
Shall I make you an omlet.
I said to your father, see that tree
over there? Why take us? Take it.
But what'd I do? Was I deserving of him?
He came all the way out there to our
remote villages to work as a doctor.
He was the only really important
person in the whole area.
Then he got this idea of teaching me
how to read and write. And what did I do?
I lazied around,my head somewhere
in the clouds, mot picking up much.
I had no one in the world. Your father
was obsessed with helping orphans like me.
Those crooked bureaucrats, those
crooked bureaucrats, he'd always say.
Later on they really gave him a
hard time. But he never gave in.
Maybe he did after that, I
don't know. And what did I do?
He was just about to take off. They didn't
let him live there they sent him away...
I saw him off with the first
words he taught me to read.
Just before he left he was really
in bad shape. He was drinking a lot.
He kept saying, they're after me. They're
going to kill me. Whatever that means.
And what'd I do? On the day he left, I was
able to keep his things as he left them.
And what did I do? I didn't know how to
read or write. I was never able to learn.
He took me in as a little kid, brought me
out by train, and I've worked for him since.
And what'd he do? One morning he just
picked up and left this room without a sound.
See, I had just washed this shirt that
morning. He left without even putting it on.
But he'll be back. I know it.
Nothing can happen to him.
They say he's disappeared, that he's dead.
But that's not true. He'll be back.
Let me bring you some clean sheets.
- Where's the bathroom?
- Downstairs, right next to the kitchen.
Your father, he made me swear,
but, I just can't not tell you.
You have a sister. I just
couldn't not tell you.
What happened?
- Are you all right?
- Did you ever see "Superman?"
- No. - When he's flying with his girl,
you know he says to her?
- No.
- What a lovely thing you are.
So great you're here.
Orphanage.
My mother's first husband
was a pilot in the Luftwaffe
During the Second World War. But
then he began to turn against Hitler.
One day he took my mother and escaped
by plane to Istanbul via Bulgaria.
But the plane ran out of fuel.
They crashed somewhere near Edirne.
- My mother was crippled.
- When did she meet my father?
Her husband died right here on the spot.
A young fellow Onat Usta, saved her life.
Dunya, my sister! You're so beautiful.
Can I kiss you just once?
My father, I mean your father, met
my mother when she was with Onat Usta
They fell in love right away, but never
got married. You know father always thought
- that orphans were really angels.
- How long did he live with you?
Until mother died. I was just
beginning my medical residency then.
So what happened? Did you part at odds?
No, no. I think father had really hit
bottom. He had just set up the orphanage.
- He left everything to this place.
- You mean like the Christian saints?
- You can put it that way. - Didn't you
ever come across each other again?
Well, I suppose we did...
I don't know. He had changed.
- He kept saying, "thirty birds."
- Did he say where he was,
- what he was doing? - No, nothing.
he had changed, really changed.
It was as if he...
My mother said to me that everything and
everybody in this country was a fraud,
was filthy loud, and two-faced. According
to my mother that was the "East."
- What? - I said, this was
how my mother saw the East.
- That's because your mother hated your father.
- Sure, both him and his East.
She wasn't over able to understand
why my father loved the East. Never.
She wasn't over able to understand
why my father loved the East. Never.
So, am I your East know? Come on
tell me, am I your East or your West.
My spirit has found it's true home here.
- Quick. get up.
- What?
Elizabeth is here, she is
waiting in the lobby. Get up.
Hurry up, please, get dressed.
You're still sitting there...
Would you like something to drink?
Just a second, I'm coming Nilufer.
- I should be going.
- Let's go together we'll drop you off.
- I have to stop odd a few places.
- Okay, it's up to you.
I'll call you.
Sure we're going back,
sure, my lovely Czech.
I put it there, they took it, in between
those busy hours, I'd take it out and look
with no one there; The mirror that
showed myself to me, they took it.
Spring in winter, in my waters it blossomed;
What sent it fleeing over snowy peaks?
A yellowed page in an old notebook,
the meaning that showed myself to me,
they took it. It was a light,
it burned on lonely nights;
Evening, the flowers gone to sleep,
far shores enveloped in darkness,
The lamp that showed
myself to me, they took it.
- Hi. I'm looking for Nilufer.
- She's not here.
- She's not answering her phone either.
- What?
- Help me out. I've got to find her.
- That's not going to be easy, my friend.
- Why is that? - She has a pianist friend,
Ayten. Maybe she's with her.
- You haven't been around lately.
Where've you been? - Give me a drink.
Hey, you're The Man, aren't you? The
TV crime fighter. You're the greatest.
I mean, they should put up
your statue. I don't understand.
You, I mean, you're
the greatest, you're our
- savior. A national hero.
- What are you saying?
That lousy thief you uncovered last
week on your TV show. If I came across
that bastard I'D squash him
like a bug. Don't be ridiculous.
Hey, listen, I'm not pulling anything. But
is all this worth it? You making out okay?
Just give me the word if you need
anything. Just give me the orders. Just ask.
- Please, stop. I'll get out here.
- What do you mean?
You're the greatest, the greatest
of the great. I'd take you anywhere.
I said I want to get out. Can't
you hear me? Here's your money.
- What's this about money?
- Let me out, you idiot.
Let you out? Come on, once in
a lifetime you ride in my cab.
If I were to tell my buddies about this
they wouldn't believe a word. No way.
Pull over right here, I said pull over.
Did I do something? Why are you
getting so upset? I don't understand.
Who is there?
- Isn't Ms. Ayten home? - Please don't shout.
Why are you looking for Ms. Ayten?
- I trying to find Nilufer.
- Look, you're raising your voice again.
Would you please be helpful? Has
Nilufer stopped by in the last few days?
Now I get it. I've been on leave for
ten years. We haven't seen anyone.
Nobody's been here. Hey, are you
her American friend, what's his..
- Yes, I'm Ragip.
- Oh,! Now I get it. I've heard about you.
Come on in, come in. Quiet. Quiet.
Great playing, isn't it? We haven't
left the house since I got here.
When I'm on leave she
never invites anyone over.
And never disappoints me; always plays
for me. She knows how to get to a soldier.
- I've got to go. - You know something
about tape recorders, don't you?
I can't get it record.
It's on digital. Thanks.
If it weren't for Ayten's piano playing
I'd go crazy up therein the mountains.
Fighting every single day.. bodies all
over the place.. You understand, don't you?
Digital recording is really important.
I've lost my only boy, my little lamb.
Come here, my son, come here. Take my hand.
Hey.Look, he flew off into
the sky, just disappeared.
Didn't come back, didn't come back.
Sometimes I got the feeling he wanted to
go back to the States. But my being there
with him put a stop to that. At one point
I though of leaving. I even tried it.
I left him alone. Then I went back.
We were really locked into each other.
Just when I had found the two of
you, all of a sudden you disappeared.
Elizabeth, if she'd driven that
car any faster I'd be dead now.
At the moment that's what I
really wanted, father. To die.
To die suffering in an accident, to have
had a few last laughs at life looking up
at the sky there in the midst of a pile
of twisted steel, blood gushing out of my
ruptured organs. I would have had
one up on life, dying like that.
- Maybe I would have found the both
of us by dying. - What's this?
- A letter.
- Who for? Me?
He couldn't survive without
coming to this valley of the birds.
Battal, your father used to say, this is
the place to die. It was like his refuge.
The king of the birds, he'd always say.
Yes, once day all of the
birds in the world came here.
- Did he tell stories?
- Wait a second, how did it go?
- All the birds got together, and
went to find Simurg. - Simurg?
The king of the birds, their
savior. Something like that.
They walked for years and years, face
to face with hunger, disasters, wars,
and conflicts. In the end
only thirty of them reached
the mountain where Simurg
lived. And what did they see
But that there was no savior
there. Nothing, no one.
Neither the king or Simurg.They waited
for months, years, but there was no one.
They looked down at the water and saw their
own images. One day someone emerged from
a midst the birds ans said, "We're Simurg.
Simurg means thirty birds. We're Simurg.
We're the saviors. What are we waiting for?"
You know, your father used to come here.
He used to say, now this is where I came to
know Simurg. In this valley. I have no use.
For worldly power, he used to say.
I'm leaving for the other world.
May I kiss you? May I kiss your elbow?
- What'd you do to my house? It looks great.
- Do you like it?
I'm really impressed.
Really! You even cooked.
- Did you come here to tell me this?
- What'd you say?
Nothing, where have
you been all this time?
It's a good thing for me to
disappear from time to time.
Not so, you can't just go off like that.
Where were you, I said?
Where were you? Aren't you
going to tell me? I'm asking you.
- Aren't you going to stay? - What's gotten
into you? - You really got me worried.
- You couldn't have called. - Come on,
don't act like all those boring husbands.
I thought I'd never see
you again, that I lost you.
- Please, don't touch me.
- Don't you want me any more?
I don't. Don't touch me. I said, lay
off, lay off me. Don't touch me you ape.
I don't want you. I
don't want you any more.
- When are you going back?
- You want me to go back?
Don't be ridiculous.
Who would want you to go
back? I was just asking.
I don't know I'm going to return. I
can't do it before I find my father.
What about everybody there? Your important
work, it before your important house,
- your important wife.
- Baby, was this your big problem?
- It's time for you to get your
ticket and go back. - I don't get it.
Why don't you just go? I've found
someone who knows where your father is.
- What'd you say?
- Don't ask too many questions.
It's a Mafia boss. He's
expecting us tomorrow.
You don't have to say a thing.
I did this because I wanted to.
Come on, say something nice to me.
- Maybe we could set up a farm here
together. - You mean a fish farm?
All kinds of animals.
Fish, horse, birds, giraffes.
- What about kangaroos and elephants?
- If that's what you want.
- I'd like that. Just like in a fairy tale, right?
- Just like a fairy tale.
Receptors begin to from in
the brain of heroin addicts,
- heroin receptors.
- And?
The receptors constantly need to be
supplied with heroin. They're permanent.
- You've done the same thing to me.
- I don't exactly understand.
It just occurred to me
that way... Animals, a farm.
A fairy tale isn't it?
Just like a fairy tale.
At one point they came to me. They were
really in a hurry. I didn't know who they were.
They tried to get me to
convince him to return home.
But he was after his
father like a tornado.
But he wasn't able to find him.
The men were insisted that he return.
But it was like he was being hurked around
inside a labyrinth with no ending. It
was like he had chosen his father's path.
He was desperate. The more he understood
his father the more he began to resemble him.
I had told him that a person returns
with fresh when he journeys into himself.
He laughed.
- Welcome. - Hello.
- Have you found your father?
That's why we're here. They say
that the gentleman knows quite a lot.
- But he doesn't want to see you,
to talk with you. - How's that possible?
He was your father's prison mate.
They told you he had a lot to say.
There's nothing I can do about
it. I can't interfere in his work.
Please go and speak with
him, help us. Please...
I told you, he doesn't want to talk.
If you'd like we could sit down
and have something to drink.
I don't want anything to drink, I don't
want anything. I'm not budging from here
until I find out where my father us.
I'm not moving. I'm here until morning.
I love you.
Now I'm really convinced
that you want to find him.
He left this letter for you.
Thought you might come one day.
My driver will take you to him.
Those were the best days of
my life and I lived them fully.
Maybe I flowed through life to be able
to say with such ease that I really lived.
I passed quickly, really quickly
through villages still in the stone age,
through supposedly civilized cities where
deceit was the order of the day, through
friendships, treachery, and
through the traps set by women.
If you ask me whether all of this had any
meaning for me, I'd say, with some anger:
For God's sake, wouldn't you think so?
I'd like to repeat this three times.
My son, my son, my son... I never
dealt with my mistakes or my defeats
with bitterness. I always tried
to handle things with reason,
with intelligence. How could a
father be so alone, so didactic?
Maybe it was just because of this
that my time on earth has ended.
Have you ever noticed the way cats disappear
with such grace when they're ready to die?
This really made me laugh. Well,
I really had a good laugh, I guess.
Maybe I should laugh at myself like
that now, at least I should try.
Those were the best days of
my life and I lived them fully.
Some day in some future never to
come, life will tell us who we are.
I hope at some unforeseen time, when life
confronts you and tells you who you are,
that it will also let you know who I'm.
Are you looking for someone?
Do you need something?
A tourist, I guess.
My life has told me who you are.
I'd been following them since
the big city. They were fugitives.
At first, I didn't understand why
they were coming to this seaside town.
Your father had been involved
in some covert work for years.
That's why the organization
kept a close eye on them.
It'd been six months since I began
the assignment. I was a real novice.
I spent those six months doing absolutely
nothing. Then one day they called on me.
I was really nervous. You see, your father
was my first job. They assigned me to watch
your father. He was considered
dangerous from the start.
You wouldn't know; you
weren't around then.
It was winter, January or February.
The town was completely deserted.
What if I lost sight of
them, even for a few minutes.
How would I explain that to my bosses?
I constantly lived with that fear.
Did you know your father did that to me?
I followed him for thirty-five years
and sent in reports to headquarters.
Them I retired. But I couldn't
leave him. I moved in with him.
I took care of all of his business, we
became friends. How could I have know then
that I would spend my life running after
him, witnessing his storms, his pain.
The story of your father's
life is also partly my story.
The first thing I'd like tell you at the
start of this letter is that I'd like to
thank you father for making it easier
for me to make decisions from here on.
Now I know why you never recognized me.
Years later I searched for you
and found you, and you...well...
in the end I found you, got to know you and
I understood. What could be more important?
If you were here you would have
said, every man is a forest.
And you would've looked down on me because
my life was diminishing in my poor forest.
You would have had nothing to do
with a world like that, would you?
But maybe I can prove you wrong. How
about that? The swamp used to seem so far.
It's not that way any more... because
we're in it. I can't take this anymore.
I just want to be water, to be a
tree. Anyway, what else can I do?
Now, finally, I understand. I'm cutting myself
off from whatever stops me being myself.
Then one day, all of a
sudden, the lights went out.
When they came back on, I realized the
richness of the forest. You were there.
Right in the midst of the
trees, the birds, the lions.
You were talking with them, looking
after them like ancient Solomon.
At one point you turned to me
and said: "Keep after the Simurgs,
- follow the Simurgs."
- I don't know him.
I kept after the Simurgs
and I became a Simurg.
It was as if he were waiting for
something at a desolate night stations.
Our agonies intertwined. One day his
fury subsided and he crossed over to the
dark side of the moon. For me
he was no different than a saint.
He said it so
beautifully... that he loved.
It could never be so beautiful again.
"Come on." he said to me.
I can't remember anything other than
those eyes of his saying"Come on, come on."
No doubt love would die one
day. So I made the first move,
and killed love. I killed him.