Kemal revisits Füsun’s home and sets a film project in motion

Kemal’s return to Füsun’s family home turns an attempted apology and final farewell into the beginning of a film-making arrangement that lets him see her again. The earring provides the stated reason for his visit; the proposed art film provides a continuing pretext. Together, these gestures show how Kemal’s resolve to withdraw yields to the pain of separation, and how a professional plan becomes a private means of remaining near Füsun.

The earring and the return visit

After leaving a restaurant, Kemal does not go directly home to Nişantaşı. He heads toward Taksim and then walks through the back streets of Beyoğlu toward Çukurcuma. He has left Füsun’s missing earring in the Keskin family bathroom rather than returning it to her formally. He considers this humiliating to both of them and decides that he must explain that it was deliberate, not an accident. Because he expects never to see Füsun again, he imagines making the apology a final, controlled farewell.

On reaching the house, Kemal finds Füsun seated with her father. Her husband, Feridun, is out with his film friends, and Nesibe the seamstress goes to the kitchen to make tea. Once Füsun’s father leaves them alone, Kemal explains that he had been drunk when he left the earring beside the toothbrushes and says that he had meant to return it properly. Füsun replies that there was no earring near the toothbrushes. Her answer unsettles the explanation: the object has brought Kemal to the house, but it cannot sustain the apology he planned to make.

Füsun’s father returns with semolina and fruit helva, and Kemal praises it after tasting a spoonful. In that pause, he recognizes that the earring was an excuse and that he came because he wanted to see Füsun. He also recognizes the conflict directing his behavior: the shame of these encounters is difficult to bear, but not seeing her is more painful. Rather than ending his visits, the prospect of that absence makes him willing to endure further embarrassment.

A farewell that does not hold

As Kemal prepares to leave, he sees Lemon, the family’s canary, and remembers his earlier conclusion that Füsun is married and cannot be lured away. He renews his promise not to return, also recalling his suspicion that she wants his money. The scene sharpens the difference between the resolution he announces to himself and the attachment that keeps drawing him back.

A neighbor’s child rings the doorbell, interrupting the departure. Kemal later commissions a painting of the moment: Lemon is the point of view, while Füsun and her parents are seen from behind, and no faces appear. He values the image as a record of his remembered view of Füsun and of the Çukurcuma room and neighborhood. At the door, he keeps his intended purpose to himself and says goodbye. When Nesibe welcomes the idea of future visits, Kemal answers that this will be his last; he then offers, jokingly, to ask his mother to invite the family to their home. His announced ending is therefore paired with a possible route to continued contact.

Turning film into a reason to meet

After another visit, Kemal tells Feridun that he has been thinking about their previous conversation on film-making. He agrees that Turkey should make art films of the kind produced in Europe and proposes that they meet one evening to discuss the idea. He then suggests collecting Feridun on Tuesday at seven and asks that Füsun come too. Kemal presents her as the necessary lead for a European-style art film, making her participation part of the proposal from the outset.

Their exchange leaves both men with the impression that they have gained something. Kemal reads Feridun as tipsy and senses confusion, while each appears to imagine he has outmaneuvered the other. That mutual calculation matters: the proposal is not simply a transparent offer of employment, but an arrangement in which Kemal can maintain access to Füsun without openly stating the personal purpose behind it.

The project as a recurring pretext

On the first evening out, Kemal places the newlyweds in the back of the Chevrolet and sits beside Çetin Efendi, the driver. He turns repeatedly to address them and tries to lighten the journey. Füsun wears a blood-orange-colored dress, and Kemal remembers the Bosphorus road and the happiness he felt when he turned toward her. They dine at Andon’s Restaurant in Büyükdere. The film discussion gives the evening its stated purpose, but Kemal realizes that he is the most animated person at the table.

Feridun describes his experience in Yeşilçam: he has worked carrying lights and props, served as an assistant director, and written eleven screenplays. Füsun supports his account, saying that all of the scripts were filmed and did well. Kemal listens as Feridun explains his ambitions and the cost of a proper Turkish film. Their conversation allows the gatherings to appear professional and gives Feridun room to speak about a career he takes seriously.

During the summer of 1976, Kemal, Füsun, and Feridun dine at many Bosphorus restaurants. Kemal listens respectfully to Feridun’s ideas about Yeşilçam films and Turkish audiences, but quietly obstructs progress: he asks to see a completed screenplay and, before the first script reaches him, expresses excitement about another story. He estimates that making Füsun a star would cost roughly half the price of a small apartment in the back streets of Nişantaşı. The amount is not what stops him. He understands that seeing Füsun twice a week under the pretext of making a film is enough, for the moment, to ease his pain, and that wanting more would risk disturbing the limited closeness he has secured.

Significance of the arrangement

The film project changes the practical shape of Kemal’s attachment without resolving its underlying conflict. His return begins as a bid to control the terms of a final goodbye; his visit instead exposes that he values seeing Füsun more than avoiding shame. The art-film proposal then turns that admission into a recurring social arrangement involving Füsun and her husband. Kemal’s professional language gives his pursuit a plausible public form, while his quiet delays reveal that the meetings themselves matter more to him than completing the film.

The arrangement also makes closeness both a comfort and a source of future distress. In Kemal’s recollection, meals and drives with Füsun can bring him relief, but that relief does not remove his awareness that he will miss her again. The proposal thus offers neither a straightforward return to their earlier relationship nor a genuine separation. It gives Kemal a way to remain present in Füsun’s life while preserving the film as a cover for a desire he has not told Feridun.