The Blue Wave (Mavi Dalga)

The duo Zeynep Dadak and Merve Kayan wrote and directed The Blue Wave (Turkish: Mavi Dalga), a 2013 Turkish coming-of-age drama, and also produced the film together with Yamaç Okur under the Bulut Film banner. Shot by cinematographer Daniël Bouquet, it opened in Turkish theaters on March 7, 2014.

Set in the provincial city of Balıkesir, the story follows Deniz, a high-school senior reuniting with her friends after a summer apart. On the surface everything has changed — and yet nothing has. While their parents are absorbed in everyday worries, Deniz and her friends drift through the most tangled stretch of adolescence, torn over university choices and half-formed plans. Though she grows closer to her classmate Kaya, her mind keeps returning to Fırat, the school's guidance counselor, and she dreams of a life unlike both her friends' ambitions and her parents' routines: Ankara instead of Istanbul, social sciences instead of science — another world, wherever that may be.

Ayris Alptekin stars as Deniz, with Onur Saylak as Fırat, Barış Hacıhan as Kaya and Nazlı Bulum as Gül; the cast also includes Tülin Özen as Ceylan and Hazal Kaya as Fırat's girlfriend. Co-signed by two women filmmakers behind both the script and the camera, the film stands out as a distinctive entry in 2010s Turkish cinema.