Home Cooking

Selma, a teenage girl, is looking forward to making pizza for her father's birthday and going to the amusement park with the whole family — but the day doesn't turn out that way.

Selma, a teenage girl, is looking forward to making pizza for her father's birthday and going to the amusement park with whole the family. But the day doesn't turn out that way, as her father doesn't turn up. Though their father eventually finds them at the park, Selma's joy quickly fades, leaving the siblings to quietly search for ways to fill the emptiness left by their family's unraveling bonds. DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT Home Cooking is the story of Selma, a teenage girl attempting to organize a birthday celebration—not for herself, but for her father. With her seven-year-old brother and her mother by her side, Selma plans to make a pizza in honor of her father's birthday. However, things quickly fall apart when her father fails to arrive on time. What should have been a day of joy becomes a quiet unraveling of her hopes. In this film, I wanted to explore how trauma often stems not from grand events, but from small, seemingly insignificant moments—like the tension between Selma's expectations and her father's absence. I was inspired by a memory, triggered by the smell of cigarette smoke, something that brought me back to a time when my own father used to smoke indoors. That familiar scent stirred a sense of loss and forgotten memories, leading me to reflect on the emotional weight of absence. From that feeling, this story emerged. The film examines the impact of an absent father on his children. Years from now, I believe Selma and her brother will not remember the birthday or the amusement park—they'll remember the hollow space their father left behind. The amusement park serves as the dominant backdrop of the film, a place that should be filled with joy, but instead reflects the family's emotional void. Though Selma, her brother, and their mother spend time on the rides, they eat nothing, symbolizing their unmet emotional needs. When the father eventually shows up, their reunion is fleeting and incomplete. Selma watches her father from a distance as he devours a hot dog, unaware that she sees him. This small, careless act becomes unbearable for Selma, and in that moment, her connection to her parents fractures. From here, she withdraws, and the family begins to drift apart. At one point, after a minor incident on a ride, Selma and her brother find themselves alone in the amusement park. They make no effort to return to their parents, realizing that their parents, too, have lost interest in maintaining the bonds that hold them together. The siblings, in a final act of resignation, buy a large bucket of popcorn, filling their emotional emptiness by stuffing themselves—filling the void left by their family's broken connection.

Director — Ahmet Toğaç

Ahmet Toğaç (1995, Turkey) is a filmmaker and academic based in Istanbul. His debut short film, Eavesdropper (2019), screened at major national festivals including the Adana and Istanbul Film Festivals and was selected among the top five Turkish short films of the year by SIYAD (Turkish Film Critics Association). His second short film, Home Cooking (2024), had its world premiere at the 38th Cinekid Festival and was later selected for the Teen Arena section of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival. He currently works as a research assistant in the Department of Cinema and Television at Istanbul Okan University and is pursuing his PhD in Cinema at Marmara University.