How could two kids, unwanted by their parents, survive in this big world? Is growing up a way-out or is it only a beginning in a world with so many cruel faces? Do the walls of an orphanage that hide all those children inside help create a prison for them or do they protect them from that dark and monstrous world?
Ali and Zuhal are two teenagers that grew up in an orphanage. They have been told there that they were siblings. Even if they are not, the time that passed and their forlornness have brought them closer like brother and sister. The movie starts where Ali and Zuhal are thrown unguarded into the clasp of this big world.
Ali is let go because he came of age, and Zuhal is put into a foster family. Ali is working on a repair shop and stays in a shabby rooming house. He tries to stay in touch with Zuhal in vain because the family who looks after her doesn’t let him see Zuhal. Ali comes up to the wife of the family one day and he learns that her husband is planning to marry Zuhal when she bursts into tears. Ali finds himself in their house on the same night. During the quarrel in front of the door he first stabs the husband, then the daughter and the wife and he takes Zuhal with him and runs away.
Ali and Zuhal travel non-stop on a motorcycle that looks more like a scooter and they leave all the villages, small towns, run-down gas stations behind and reach the mountains and the woods where nobody could find them. In the woods, in a far away corner, they find a little wreck of a stable. Using the stuff they find around they fix it into a little barrack for themselves. In this secluded place they start a new life feeling safe and in fear at the same time.
Ali goes back to the town from time to time to find food and items they need, leaving Zuhal all alone. He meets a young mechanic in a repair shop he goes to find a piece for his motorcycle. And it doesn’t take long for him to befriend that boy and starts working with him. He tells the boy he is from a village afar and he changes his motorcycle’s plate with another one he finds in the backyard of the repair shop.
Zuhal starts exploring the woods in her days alone. Every little noise, every bit of rustling she hears scares her. She gets used to the ones she finds out about but she keeps getting frightened from the ones she doesn’t know the reason to. And in the woods there are more things you don’t understand than the ones that you do.
His mechanic friend takes Ali to the fair in the town. He introduces him to a fortuneteller woman. The woman tries to seduce him since she notices him to be a good customer. Even though he acts shy, from his glances it seems obvious that woman stirs something inside him. He starts going to the woman regularly. He buys new clothes for himself and Zuhal. Even though their lives are cramped and harsh, it looks like they are at ease with the daily routine of their regular life.
Zuhal starts having uncanny encounters during the days she was left alone in the woods. An old woman comes to their place crying as “Dad, daddyyy...”. She then finds her dead body near the ridge and covers it with leaves. Someone holds a mirror to her face. Then she finds out that he is also a deranged boy, a shepherd. He is looking for an imaginary mother hopelessly. So Zuhal too becomes kind of wild as the goats that goes around in the woods and as the other residents of the place. Ali takes her to the fair one day. Zuhal becomes jealous of the fortuneteller woman; she is filled with rage against Ali. When they are back in their place she gets ill with a fever. She starts talking deliriously, and vomiting.
Ali goes to the fair even though he promises Zuhal otherwise. He comes back drunk. The next morning he realizes all his Money is gone. He runs back to the town but the fair is long gone. Meanwhile his mechanic friend finds about the plate Ali changed on his motorcycle and he starts questioning him.
Ali stops going to the town. He takes refuge in the woods. The woods become a desolate island for both. Days come and pass. Ali’s beard grows, Zuhal grows weak and her belly swells up. Both begin having scratches all over their body. Their looks, just like their souls, turn into pristine savages. Zuhal’s situation gets worse. She talks in her sleep with fever at nights. She starts calling out to a goat: “Dad, daddy…”. Their food runs out and their light dies out and their hope along with it.
One day Ali finds Zuhal drenched in blood below the waist. They don’t have another chance but to go back to the world outside again.
Would Ali and Zuhal be able to finish the difficult journey to the city and the hospital?

Direction: Reha Erdem

Script: Reha Erdem

Production: Ömer Atay, Gamze Paker

Cinematography: Florent Herry

Editing: Reha Erdem

Production Design: Ömer Atay

Make-Up: Naime Gürseler

Sound: Reha Erdem

Cast: Ecem Uzun, Berke Karaer

Original Title: KOCA DÜNYA

Original Language: Turkish

Film Production Country: Türkiye

Website: http://atlantikfilm.com/films/61-big-big-world

Biography of the Director/s
Born in Istanbul, Reha Erdem has graduated from Cinema Department of Paris 8 University. He obtained his M.A. in Plastic Arts at the same university. He shot his first feature-length film Oh Moon in 1989 as a French-Turkish co-production. He shot Run for Money in 1999, Mommy, I’m Scared in 2004, Times and Winds in 2006, My Only Sunshine, Turkish-Greek-Bulgarian co-production, in 2008, Kosmos in 2009, Jîn in 2012 and Singing Women, a Turkish-French-German co-production in 2013. His last film is Big Big World which he shot in 2016. He wrote all of his films except for Mommy I’m scared, for which he was one of the co-writers. He also has short films and directed a theater play, Maids (Les Bonnes) by Jean Genet. He is now working on two new projects.

Filmography of the Director/s
Big Big World (director and scriptwriter) 2016
Singing Women (director and scriptwriter) 2013
Jîn (director and scriptwriter) 2012
My Only Sunshine (director and scriptwriter) 2008
Times and Winds (director and scriptwriter) 2006
Anytime in October (short Film) 2006
Mommy, I’m Scared (director and co-writer) 2004
Run for Money (director and scriptwriter) 1999
Song of the Sea (short film) 1995
Oh Moon (director and scriptwriter) 1989

Awards Won
- Venice Film Festival / Orizzonti Award-Special Jury Prize and Independent Critics Award for Best Director
- Adana Film Festival, Best Film Award, Best Director Award, Best Director of Photography Award, Best Hopeful Young Actress Award

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