CHEKHOV IN NEW YORK is a short film created by Ege Maltepe & Emir Gamsizoglu, celebrating two things they are very much inspired from; the Russian writer Anton Chekhov’s work and New York City.
“Fine. Since the tea is not forthcoming, let’s have a philosophical conversation.”
Anton Chekhov wrote about people, their hopes and dreams, failures and weaknesses, their desires and heartbreaks. He often questioned morality, common sense, social values and norms. His characters speak and act in a way that often hits too close to home.
He lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A Russian doctor. Medicine was his wife and literature was his mistress. He believed that if you wanted to lead a good life, you needed to work. So, he devoted himself into healing people physically as well as intellectually and spiritually by holding them a mirror through his stories and plays.
“Man will become better when you show him what he is like.”
In this project, we asked ourselves what if Chekhov’s characters were some New Yorkers?
Dark, grumpy, selfish, stupid and quirky… Along with a love and hate relationship with the city.
“For one sensible person there are a thousand fools, and for one sensible word there are a thousand stupid ones; the thousand overwhelms the one, and that is why cities and villages progress so slowly. The majority, the mass, always remain stupid!”
While most of us would agree with Anton on that one, we all hang on to this;
“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.”
Chekhov in New York
Written by Ege Maltepe with pieces by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Emir Gamsızoğlu
Actors: Ege Maltepe, Cihangir Duman