A TALE OF TWO HEARTS
The first directorial feature from actress Aylin Tezel, Falling into Place is a heartfelt story of love in all its inescapable forms – between friends, siblings, parents, the loves we lost, and the love we have – or don’t – for ourselves.
Love is explored in all its multifaceted forms, echoing through the revolving doors of relationships and whispering in the solitudes of self-discovery. Through the character of Kira, portrayed with profound introspection by Tezel herself, we traverse the depths of human connection, tracing the delicate threads that bind us to one another and to our own inner landscapes.
“When we’re children, we free to love wholeheartedly and express that,” Tezel muses. “When we become adults, and we’re judged again and again, we lose the freedom of loving ourselves just the way we are, and because of that, our ability to love other people changes with our disability to love ourselves.”
Kira is a character of equally thoughtful considerations who asks herself and others around her bigger questions while process the ending of a relationship. Escaping to the Isle of Skye, she encounters Ian, a charming, fiery, larger than life character, reluctantly returning home for reasons that painfully unfold.
Throughout their encounter, they lose themselves in longed-for moments where the fragility of their inner worlds can’t haunt them, tentatively fulfilling yearning and need in each other. As they navigate the contours of their shared vulnerabilities, their meeting sparks a whirlwind of exploration and introspection.
Tezel’s narrative is set against the rugged backdrop of Skye’s snow-covered mountains and sprawling solitude, which artfully mirrors the emotional complexities of her protagonists. The two collide with a giddy fatefulness, running through deserted streets and tenderly discovering the curves between their fingers while rolling on ice-crusted hillsides.
The desolation creates an idyllic opportunity for these pained characters to soften into a carefree respite, to be, to talk, to love. Cinematically, the majestic landscape creates an atmosphere of sprawling possibility – and for Tezel, colour is of equal importance, transcending the environment and embodying the characters themselves.
“I wanted the overall colour spectrum to reflect the Isle of Skye – dark wines, greens, beige – and specifically to show this as the world that Ian comes from. Kira comes with her own colour world, and to me that was blue. I always had this feeling that she’s in the water, and sometimes she’s under the water, and the fear of maybe not being able to come out of the water. I believe that even if someone doesn’t consciously connect with that, it’s there in the subconscious – especially because Kira is someone who receives people in colour.”
We learn Kira is a theatre set designer waiting for her big break, while holding herself back from leaping into exhibiting her remarkable paintings. Meanwhile, Ian is an aspiring musician who limits his full potential and freedom of expression by remaining trapped in haunting moments shared with his sister.
Kira is a very open and vulnerable character, standing on the edge, observational, thoughtful, asking deep questions about life. Ian is passionate, raw, “a performer,” Tezel notes. “He keeps the people around him entertained, so they do not get to the parts that may be darker and scared.” However, it is by meeting each other that they are forced to discover the fearless dive into darkness.
Both live in London, and when they part to return, carry a lingering poeticism from their meeting that they continuously rediscover in dark pubs, sleepless nights, meaningless love-encounters and the weary bustle of the city’s night. Separate now, their individual demons are unrestrained in the glimmers of dawn. Through Tezel’s sympathetic lens, London becomes a labyrinth of restless nights and unfurnished dreams, a testament to the universal yearning for connection and understanding.
Tezel has affectionately created characters that are struggling with a common loneliness and a shattered romantic idealism for true love. “Because they do not have any true love for themselves, it’s quite hard for them to open their hearts to a healthy form of love.”
The second half of the film explores this complicated journey towards self-love, which, at times, exposes both characters in all their human difficulty, reactiveness, defensiveness, and struggle. For Tezel, maintaining this authenticity is an essential part of the love story – and through Ian and Kira, it shines beautifully.
“Love is very poetic, especially when you’re approaching the topic of love and loss in film. I wanted to approach it in a gentle way. Sometimes it can be superficial or simple, like in romcoms. I wanted to be hopeful, but I didn’t want to shy away from the fact that people have very dark sides too.”
It is this underlying melancholy and darkness that makes Ian and Kira’s twisting-and-turning journey towards the light, and each other, even brighter. By the time they do cross paths, they have achieved a sense of honesty towards themselves, their pasts, their needs, their loneliness.
At its core, Falling into Place is a heart-wrenching testament to freeing ourselves from expectations of how life, or we, should be, encouraging a surrender to trust that life always happens in just the right way. Falling can be uncomfortable, scary, into an unknown – but Tezel has masterfully written a story about landing where you’re supposed to. “This kind of trust is something that if we had a little bit more of, the world would be a very different place,” she says.
By lingering over meaningful moments, secret vulnerabilities and journeys both literal and emotional, Tezel explores fear, insecurity, and the anxiety that we aren’t good enough with a heartfelt freedom that her lead characters develop within themselves. And by doing so, discover how to love themselves, and each other.
“You can’t find everything you’re looking for another person. But to love so freely it doesn’t make a difference what comes back…this way, the safer you feel in yourself, the easier love becomes.”
Through Tezel’s artful storytelling, we witness the transformative power of acceptance and authenticity, as Kira and Ian navigate the tumultuous waters of self-love and mutual understanding.
It is a gift of a film that lingers as a bittersweet ache: things will fall into place and everything will be what it’s supposed to be. And in our shared longings, love, though imperfect, transcends time and circumstance, binding us together in the delicate tapestry of human connection.
The Glasgow Film Festival runs to March 10.
