This Is It, The Apocalypse

Two outsiders cross paths at the end of the world.

As the world comes to an end, an alienated ex-con encounters a Turkish-American woman in the Aegean town of Izmir. When she asks for his help to return home, the two strangers catapult into an odyssey to the end of the world where they must redefine the very existence of time, universe, and what it means to be a human.

Aliens landed in New York to invade the planet. People are warned that the end might be near, streets have gone all quiet in the Aegean town Izmir, and everyone has retreated to their homes to be with their loved ones. Everyone but one person!

Roman, an ex-con, goes with his life like it’s a regular Saturday night and looks forward to the impending doom. He is truly an outsider and an alienated man. He doesn’t like people, doesn’t feel he belongs anywhere, and clearly has a quite pessimist take on the future. In the streets of Izmir, he kills time as if he’s the last person in the world but encounters someone unexpected: Leyla.

Leyla moved to the U.S. with her parents’ decision when she was little and fast forward to today, Leyla has become Leia, graduated with distinction from an Ivy League school to be an astronomer, throughout her bittersweet coming-of-age journey she equipped herself with an endless melancholy and deadpan humor, and came to Izmir as a researcher. But what bad timing!

When the invasion started, all scheduled flights were canceled and Leia was stuck in this Aegean city all alone. Facing the risk of not seeing her parents again, she places her hope in Roman, who she thinks is a pilot, completely unaware that he doesn’t have any training in this field, or swindled an airline and spent 18 months in prison when he gave himself away.

At first, Roman reluctantly accepts to help and contacts an old friend who has access to a plane. But when the two spend more time together, they form a deep and special bond as if they are two planets going into each other’s orbit. But sadly, they have only 16 hours before Roman’s pilot friend leaves with Leia to take her back home.

As the world and their togetherness come to an end, Roman has finally a chance to find belonging and connection. Maybe now, during his last moments, he will not look forward to the end and will wish he had more time in this miserable place called Earth.

Director’s note:
We’re living in mad times. Climate shocks are hitting one after another, ecosystems are collapsing, World War III is around the corner, NASA is holding UFO panels, and scientists are working toward life on other planets. As if our time in the world is coming to an end. These catastrophic happenings and Turkey's choosing to operate with radical conservative values damaged my sense of belonging, I felt like there was no future and became alienated. Where do we belong? Where is our home? I don’t know. But by bringing two people who don’t feel like belonging, I’d like to open up a conversation about belonging and offer that maybe we should be concerned about belonging next to a person rather than a place. As I tell an end-of-the-world scenario, implicitly I aim to be the voice of a generation that is crushed by societal collapse and filled with hopelessness; I aspired to make a film that connects people and gives the much-wanted belonging - first and foremost to myself and then to the audience.