"The Innocence of Memories" premiered in Venice

The Innocence of Memories," a new feature-length documentary about Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and his Museum of Innocence that he founded in Istanbul, will have its world premiere at this year's Venice International Film Festival.

The documentary film was directed by the British director Grant Gee, based on the script he wrote together with Pamuk. Gee is also known for the film "Joy Division", about the influential English rock bands of the 1970s, which he directed in 2007, and in 1998 he made the "rockumentary" "Meeting People Is Easy", about the group "Radiohead".

Inaugurated in April 2012 in Istanbul's Cukurdzuma district, the Museum of Innocence is based entirely on a literary work, Pamuk's novel of the same name published in 2008, making it the first of its kind in the world. The museum, which took Pamuk almost 10 years to create, displays hundreds of objects and trinkets related to the characters and events mentioned in the book.

Set in the second half of the 20th century in Istanbul, the novel "Museum of Innocence" tells the story of a successful man, Kemal, and his great but unrequited love for a poor distant cousin named Fusun.

The film "Innocence of Memories" will be screened as part of the "Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days" program, an independent event similar to the "Directors' Fortnight" event, which takes place on the sidelines of the main program of the Cannes Film Festival.

"I personally participated in the creation of 'Innocence of Memories'. I wrote the original text for the film, lasting 30 minutes, which talks about Istanbul as much as the museum itself," said Pamuk about the 90-minute documentary film, which he assessed as "both documentary and artistic."

"The new text I wrote is a kind of revision of the love story told in the novel, this time from the point of view of the story's protagonist, who was in the background. I can't say now who that other protagonist is, I will find out in Venice," said Pamuk, noting that he will attend the world premiere of the documentary.

The Venice Film Festival, the 72nd in a row, will be held from September 2 to 12.

With the opening of the Museum of Innocence, Pamuk's wish to exhibit all the things and things that have to do with the main character of his "most tender" work, as he himself assessed it, was realized. He developed the idea of ​​a museum at the same time as writing. In order to achieve it, he bought and renovated an old house, placing a novel store in it, and later a museum.