Film about Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence to premiere in Venice

Turkish author Orhan Pamuk poses for a portrait inside the Museum of Innocence, based on characters and events told in his 2008 best-selling novel of the same name, in İstanbul in this Oct. 22, 2013 file photo. “Innocence of Memories,” a new documentary feature about the museum, will premiere at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. (Photo: DHA)

“Innocence of Memories,” a new documentary feature about Turkish Nobel laureateOrhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence, will have its world premiere at this year'sVenice International Film Festival, the İstanbul-based museum announced in a press release on Saturday.

The documentary was directed by British filmmaker Grant Gee -- who also directed 2007's “Joy Division,” about the influential 1970s English rock band, and the 1998 “rockumentary” “Meeting People Is Easy,” about Radiohead – based on a screenplay he has penned together with Pamuk.

Inaugurated in 2012 in İstanbul's Çukurcuma quarter, the Museum of Innocence is based in its entirety on a work of fiction, Pamuk's 2008 novel of the same name, making it the first of its kind around the world. The museum, which took Pamuk around a decade to build, displays hundreds of objects and ephemera related to the characters and events recounted in the book. Set in the second half of the 20th century in İstanbul, the novel tells of a well-to-do man named Kemal and his unrequited love for a poor distant female cousin named Füsun.

“Innocence of Memories” will be shown as part of Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days, an independent event that is similar to Cannes Film Festival's “Directors' Fortnight,” which runs on the sidelines of the main program.

“I was personally involved in the making of ‘Innocence of Memories.' I wrote a 30-minute original text for the film, which is [as much] about İstanbul as it is about the museum,” Pamuk was quoted as saying in the press release about the 90-minute documentary, which he billed as “both a documentary and an art-house film.”

“The new text I wrote revisits the love story recounted in the book from the point of view of a secondary protagonist in the story. I cannot tell right now who that secondary protagonist is; I'll reveal that in Venice,” Pamuk said, noting that he will be in attendance at the documentary's world premiere.

The Venice Film Festival will mark its 72nd year from Sept. 2-12.