As one of four boys growing up in a gritty working-class neighborhood in Istanbul, Turkey, Hüseyin Karabey used to be upset that experiences he lived and witnessed were never represented in movies. Since that time, Karabey, a 2008 International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumnus, has become a filmmaker and achieved international renown with his latest film “My Marlon and Brando.” With the making of his film of “anti-heroes, true love, true people, and true wars,” the dreams of Karabey’s boyhood have become reality on silver screens the world over.

Based on their own true story, “My Marlon and Brando” features the lead actor and actress, Hama Ali Khan and Ayca Damgaci, playing themselves - a Kurdish man living in Iraq and a Turkish woman living in Istanbul who fall in love on the set of a film at the onset of the war in Iraq. In Karabey’s story, Damgaci travels east across Turkey via Iran in an arduous attempt to join Khan in northern Iraq. With war, refugees, and culture clashes as a backdrop, Karabey follows in intimate detail a journey that highlights the alienating effect of artificial borders and narrates an unstilted, human story to which all viewers can relate in spite of the extreme circumstances.

Karabey participated in the IVLP exchange at the end of October 2008, in a project focusing on promoting tolerance through the arts. His film, though made before the exchange program, embodies the essence of his exchange experience by highlighting the commonality of all people and the universality of love, while transcending ethnic and political differences.

Karabey decided to make the film several years ago after Damgaci, a close friend of his, recounted what she had gone through in her quest to be reunited with Khan. Karabey explains, “What she lived and what I had lived were so close to each other, so I combined her experiences and mine.” The concept for “My Marlon and Brando” was born. With his film, Karabey aimed to move past the fictions of contemporary films to tell true stories and reflect the reality of life during war.

Karabey’s “My Marlon and Brando” made its world premier in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in January 2008, and debuted in the United States at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in April 2008. The film, one of 121 selected from more than 2,300 submissions to Tribeca, won the New Narrative Filmmaker Award. Since then, “My Marlon and Brando” has been featured at eight other film festivals around the world, winning a number of other awards and accolades.

When asked about the success of “My Marlon and Brando,” Karabey says he never expected to get many awards or to garner much attention. “I feel myself [to be a] very lucky person,” he said, acknowledging that there are many good films, but only some of them get awards.

What’s next for this up-and-coming filmmaker? Karabey is currently working on a new project – another “small peoples” story – that will again allow him to tell his own stories. Karabey said, “I love cinema so much. I will continue making films until there is nothing left I want to say.”