Short Film – SEARCH PARTY
Written & Directed by Omer Yilmaz
Inspired by real-life events in Turkey, 2021

In this darkly comedic drama, a washed-up detective in his 50s, reeling from personal loss, gets drunk in a church and stumbles into a nighttime search for a missing person. Teaming up with a bitter New York nun, a clueless rookie cop obsessed with social media, and an elderly woman who keeps wandering off, he trudges through the woods as the lines between searcher and searched begin to blur. As the night deepens, so does his reckoning with the past; and the question of who he really is.

Statement
We often define ourselves by external labels; our job titles, roles, beliefs, even our habits. But as Erich Fromm reminds us,

“Man may be defined as the animal that can say ‘I,’ that can be aware of himself as a separate entity and yet this self-knowledge exists apart from the surface identities we cling to."

Search Party begins when our protagonist, an amateur sleuth, begins to peel away a layer of self: his detective persona. Like Michelangelo discovering the story within marble, he must chip away expectations to reveal something more human.

However,

Here, all those who wander are lost!

Our wandering, our undoing of assumptions, becomes a journey inward.

Rooted in ideas around identity and suture, the film uses framing that oscillates between distance and intimacy. With negative space, we isolate him; in tight close-ups, we reveal vulnerability. This formal choreography confronts the viewer with the very questions of perception and identification, asking: who am I watching, and why?

At its heart, the short asks the questions you ask: Who are we, beneath the layers of “I am not…”?

Our protagonist’s first step; abandoning his detective identity, is tender, awkward, hopeful. He slips closer to his own creativity and authenticity, and in doing so, invites the audience into that vulnerable space.

There’s a self-reflexive commentary on the act of searching itself: in an era of information overload, our minds drift drowsily, building intelligence without intent, lost in a virtual wood. Yet there’s warmth beneath the uncertainty; a balanced tone of gentle irony, mild humor, and compassion. We want the audience to smile even as they reflect.

Search Party is a celebration of that integrity, and a prompt to keep asking: who are you?