Bedrettin Şimşek (Bedrettin Simsek) wrote and directed Variations on Van Gogh’s Starry Night, a 93-minute digital art film and animation devoted to a single painting. Its Turkish title is Van Gogh’un Yıldızlı Gece Tablosu Üzerine Çeşitlemeler. The film presents hundreds of moving, three-dimensional versions of Van Gogh’s painted world, with music and no dialogue. Direction, animation and music are all by Bedrettin Şimşek.
What is the film about?
The film imagines a journey into the luminous city that Şimşek sees in The Starry Night: a place beyond the pain and suffering of this world. It moves through the painting’s stars, mountains, houses and cypress, treating them as elements of an unfolding journey.
In his accompanying essay, Şimşek interprets the painting through the possibility that Van Gogh experienced a near-death journey. He reads its stars as passages into another dimension and the cypress as an image of death. These ideas form the filmmaker’s interpretation of the painting and the imaginative basis of the film.
The essay describes the film as a journey after death rather than an account of the painter’s life. Its sequence notes connect changes in light, colour and movement with the soul’s passage through another world, its search for peace and its eventual return to the body. The work’s stated aim is to soothe the spirit.
How was it made?
The film was made in After Effects without artificial intelligence. The Turkish film page lists 42 sequences and more than 400 scenes, with the longest scene lasting 20 seconds. Camera movements are coordinated with the music throughout the work.
Şimşek describes the image treatment as a digital restoration: colours are illuminated as though the light comes from within the painting. The camera travels across the brushstrokes and brings details into view. The moving, three-dimensional variations keep returning to the same work while changing its appearance through light, colour and motion.
A journey shaped by light and music
The opening and later sequences give different forms to the film’s journey. In the director’s account, the passage before the credits follows a colour arrangement described in a Van Gogh letter; the first sequence after the credits explores darkness containing light. Later passages move through stars, rivers of light and illuminated landscapes.
The essay links the later storms to turmoil in Van Gogh’s spirit, followed by a calmer musical passage. From around the ninetieth minute, the final movement represents a farewell to the stars and a return to the body. This sequence description follows Şimşek’s own reading of the images.
How can the full film be watched?
The full film is available through the Turkish film page for 170 TL, with 10 days of online access after payment approval. During that period it can be watched repeatedly in a browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Access is for streaming, with no download and one session at a time.
After payment approval, the film appears in the site’s account area under “Hesabım › Filmim”. An account is created during checkout using an email address and password. The Turkish page provides the purchase process and further viewing information.
Group screenings
Group screenings require separate written permission. The Turkish film page provides an enquiry option for schools, associations and other organisations, with arrangements based on the screening location and date.