Awards of the 24th International İstanbul Film Festival

Awards of the 24th International İstanbul Film Festival
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

The International Jury of the 24th International İstanbul Film Festival was presided over by Jane Campion (director, New Zealand) and composed of Valentina Cervi (actress, Italy), Jan Chapman (producer, Australia), Meltem Cumbul (actress, Turkey), Robert Daudelin (film critic, Canada), Monty Montgomery (producer, USA) and Yeşim Ustaoğlu (director, Turkey).

* The GOLDEN TULIP Award has been given ex aequo to La femme de Gilles / Gilles' Wife by Frédéric Fonteyne (Belgium – France - Luxembourg - Italy – Switzerland) and Kohi Jikou / Café Lumière by Hou Hsiao-hsien (Japan).

The jury has decided to equally pay tribute to two very different cinematic approaches. Both these films are distinguished by their courageous and provocative choices as well as their insightful and highly realised vision.

The Golden Tulip Awards are given by the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

NATIONAL COMPETITION
The National Jury of the 24th International İstanbul Film Festival presided over by Rekin Teksoy (film critic, Turkey) and composed of Selma Güneri (actress, Turkey), Sandra den Hamer (Rotterdam Film Festival director, Holland), Uğur İçbak (cinematographer, Turkey) and Hasan Bülent Kahraman (art critic, Turkey) has decided to give:

* The BEST TURKISH FILM OF THE YEAR Award to Anlat İstanbul / İstanbul Tales directed by Ümit Ünal, Kudret Sabancı, Selim Demirdelen, Yücel Yolcu, Ömür Atay for its success in masterly combining, and conveying five separate stories with a dynamic narrative.

* The BEST DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR Award to Uğur Yücel for his film Yazı Tura / Toss Up for his mastery in employing contemporary cinematic language.

THE TIME OF THE HEART/ KALBİN ZAMANI (2004)

THE TIME OF THE HEART/ KALBİN ZAMANI
Director: Ali Özgentürk
Cast: Hülya Avşar, Oktay Kaynarca, Halil Ergün, Birol Ünel, Zeki Alasya
TURKEY, 2004 / 35 mm. / Color / 112’ /Turkish; English s.t.


SYNOPSIS / A LOVE AFFAIR AND A MURDER IN THE MYSTERIOUS ROOMS OF THE PERA PALAS HOTEL, AND A 50 YEAR-OLD SECRET THAT CARRIED ON FROM THE 1950S TO 2004. This romantic crime story begins with the events that four youngsters go through at Pera Palas in the 1950s; in the 1980s, memories are rekindled at the same hotel, and one of them is murdered. In 2004, with an unexpected twist of fate, the secret is revealed.

BIOGRAPHY / ALİ ÖZGENTÜRK
Born in 1945 in Adana. He graduated with degrees on philosophy and sociology from İstanbul University. He started to work at Adana State Theater while in middle school, later he went on acting at professional theater companies in İstanbul. He established Turkey's first street theater in 1968, and worked as a theater manager and actor until 1971. He first filmed a documentary of a protest march, Ankara Yürüyüşü in 1966. His first shorts Ferhat (1972) and Yasak (1974) won grand prizes at Krakow and Moscow film festivals. His first feature Hazal (1979) won many national and international awards and gained him wider recognition. He established a production company, Asya Film, in 1980. His later features brought him many awards both nationally and internationally. He also made a short, Sır, adapted from a short story of Onat Kutlar, within the context of the "10 Directors, 10 Films" project, before he made Mektup.

FILMOGRAPHY / ALİ ÖZGENTÜRK
1966 Ankara Yürüyüşü (short)
1972 Ferhat (short) 1974 Yasak (short)
1980 Hazal
1982 At
1985 Bekçi
1987 Su Da Yanar
1992 Çıplak
1997 Sır
1997 Mektup
2000 Balalayka
2004 Kalbin Zamanı

DREAMING GAMES / HAYAL KURMA OYUNLARI (2004)

DREAMING GAMES / HAYAL KURMA OYUNLARI
Director: Yavuz Özkan
Cast: Tarık Akan, Pelin Batu, Serap Aksoy
Turkey, 2004
35 mm. / Color / 90’
Turkish; English s.t.2004 Antalya Audience Jury Best Film

INTERSECTING LIVES, INTERCROSSING WORLDS AND THE HEAVY BURDEN OF EXISTENCE BROUGHT BY THE STRUGGLE OF LIVING CAN ONLY BE BORNE BY DREAMING GAMES. This last feature by veteran director Yavuz Özkan deals with the ways of an introvert father burnt by the troubles of making a living, his worn-out family, and the regulars of the father's restaurant deal with their troubles. The lives of each character intersects with another. Each one's life crosses through another one's life. But in essence, they are all looking for the same thing.

BALANCE AND MOVEMENT / BALANS VE MANEVRA (2004)

BALANCE AND MOVEMENT / BALANS VE MANEVRA
Director: Teoman
Cast: Burak Sergen, Bülent Kayabaş, Erol Demiröz
Turkey, 2005
35 mm. / Color / 90’
Turkish; English s.t.

MULTI-TALENTED ARTIST TEOMAN'S FIRST FEATURE BEHIND THE CAMERA. A woman in love, a weak man, a theoretically perfect father stumbling in emotions, an uncle dependent to the past, an adolescent meet at Zagor's boarding house. Characters who are together but lonely brush each others tangentially. The lovers (Timur-Zeynep), father and son (Timur-Captain), platonic loves (Ruhi's to Zeynep), brothers (Captain-Nihat) try to live (and sometimes die) crashing the walls. Love, communication gaps, guilt, genetics, and surely, lots of self-deception.

DARK FACE OF THE MOON /AYIN KARANLIK YÜZÜ (2005)

DARK FACE OF THE MOON /AYIN KARANLIK YÜZÜ

Director: Biket İlhan
Cast: Ali Poyrazoğlu, Sanem Çelik, Memet Ali Alabora
Turkey-Greece, 2005
35 mm. / Color / 90’
Turkish; English s.t.

TRAGIC TALES OF LOSERS AND THOSE WHO HAVE NO CHOICE BUT LOSING; FROM THE VETERAN TV AND CINEMA DIRECTOR BIKET İLHAN. Four adventurous men who have escaped from prison, the historic artifact smuggler, the bank swindler, honor murderer and the hired gun find refuge in an island. While they confront their pasts, one of them crosses paths with an islander lady, and they passionately fall for each other.

Yolda (2005)

Yolda
Director: Erden Kıral
Cast: Halil Ergün, Yeşim Büber, Serdar Orçin
TURKEY-BULGARIA, 2005
35 mm. / Color / 90’
Turkish; English s.t.
"I HAVE COMPOSED THIS STORY WITH INSPIRATION FROM A JOURNEY I MADE WITH YILMAZ GÜNEY. IT IS BASED ON REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE. BUT I HAVE TILTED AND TWISTED THIS EXPERIENCE. YOLDA IS A FILM ABOUT FREEDOM AND CAPTIVITY", says the director Erden Kıral. During military rule, Yılmaz, a legendary filmmaker, is transferred to another prison. During the journey, his wife, a friend of his from prison and a young director follow him in a car. The cars stop at a motel for the night. Here, the young director, himself wanting to break free of the prison of his own making, confronts his master, but actually he is still very much under his master's influence.





ERDEN KIRAL

He studied ceramics at the İstanbul Academy of Arts. He has written on film for newspapers and magazines. Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde / On Fertile Lands, won the Best European Film Award in Strasbourg; Hakkari’de Bir Mevsim / A Season in Hakkari, received the Silver Bear, FIPRESCI, CICAE and Otto Dibelis awards at Berlin Film Festival; Ayna / The Mirror was nominated one of the “10 Best Films of All Times” by the European magazine. He made nine award-winning feature-length cinema films. He has been a member of Berlin Akademie der Künste since 1984.
Filmography
1978 Kanal
1980 Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde
1983 Hakkâri’de Bir mevsim
1984 Ayna1987 Dilan
1988 Av Zamanı
1993 Mavi Sürgün
1999 Avcı
2005 Yolda

TOSS UP / YAZI TURA (2004)

TOSS UP / YAZI TURA
Director: Uğur Yücel
Cast: Kenan İmirzalıoğlu, Olgun Şimşek, Bahri Beyat
Turkey, 2004
35 mm. / Color / 110’
Turkish; English s.t. 2
004 Best Film; Best Director; Best Screenplay; Best Editing; Best Music; Best Actor (Olgun Şimşek); Best Supporting Actor (Bahri Beyat); Best Supporting Actress (Eli Mango)


 
THIS "TOUGH GUY" FILM, SHOT IN A DRAMATIC DOGMA STYLE AND THAT DOES NOT RESERVED IN SHARING ITS RAGE, IS CENTERED AROUND THE ARMED CONFLICTS IN SOUTEASTERN TURKEY THAT COST TEN THOUSANDS OF LIVES, AND TELLS TWO STORIES SET IN 1999: From Göreme, "Devil" Rıdvan, and from Istanbul, living with his father, "Ghost" Cevher. They had fought in the southeast together, Rıdav had lost his leg, found out that all that he had left back in his town had changed completely, and lost his dreams. Cevher, has lost his right ear. But to follow is the devastating Marmara earthquake.

PARDON (2005)

PARDON
Director: Mert Baykal
Cast: Ferhan Şensoy, Rasim Öztekin, Ali Çatalbaş
Turkey, 2005
35 mm. / Color / 94’
Turkish; English s.t.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY, PARDON IS A BLACK COMEDY THAT DEALS WITH A CHAIN OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS SPARKED BY A SERIES OF JUDICIAL AND POLICE ERRORS. Three friends leading ordinary, common lives are mistakenly taken under custody. Following the advice of the police officers, they take on certain unclaimed crimes, and are sent to prison right away. As their hopes of being released wither, they reluctantly adapt to prison life. The screenplay of young director Mert Baykal's debut feature is written by Ferhan Şensoy who also takes the lead role.


 

BORROWED BRIDE / EĞRETİ GELİN (2005)

BORROWED BRIDE / EĞRETİ GELİN
Director: Atıf Yılmaz
Cast: Müjde Ar, Metin Akpınar, Nurgül Yeşilçay, Onur Ünsal, Fikret Hakan, Füsun Demirel, Şevket Çoruh
TURKEY-GREECE, 2005
35 mm. / Color / 117’
Turkish; English s.t.




IN THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC, A WOMAN FALLS IN LOVE WITH A YOUNG MAN, DEFYING TRADITION AND HER WORD. The latest film of veteran director Atıf Yılmaz, tells the tale of the "borrowed bride" Emine who is hired to tutor the young and playfully naïve Ali before he gets married to his fiancée. Emine accepts the offer to be a "borrowed bride" before her lover Hasan gets out of jail. But love takes no notice of Hasan, or tradition, and they become lovers, against all odds. Müjde Ar and Atıf Yılmaz meet again in this "poetic, local, and different world with fantastical elements."
ATIF YILMAZ
Born in 1926 in Mersin. He is a director, scriptwriter and producer. He began to write theater and film critics while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul. He started his cinema career with writing scripts for films by early 1950s. His first directorial debut was with the feature Kanlı Feryat in 1952. His first non-commercial feature Gelinin Muradı made in 1957, received good reviews and gave him the opportunity to attempt at more experimental screenplays and films. He made more than 100 feature films many of which he also wrote their screenplays and produced. Many of his films were screened at international festivals such as Venice, Berlin, Munich, Valencia, London and Montreal and received awards. Retrospectives of his works have been held at four international festivals, most recently the 2001 Montpellier Festival of Mediterranean Film.

Selected Films
1957 Gelinin Muradı
1959 Bu Vatanın Çocukları
1964 Murad’ın Türküsü
1966 Keşanlı Ali Destanı
1977 Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım
1980 Adak
1982 Mine
1984 Bir Yudum Sevgi
1985 Dul Bir Kadın
1986 Aahh Belinda
1986 Adı Vasfiye
1987 Hayallerim, Aşkım ve Sen
1990 Berdel
1992 Düş Gezginleri
1994 Gece, Melek ve Bizim Çocuklar
1997 Nihavend Mucize
1999 Eylül Fırtınası
2004 Eğreti Gelin

DERIVATIVE (2005)

 

DERIVATIVE
Director: Ulaş İnaç
Cast: Güçlü Yalçıner, Gülçin Santırcıoğlu, Beste Bereket
Turkey, 2005
DigiBeta / Color / 91’
Turkish; English s.t.

AN ADAPTATION OF THE STORY "THE NOVEL OF THE CURIOUS IMPERTINENT" INCLUDED IN CERVANTES' "DON QUIXOTE", IN A REALISM SUGGESTED BY "DOGMA" FILMS, DERIVATIVE TELLS THE TALE OF TWO WOMEN AND A MAN. The advertising professional Nâzım, wealthy Süreyya with no aim in life but getting married, and the cinema student Burcu who has to prepare a graduation thesis. Nâzım suggests Burcu to prepare a unique report while Süreyya who plans to marry Nâzım has another proposal to make to Burcu: To seduce Nâzım in order to test his loyalty. Replete with lies, love and desire, Derivative is young filmmaker Ulaş İnaç's debut feature.



The film will be shown in Cordoba and Granada in June within a program that compiles adaptations from Cervantes and Don Quixote, organised by the Andalucian Cinematheque.

 

ANGEL’S FALL / MELEĞİN DÜŞÜŞÜ (2004)

ANGEL’S FALL / MELEĞİN DÜŞÜŞÜ
Director: Semih Kaplanoğlu
Cast: Tülin Özen, Budak Akalın, Musa Karagöz, Engin Doğan, Yeşim Ceren Bozoğlu, Özlem Turhal, Can Kolukısa
TURKEY-GREECE, 2004
35 mm. / Color / 98’
Turkish; English s.t.

SHARING THE BEST FILM AWARD WITH HIS DEBUT FEATURE AWAY FROM HOME, COMES A METROPOLITAN DRAMA THAT TRACKS THE LOST SOULS OF THE CITY. Zeynep has to put up with his father's abuses at night, and during the day, she confronts with the romantic approaches of her only friend Mustafa. On the other part of the city, Selçuk grieves his newly deceased wife. A suitcase full of her clothes will change Zeynep's life unexpectedly.

This film was screened at the 55 th International Berlin Film Festival's Forum section.


 

BOATS OUT OF WATERMELON RINDS (2003)

BOATS OUT OF WATERMELON RINDS (2003)
Karpuz Kabugundan Gemiler Yapmak

2004 - Turkey - Drama
Type: Features
Release Date: January 1, 2003
Rating: NR
Running Time: 97 minutes
Ziya Uner - Executive Producer
Diloy Gulun - Producer
Figen Ermek - First Assistant Director
Ilker Berke - Cinematographer
Ahmet Ulucay - Screenwriter, Director
Mustafa Preseva - Editor
Senad Preseva - Editor
Serdar Tahiroglu - Producer, Executive Producer
Ender Akay - Sound/Sound Designer, Composer (Music Score), Executive Producer
Cast:
Ismail Hakki Taslak
Kadir Kaymaz
Gulayse Erkoc
Boncuk Yilmaz
Hasbiye Gunay
Mustafa Coban
Fizuli Caferov
Ahmet Ulucay
Aysel Yilmaz

More...

L'EMPIRE DES LOUPS / Empire of the Wolves (2005)

İSTANBUL TALES / ANLAT İSTANBUL (2005)

İSTANBUL TALES / ANLAT İSTANBUL
Directors: Ümit Ünal, Kudret Sabancı, Selim Demirdelen, Yücel Yolcu & Ömür Atay
Cast: Altan Erkekli, Mehmet Günsür, Çetin Tekindor, Azra Akın, Yelda Reynaud, Güven Kıraç, Nurgül Yeşilçay, İdil Üner, Fikret Kuşkan
Turkey, 2005
35 mm. / Color / 100’
Turkish; English s.t.


 
İSTANBUL TELLS HER OWN FAIRY TALES... A GIPSY CLARINET PLAYER AS THE PIED PIPER, LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AS A MOB COURIER WHO'S JUST GOT OUT OF JAIL... Cinderella, an ill-fated prostitute in love with an innocent youngster.... A princess, "the fairest of them all" escaping from her executioner encounters the eighth dwarf in the jungle that is Beyoğlu... A broke Kurdish youth who's just arrived in İstanbul, meets Sleeping Beauty... The five stories of İstanbul Tales, written by Ümit Ünal, are told with surprising integrity by five directors. These five separate stories are interconnected with mathematically well structured transitions. – Mehmet Bilâl