MWFF 2011 | SEPTEMBER

MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL August 18 to 28, 2011SEPTEMBER | EYLUL
Turkey
First Films World Competition 2011 / Colour / 90 min

Director : Cemil Agacikoglu Script : Cemil Agacikoglu
Photography : Ali Olcay Gozkaya Editor : Taner Sarf
Cast : Turgay Aydin, Gorkem Yeltan, Elena Polyanskaya


SEPTEMBER
Yusuf, a young goldsmith in the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, is having a hard time. His wife Asli is in the hospital, in mortal fear of cancer, and there isn't much he can do to cheer her up. Far from her hometown, Asli has no one in Istanbul but Yusuf and she cannot share her fear of death and her loneliness with him. Meanwhile Yusuf, who is shy and introverted himself, lacks the life experience with which to comfort his wife and he is doubly depressed because of it. As time passes, their inability to communicate widens the gap between them. That's when Elena enters Yusuf's life. Temporarily sharing Asli's room at the hospital, Elena is an attractive foreign woman who was victim of abuse at the hands of her violent partner. Having witnessed Yusuf's demeanor at the hospital, his kindness and compassion for Asli, Elena decides to confide in him when she is discharged from the hospital. She, too, is in trouble and has no one else to turn to in Istanbul. Yusuf agrees to help. But in a macho society where women are stereotyped, Yusuf's friendship with Elena is easily misjudged. Yusuf befriends Elena but he can't convince the people at work that he is just being altruistic. And, indeed, their relationship soon goes beyond altruism. The inevitable intimacy between them leads to a feeling of guilt. But the heart has its own reasons.

Cemil Agacikoglu
Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1959, Cemil Agacikoglu began his career as a photographer in 1990, winning several domestic and international prizes for his work. He made his directorial debut in 1997 with a short film and graduated to music videos. Among his recent shorts: It Was White (2005), Rope (2008) and Police (2008). SEPTEMBER is his first feature.