International Urla Gastronomy Film Festival
May 2 • 12:00 – May 4 • 23:30
The International Urla Gastronomy Film Festival aims to bring gastronomy and cinema together, sharing the flavorful stories of diverse cultures with a wide audience. With a mission to contribute to Turkish gastronomy cinema and showcase Urla’s unique flavors to the world, the festival unites film and food on the same plate.
44th Istanbul Film Festival 11-22 April 2025
NEW VISIONS
APOLLON BY DAY ATHENA BY NIGHT / GÜNDÜZ APOLLON GECE ATHENA
Director: Emine Yıldırım TÜRKİYE / 2024 / DCP / Colour /
112’ / Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay: Emine Yıldırım Director of Photography:
Barış AygenEditing: Selda TaşkınMusic: Barış Diri Art Director: Elif Taşçıoğlu Cast:
Ezgi Çelik, Barış Gönenen, Selen Uçer, Gizem Bilgen, Deniz Türkali, Lale
Mansur, Neyra Kayabaşı, Melih Düzenli Producer: Dilde Mahalli, Emine Yıldırım Production
Co.: Rosa Film, Ursula Film World Sales: Rosa Film, Ursula Film
10+
2024 Tokyo Best Film – Asian Future
Raised as an orphan, Defne, has acquired the gift of seeing
ghosts in her adulthood. Defne decides to use this new ability to find her long
lost mother’s ghost, ending up in the ancient town of Side near Antalya. On
this fantastic journey, Defne is accompanied by radical leftist Hüseyin, lounge
singer Nazife, and a priestess from antiquity.
AYŞE
Director: Necmi Sancak TÜRKİYE / 2024 / DCP / Colour / 76’ /
Turkish; English s.t. Screenplay: Necmi Sancak, Ahmet Sancak, Binnur Kaya Director
of Photography: Meryem Yavuz Editing: Osman Bayraktaroğlu Art Director: Turgay
Kutlu Cast: Binnur Kaya, Rıdvan Sancak, Menderes Samancılar, Ali Seçkiner Alıcı
Producer: Necmi Sancak Production Co.: Maara Film World Sales: Maara Film
2024 Antalya Best First Film, Best Director, Best Actress,
Film-Yön Best Director
2024 Cairo Best Artistic Contribution - Director
Ayşe lives with her adult brother Rıdvan, who has Down
syndrome, in a constantly growing and changing suburb of Istanbul. Their father
has been on the verge of death in hospital for a long time. When Ayşe receives
a marriage proposal from an international truck driver, who stops by the petrol
station where she works, she has to choose between her fate and her dreams.
Director: İlkay Nişancı TÜRKİYE / 2024 / DCP / Colour / 100’ / Turkish; English s.t. Screenplay: İlkay Nişancı of Photography: Özgür Yıldız & Utku Faik Yılmaz (Hava Sinematografisi Aerial Cinematography) Editing: Eşref Gürkan KılıçMusic: Türkay Nişancı, Sevan Amiroğlu, İlkay Nişancı Producer: Hakan FıçıcıProduction Co.: Reddish Films World Sales: Reddish Films
2024 Adana Best Documentary
2024 Ankara Jury Special Award
While people hadn’t yet buried their deceased, they fell into the anxiety of exams after the earthquake in Hatay. While the students see the university exam as a way out of this city where they have lost all their memories, the teachers unwittingly build their own utopia. In this period of civil inattention, while trying to memorise the subjects the exam covers, they also try to push the memories of their ruined city out of their minds. But each exam question reminds students of something. For some, distances; for some, the state; for some, a pile of debris by the sea. If the memory of a city is imprisoned in that heap of debris by the sea, the struggle for existence of people trying to build a future is nothing but an exam on the edge of time.
PAYDOS
Director: Müge ManuşTÜRKİYE / 2025 / DCP / Colour / 93’ /
Turkish, English; English s.t.Screenplay: Müge ManuşDirector of Photography:
Müge ManuşEditing: Hülya DelibaşMusic: Uğur CümbüşelArt Director: Müge
ManuşWith: Sander Werelds, Maarten WereldsProducer: Müge ManuşWorld Sales:
Ninova Films Distribution
Having no climbing experience until now, Müge finds herself facing one of the toughest challenges of her life. After crossing paths with Belgian climbers Sander and Maarten, she joins them in creating a daring new climbing route on a towering cliff in a remote Mediterranean cove. As the team pushes through the unforgiving forces of nature, confronts their deepest fears, and tests the limits of their endurance, it is courage, friendship, and the unbreakable bonds of family that drive them toward the summit.
SUMMER LIGHT / YAZ IŞIĞI
Director: Kerem Kuşçu TÜRKİYE / 2024 / DCP / Colour / 104’ /
Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay: Kerem Kuşçu Director of Photography: Cevahir
Şahin Editing: Kerem Kuşçu Art Director: Kerem Kuşçu Cast: Aytuğ Akdoğan,
Kıvanç Kürkçü, Billur Melis Koç, Nehir Erdoğan, Zuhal GencerProducer: Nermin
Aytekin Production Co.: Sade Sinema World Sales: Sade Sinema
6+
Living in Istanbul, Erdem is a young painter at the
beginning of his career, making plans to settle in Çanakkale, where he was born
and raised. When he goes to Çanakkale for two weeks to rest with his family,
Erdem learns that his old friend Arda, whose ties are completely severed
following the traffic accident they were involved in, is going to organize a
painting exhibition in Bozcaada. He creates a reason for himself to confront
his past, which he has been running away from for years. The complex aspects of
Erdem’s loss of the girl he fell in love with in a fatal accident and
eventually starting to take pleasure in this tragic event, his power to add to
his past by seeing that experience as a fingerprint, the sense of belonging
that he tries to re-establish with his family, and the power of deceiving
oneself for the sake of his ideals, is a young man. We observe all through the
perception of the artist.
ON THE WATER SURFACE / SU YÜZÜ
Director: Zeynep KöprülüTÜRKİYE / 2024 / DCP / Colour / 90’
/ Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay: Selin Sevinç, Zeynep KöprülüDirector of
Photography: Lucile MercierEditing: Osman Bayraktaroğlu Music: Efe Demiral,
Nova NordaArt Director: Serdar YılmazCast: Cemre Ebüzziya, Nazan Kesal, Yasemin
Szawlowski, Aytek Şayan, Şamil KafkasProducer: Utku Zeka, Kazım Karaismailoğlu
Production Co.: Periferi Film, KK FilmsWorld Sales: Feel Sales, Ninova Films
Distribution
Deniz returns to her hometown to attend her widowed mother’s
wedding. The anger, fear, and guilt she thought she’d left behind, resurface
during this visit.
Hevî / THE HOPE
Director: Orhan İnce TÜRKİYE / 2024 / DCP / Colour / 80’ /
Kurdish; Turkish, English s.t.Screenplay: Orhan İnce Director of Photography:
Cem Geneşke Editing: Erhan Örs Art Director: Cengiz Toprak, Hasan İnce Cast: Ömer
Akalın, Yavuz Akkuzu, Bedriye Roza Çelik, Deniz Sal, Nazmi Karaman, Ruken Önen,
Güldestan Yüce, Mekin KılıçProducer: Burak Kanısıcak, Orhan İnceCo-Producer:
Deniz SalProduction Co.: Sinemarjen Film World Sales: Sinemarjen Film
2024 Adana Best Promising Actor
Nine-year-old Zeyno, who is hearing and speech impaired,
lives with her father Mustafa and her older brother Çeto in their house far
away from the village. She spends all her time with her sheep, which she
inherited from her mother. Çeto starts earning his own money by helping Emin, a
livestock dealer he met by chance. When their father Mustafa starts buying and
selling animals with Emin, Zeyno starts to worry about her sheep.
ATHLETE/ ATLET
Director: Semih Gülen, Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun TÜRKİYE,
GERMANY, ROMANIA / 2025 / DCP / Colour / 89’ / Turkish, Bosnian; English
s.t. Screenplay: Semih Gülen, Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun Director of Photography:
Ayşe Alacakaptan Editing: Semih Gülen, Arda Çiltepe Music: Eylül Deniz Keleş Art
Director: Günsu Sarı Cast: Sevda Baş, Tarhan Karagöz, Esra Kızıldoğan, Bilgesu
Akın, Gamze Akça Özcan, Ercan Kesal Producer: Arda ÇiltepeCo-Producer: Zeynep
Dişbudak, Anamaria Antoci, Anda Ionescu, Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay, Claus
Herzog-Reichel, Mario von Grumbkow Production Co.: Vigo Film World Sales: Vigo
Film
Hatice, a young and ambitious weightlifter living with her
unemployed mother, aims to win the lifetime allowance provided to athletes who
win medals in international competitions. In her pursuit of success at all
costs, she decides to use an unconventional doping technique at the world
championships: She will get pregnant, boost her hormones, and then have an
abortion. But when her attempts don’t go as well as she’s anticipated, she has
to take unexpected detours.
IN THE SHADE OF THE POPLAR TREE / KAVAK AĞACININ GÖLGESİNDE
Director: Kenan Diler TÜRKİYE / 2025 / DCP / Colour / 64’ / Turkish, Kurdish; Turkish, English s.t. Screenplay: Kenan Diler Director of Photography: Kenan Diler Editing: Kenan Diler Music: Eriş Dervişoğlu, Sabır Erdinç With: Mikail Haskanlı Producer: Kenan DilerProduction Co.: Dlr FilmWorld Sales: Dlr Film
Mikail, who simultaneously looks like a madman and a dervish, runs an extraordinary cafe in order to isolate himself from the society and the strict, traditional structure of his family. He tries but struggles to open a boutique hotel for his mother, who is his father’s second wife since the age of 14 and is persecuted in this patriarchal structure. He dreams that she can live in this hotel so she can forget all that she went through.
THE HOUSE WITH NO ADDRESS / ADRESİ OLMAYAN EV
Director: Hatice Aşkın TÜRKİYE, GREECE / 2024 / DCP / Colour
/ 96’ / Turkish; English s.t. Screenplay: Hatice AşkınDirector of Photography:
Feza Çaldıran Editing: Smaro Papaevangelou Music: Nassos Sopilis, Saki Çimen Art
Director: Atilla Çelik Cast: Boran Kuzum, Osman Sonant, Zeynep Tuğçe Bayat Producer:
Emre Oskay, George Kyriakos, Engin Altan Düzyatan Production Co.: Sky Film,
Vantablack Films, View Master Films, Alpha Film World Sales: Arthood
Entertainment
Those who commit one of the nine major offenses –greed,
arrogance, lust, anger, envy, sloth, extravagance, treachery, and violence– are
tried under the law of oblivion, and when they die, all their possessions are
collected and their property is confiscated. Criminals’ personal belongings and
corpses are ground in the grinding factory, and all their traces are completely
erased from life. Alper, a young lawyer, is at work when he receives the news
that his mother Andaç has died suddenly in an ironic traffic accident. When
Alper returns home with his father, they are shocked to see the oblivion law
officials collecting his mother’s belongings.
UNFRUITFUL TIMES / ÖLÜ MEVSİM
Director: Doğuş AlgünTÜRKİYE, ITALY, NORTH MACEDONIA / 2024
/ DCP / Colour / 120’ / Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay: Selen Örcan, Doğuş
AlgünDirector of Photography: Ece LatifaoğluEditing: Doğuş AlgünArt Director:
Bengü Şener, Ahmet YörükCast: Funda Eryiğit, Ece Yaşar, Erdem Şenocak, Serkan
Ercan, Haydar Şahin, Naz Göktan, Nesrin Uçarlar, Feri Baycu Güler, Banu
Fotocan, Tolga TekinProducer: Burak KaplanCo-Producer: Paolo Ansaldi, Mari Pia
Billi, Bunjamin Kurtishi, Fidush Aliu, Harika Uygur, Funda EryiğitProduction
Co.: Gest FilmWorld Sales: Gest Film
2024 Adana Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best
Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor
2024 Ankara Mahmut Tali Öngören Best First Film, Best
Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor
After a tragic miscarriage, middle-aged Nimet is stuck in
her conservative neighbourhood in Istanbul, while her beloved younger sister
Öznur carries a burden of her own in the family, struggling with her own
demons.
IIFF 2025 | Turkish Films of Golden Tulip Competition
Director: Tolga KaraçelikUSA / 2025 / DCP / Colour / 102’ /
English; Turkish s.t.Screenplay: Tolga KaraçelikDirector of Photography:
Natalie KingstonEditing: Evren LuşMusic: Nathan KleinCast: Steve Buscemi, John
Magaro, Britt Lower, Sydney Cole Alexander, Ward HortonProducer: Scott Aharoni,
Sinan Eczacıbaşı, Alihan Yalçındağ, Wren Arthur, Steve Buscemi, Alex Peace
Power, Mustafa Kaymak, Tolga KaraçelikProduction Co.: Cinegryphon
Entertainment, Curious Gremlin, Asteros Film, Olive Productions, Theatriste, Pak
Pictures, Mavi Baykuş (in association with)World Sales: UTA
International Premiere
2024 Tribeca (USA) Audience Award–Narrative Second Place
HYSTERIA
Director: Mehmet Akif BüyükatalayGERMANY / 2025 / DCP /
Colour / 103’ / German, English, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish; Turkish, English
s.t.Screenplay: Mehmet Akif BüyükatalayDirector of Photography: Christian
KochmannEditing: Denys Darahan, Andreas MennCast: Devrim Lingnau İslamoğlu,
Mehdi Meskar, Serkan Kaya, Nicolette Krebitz, Aziz Çapkurt, Nazmi
KırıkProducer: Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay, Claus Herzog-ReichelProduction Co.:
filmfaust, ZDFWorld Sales: Pluto Film Distribution Network GmbHTurkish Rights:
MUBI
International Premiere
2025 Berlin Europa Cinemas Label
IDEA
IDEA
Director: Tayfun PirselimoğluTÜRKİYE, ROMANIA, FRANCE / 2025
/ DCP / Colour / 93’ / Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay: Tayfun
PirselimoğluDirector of Photography: Andreas SinanosEditing: Ali AgaMusic:
Nikos KypourgosArt Director: Natali YeresCast: Tarhan Karagöz, Nalan Kuruçim,
Ercan Kesal, Jale ArıkanProducer: Vildan ErşenCo-Producer: Vlad Radulescu,
Guillaume de Seille, TRT SinemaProduction Co.: Mitra FilmsWorld Sales: Mitra
Films
Türkiye Premiere
10+
NEW DAWN FADES
YENİ ŞAFAK SOLARKEN
Director: Gürcan KeltekTÜRKİYE, ITALY, GERMANY, NORWAY, THE
NETHERLANDS / 2024 / DCP / Colour / 130’ / Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay:
Gürcan KeltekDirector of Photography: Peter ZeitlingerEditing: Murat Gültekin,
Semih GülenMusic: Son of PhilipCast: Cem Yiğit Üzümoğlu, Ayla Algan, Erol
Babaoğlu, Suzan Kardeş, Dilan Düzgüner, Gürkan GedikliProducer: Arda
ÇiltepeCo-Producer: Manuela Buono, Marc Van Goethem, Stefan Gieren, Fernanda
RennoProduction Co.: Vigo FilmWorld Sales: Heretic
I’M HERE, I’M FINE
BURADAYIM, İYİYİM
Director: Emine Emel BalcıTÜRKİYE, GERMANY / 2025 / DCP /
Colour / 100’ / Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay: Emine Emel BalcıDirector of
Photography: Murat TuncelEditing: Eytan İpeker, Melike KasaplarMusic: Andreas
LucasArt Director: Meral Efe YurtsevenCast: Bige Önal, Elit İşcan, Görkem
Mertsöz, Mustafa Sönmez, Elçin Atamgüç, Ayhan Kavas, Ayşe Lebriz Berkem, Uygar
BodurProducer: Dilek Aydın, Emine Emel BalcıCo-Producer: Jens Meurer, Derya
TürkmenProduction Co.: Heimatlos Films, Prolog FilmWorld Sales: Heimatlos Films
& Prolog Film
World Premiere
Filiz, a young, working mother, struggles with postpartum
depression. Seeking moments of escape, she sets out to buy ‘a car of her own.’
Along the way, Filiz meets Şule, and her search for a car turns into an
unexpected bond, offering both women a chance at solidarity.
THE THINGS YOU KILL
ÖLDÜRDÜĞÜN ŞEYLER
Director: Alireza KhatamiFRANCE, POLAND, CANADA, TÜRKİYE /
2024 / DCP / Colour / 113’ / Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay: Alireza
KhatamiDirector of Photography: Bartosz SwiniarskiEditing: Selda Taşkın,
Alireza KhatamiArt Director: Meral AktanCast: Ekin Koç, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil,
Hazar Ergüçlü, Ercan KesalProducer: Elisa Sepulveda-Ruddoff, Cyriac Auriol,
Mariusz Włodarski, Alireza Khatami, Michael SolomonCo-Producer: Marta
Gmosińska, Ekin Koç, Cenk ÜnalerzenProduction Co.: Fulgurance, Remora Films,
Lava Films, Tell Tall Tale, Band With Pictures, SineaktifWorld Sales: Best
Friend Forever
+16
Balkan Premiere
2025 Sundance Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW
O DA BİR ŞEY Mİ
Director: Pelin EsmerTÜRKİYE, BULGARIA, ROMANIA / 2025 / DCP
/ Colour / 115’ / Turkish; English s.t.Screenplay: Pelin EsmerDirector of
Photography: Barbu BalasoiuEditing: Özcan VardarArt Director: Elif
TaşçıoğluCast: Timuçin Esen, Merve Asya Özgür, İpek Bilgin, Nur Sürer, Mehmet
Kurtuluş, Şebnem Hassanisoughi, Asiye Dinçsoy, Sermet Yeşil, Fehmi Karaarslan,
Laçin Ceylan, Deniz Karaoğlu, Oğuz KaraProducer: Dilde Mahalli, Pelin Esmer,
Kerem ÇatayCo-Producer: Poli Angelova, Nikolay Todorov, Tudor GiurgiuProduction
Co.: Sine Film, Rosa Film, Ay YapımWorld Sales: Sine Film, Rosa Film, Ay Yapım
10+
Türkiye Premiere
Aliye
is a fan-girl of the renowned filmmaker Levent, who has arrived at the hotel
she works at as the honorary guest of the Söke Film Festival. At first, as
locals inundate the filmmaker with their sorrows and heartbreaks, hoping for a
chance to immortalise themselves on the big screen, she quietly watches him
from afar. But before long Aliye has pulled Levent into the murky waters of the
past.
In this tender drama, the two strangers spur one another’s
imaginations to give shape to their life stories. With a keen eye for the
unusuality found in the friendships strangers strike, Pelin Esmer (Watchtower,
2012) returns to IFFR. Working across documentary and fiction, she distils our
human relationships to ‘storytellers’ and ‘listeners’ who, inescapably,
transform one another.
If we’re bound to fade as actualities and all that remains
of us is a story, Aliye dares to tell it in her own words. – Reman Sadani
THE FLYING MEATBALL MAKER
UÇAN KÖFTECİ
Director: Rezan YeşilbaşTÜRKİYE, GERMANY, BULGARIA / 2025 /
DCP / Colour / 106’ / Turkish, Kurdish; Turkish, English s.t.Screenplay: Rezan
YeşilbaşDirector of Photography: Dilşat CananEditing: Osman Bayraktaroğlu,
Yaşar Buğra Dedeoğlu, Rezan YeşilbaşCast: Nazmi Kırık, Selin Yeninci, Aram
Dildar, Cahit Şahin Yalçın, Aslı Işık, Ali Bengin YeşilbaşProducer: Rezan
Yeşilbaş, Azat YeşilbaşProduction Co.: Rez FilmWorld Sales: Rez Film
Türkiye Premiere
Kadir, a meatball vendor, discovers that he can realise his
long-standing desire to fly thanks to a device called a ‘paramotor’, a powered
parachute. From that moment on, he starts to practise parachuting hopefully and
tirelessly. This extraordinary dream is widely considered utterly odd,
provocative, and even causes him to be heavily criticised. Moreover, due to the
political mood in the city, this passion for flying causes unexpected
incidents, absurd as a threat to airspace security. Despite everything he goes
through, Kadir does not give up on his dream and his passion for gliding in the
sky with his colourful parachute. The Flying Meatball Maker had its world
premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival.
Rotterdam IIF | Meatball-maker Kadir dreams of taking flight but his in-laws
vehemently disapprove, however, with a little help he may actually make good on
this obsession, but as the old saying goes – best not fly too close to the sun.
Like Daedalus, Icarus and countless others before him, Kadir
dreams of flying. His days are spent in the kitchen with his wife, Azize,
preparing the meatballs he sells at night from his popular street kiosk. But
with every spare waking moment, Kadir listens to podcasts, talks with his
buddies, or searches on his phone to increase his knowledge about soaring above
the earth. But as Kadir’s personal wishes and family responsibility come into
conflict, it’s clear that he has little control over either.
Kadir’s flying machine of choice involves a parachute, which
he can barely control, and a caged propeller strapped to his back – which looks
about as perilous as it sounds. Nevertheless, after he locates a fellow flyer
who is willing to tutor him in the finer skills of paramotoring, and it’s not
long before Kadir is taking significant steps towards success. Azize’s
gossiping family, however, disapproves.
Rezan Yeşilbaş directs his feature debut with care and a
sense of flair, the result is a contemplative and endearing political
comedy. – Nicholas Davies
Columns | Books Around: New Turkish Cinema
By Olaf Möller[1]
"I write regularly for Stadt-Revue, which is something like the Village Voice of my beloved hometown. Then there's film-dienst, the film magazine of the Catholic Church, to which I contribute sometimes more frequently and sometimes less, depending on the mood. Besides that, this daily or that magazine runs something by me, occasionally. But the only magazines I'm tied to rather closely are Film Comment and Cinema Scope. Everything else is just on a more or less piece-by-piece basis."
It was only a matter of time till a bunch of books on
Turkish cinema would hit the stores; film-cultural fads work like that. To give
things a more positive spin, what’s a passing fancy for many might be a life’s
passion for a few who can now, in the tiny window of opportunity opened by
hype, realize that one work they always dreamed about. And let’s face it,
normally one wouldn’t get a book on Turkish cinema published too easily. (Next
up: Romania—wait another two years and see…)
All that said, I’m very, very happy that there are finally a few tomes on Turkish cinema around. Chalk that up to my life and times: I grew up in a working-class neighbourhood of Cologne, which meant living alongside many migrant families, mostly from Turkey—Gastarbeiter, as they were (and sometimes still are) derogatively called. (Good thing that the presumed guests stayed, became residents, etc. and saved us from ourselves.) Anyway, Turkish neighbours and classmates also meant Turkish movies. Step 1: A schoolmate of mine and I watched unsubtitled videos at his family’s apartment (he translated, or at least tried, or probably only pretended to try and instead made up his own dialogue). The pleasures of Turkish entertainment! That unique cinegenie of Cüneyt Arkın and Kartal Tibet!! The soul-soothing absurdity of Çetin İnanç’s The Man Who Saves the World (1982)!!! Bliss. Step 2: Cologne’s now defunct cinematheque began to host the occasional season of Turkish films, the serious stuff above all: the master of masters, Yılmaz Güney. (I also fondly remember a screening of Police [1988], a coarse though smart comedy directed by Güney acolyte Şerif Gören, featuring Garib the parrot.) Step 3: Somewhere during the second half of the ‘90s, Turkish films slowly started to get distributed on a regular basis in German cinemas. An audience of millions wanted to be entertained; a now also defunct Cologne downtown multiplex had one or two screens reserved exclusively for Turkish films, usually subtitled, which allowed me to closely follow the careers of, say, Yavuz Turgul (The Bandit, 1996), Sinan Çetin (Propaganda, 1999), Yılmaz Erdoğan (Vizontele, 2001), and Serdar Akar (Valley of the Wolves—Iraq, 2005).
New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity and Memory
Publisher : I.B. Tauris (February 15, 2010)
Language : English
Paperback : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 1845119509
ISBN-13 : 978-1845119508
Asuman Suner Istanbul Technical University Associate Professor
Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance and Belonging
Publisher : Reaktion Books (November 15, 2008)
Language : English
Paperback : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 1861893701
ISBN-13 : 978-1861893703
Gönül Dönmez-Colin is a film scholar specializing in the cinemas of Central Asia and the Middle East. She is the author of Women, Islam and Cinema, Cinemas of the Other: A Personal Journey with Filmmakers from the Middle East and Central Asia, and The Cinema of North Africa and the Middle East.
None of these names probably means much to most readers, as they’re key directors of post-Yeşilçam commercial cinema, the kind of stuff that usually doesn’t make the international festival rounds. Sad to say that neither Gönül Dönmez-Colin’s Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance and Belonging (London: Reaktion Books, 2008) nor Asuman Suner’s New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity and Memory (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2010) is going to change that, even if both try to incorporate them into their essentially art-house-focused-and-driven arguments. Dönmez-Colin’s work might at least entice a few curious souls to start looking for such titles as Akar’s ultra-ambivalent gems On Board (1998) and In the Bar (2006) or Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Muharrem Gülmez’s weird International (2006), while Suner’s book likely won’t lead to pressing demand to see Akar’s Offside (2006) or Çağan Irmak’s My Father and My Son (2005), despite some serious supportive phrases.
As the books’ sub-headings suggest, both are covering more
or less the same ground vis-à-vis names and titles: there’s plenty on Nuri
Bilge Ceylan, Zeki Demirkubuz, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, and Derviş Zaim, the four
low-budget pioneers turned main auteurs of contemporary Turkish art-house
cinema; home, migration, and exile in general are discussed, as well as the
Deutschländer/Alamancı cinemas in particular; the Kurdish, Greek, and Armenian
“questions” are addressed (the latter barely, as there are so few films even
acknowledging the existence of Armenians); and then, of course, women and
gender. Sorry to sound a bit dismissive but, really, these are the same themes
that everybody and his/her/its grandmother routinely fills pages with, which
begs the question of whether the books would have appeared at all if they
strayed too far outside this familiar turf.
That said, Turkish cinema does invite these kinds of
discussions—though what’s more puzzling is that Dönmez-Colin and Suner at times
even have the same blind spots. (Let’s only note that neither of them thinks
the blatant anti-Semitism of Akar’s Valley of the Wolves is worth considering
in depth.) Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance and Belonging proved to be the
more enjoyable and enlightening read, which, to be honest, I didn’t expect, as
I’m not exactly a fan of Dönmez-Colin: she always seemed too much the
professional engagée to me. Whenever I read her texts I have the distinct
impression that she’s supportive of (something that’s incidentally) a film
because she thinks it’s good for us; here for once it feels as if she’s talking
about carefully selected films that she likes. So even if the themes dealt with
and arguments made are fairly generic, it’s still engaging, educational, and at
times even fun to follow them through with her. Admittedly, her book has a
major advantage over Suner’s: its scope. Dönmez-Colin discusses Turkish cinema
in general (even if the last two-plus decades are the centre of her attention),
which means that older masters like the venerable Atıf Yılmaz (Oh, Beautiful
Istanbul, 1966), the great Ömer Kavur (Istanbul, 1981), or the ever-excellent
Erden Kıral (A Season in Hakkari, 1983) are discussed a bit more extensively,
while the likes of Lütfi Ömer Akad (Strike the Whore, 1949) and Metin Erksan
(Dry Summer, 1963) at least get their due. Best of all, Dönmez-Colin devotes a
whole chapter to Yılmaz Güney, and justifiably so considering his ongoing
influence on younger directors, above all Ustaoğlu, as well as his pivotal
importance for any discussion of Kurdish cinema. The importance of Turkish
Cinema: Identity, Distance and Belonging lies in just that: Dönmez-Colin lays
out convincingly how today’s Turkish cinema is connected to its past (even if
at one point she wonders whether this isn’t a passé way of thinking). In a
film-cultural climate where these kinds of developments seem to count less and
less, this is an important argument to insist on.
While Dönmez-Colin from time to time references this
historian-theorist or that essayist-philosopher, Suner does little else but in
New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity and Memory. At least it feels like
that. In the first chapters of this very academic read, Suner barely talks
about the films as films, i.e., rarely describes an image, analyzes its
components, or tries to understand what they mean. Instead, it’s content,
content, symbol, content, historic backgrounds of the stories, some more
content, and lots of digression-heavy references to all kinds of thinkers old
and new; this is useful, of course, but leaves one wanting. Things get a bit
more detailed in the chapters devoted to Ceylan and Demirkubuz, but not more
interesting: Ceylan is all about home and paradox, Demirkubuz vexingly opaque.
Yawn. And then, suddenly, there are a few pages of interest, and they’re
devoted to two works by…Fatih Akın, of all people. Yet, what Suner has to say
about the music in Head-On (2003) and Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of
Istanbul (2005) is worth reading and pondering. Beyond that, the book has
little more to offer than the ordinary emptiness of a culture more interested
in its own rituals and mores than the subjects they use to express these
with—even if one does learn quite a few things.
Olaf Moller
Posted in Columns, CS45, From Cinema Scope Magazine
[1] "Olaf Möller is a freelance writer and programmer based in Cologne and Helsinki. He is a critic for various international film magazines and a consultant for several film festivals. He is an adjunct Professor of Film History and Theory at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture of Aalto University, and has co-written and published a variety of books on cinema." It's a typically modest blurb that appears at the end of innumerable articles for international film magazines but behind it lie countless texts for festival catalogs, regular columns in Cinema Scope and Film Comment (where Möller has also served as a European editor since 2004), annual festival reports.
from Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam and Udine, books on filmmakers such as John Cook and Michael Pilz, selection duties for the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and curatorial work on retrospectives and film programs for the Austrian Film Museum. He also happens to be the Other First Secretary and Minister of Spirituality of the Ferroni Brigade.
There are several qualities that Möller has brought to the proverbial table of film criticism since the beginning of the last decade: a) astute and well-informed writing, with an instantly recognizable style and his own brand of syntax and punctuation, balancing seriousness and humor without lapsing into dry academispeak or empty witticisms; b) unprecedented knowledge of the blind spots of film history and contemporary cinephilia, based on years of indefatigable investigation and championing of the unknown, unseen, ignored and forgotten directors and films; c) a total lack of snobbish territoriality that is all too frequent among some trailblazers; d) contempt for what currently passes as political correctness and politeness, never shying away from strong opinions (some of his favorite targets are cinephilia as a "cult of universal surface," "abstract humanism" and a paternalistic approach to non-Western cultures), even if he occasionally puts off some of his readers and colleagues (no wonder one highly respected Australian critic has called him "Olaf the Mauler"). SOURCEHarvard | Conversation Olaf Möller
Paperback : 642 pages
Publisher : Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften;
New edition (September 19, 2008)
The Authors: Ekkehard Ellinger, Dr. Phil., studied Social Sciences and Islamic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. He carried out research on the history of German Islamic Studies culminating in the publication of Deutsche Orientalistik zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus,1933-1945 in 2006. He is currently working on Turkish Cinema and on one of the pioneers of German Islamic Studies, the Orientalist Julius Wellhausen.
Kerem Kayi, Dr. Phil., studied English Philology, Islamic and Turkic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. At present he is a lecturer in Ottoman at the Institute of Turkic Studies of the same university. His general interest in the history of the late Ottoman Empire and Urban Studies led to the recent publication of Bagdad, 1831-1869 (2007). Besides his research in the field of Turkish Cinema he is currently working on the foundation of cities in 19th century Ottoman Iraq.
This handbook on Turkish cinema tries to provide a basis for those who are interested in Turkish cinema in general and for those who wish to do research in the field of Turkish cinema. It comprises two parts, a bibliography and a study on the history of Turkish cinema. With around 6000 entries and two or three times as many cross references, the bibliography forms part one and includes for the first time all kinds of non-Turkish and Turkish publications on the history of Turkish cinema, directors, actors, films and film festivals from 1970 to 2007. Part two is a comprehensive study focusing on various aspects and subjects of Turkish cinema including its beginnings, genres, directors, producers, films, etc.
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