Tribeca | My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek)

My Marlon and Brando(Gitmek)
In English, Kurdish, Turkish with English subtitles.
2008 92 min Feature Narrative

Directed by: Hüseyin Karabey North American Premiere

www.asifilm.com
Director: Hüseyin Karabey
Principal Cast: Ayça Damgaci, Hama Ali Khan, Savas Emrah Ozdemir, Cengiz Bozkurt, Ani Pekkaya, Volga Sorgu Tekinoglu
Screenwriters: Hüseyin Karabey, Ayça Damgaci
Producers: Lucinda Englehart, Hüseyin Karabey, Sophie Lorant
Editor: Mary Stephen
Co-Producers: Jeroen Beker, Frans van Gestel, Harry Sutherland, Dennis Tal
Director of Photography: A. Emre Tanyildiz
Composers: Kemal S. Gurel, Erdal Guney, Huseyin Yildiz

Program Notes

In March 2003, as American bombs began falling on Baghdad, Turkish actress Ayça Damgaci left her flat in Istanbul and headed for the Iraq border. Behind that cordon was Kurdish actor Hama Ali Khan, the love of Damgaci's life-her moon and stars, her Marlon and her Brando, her everything. Hüseyin Karabey makes his narrative debut retelling the tale of Damgaci's quixotic road trip to the war zone, with Damgaci playing herself and Khan appearing in the actual video love notes he sent to her during their time apart. My Marlon and Brando is a piece of rough magic, a film with a soul as light, a heart as heavy, and a will as steely as its heroine's own.

Karabey's experience as a director of documentaries shines through in his devotion to ethnographic detail-he's eager to let the camera stray, vérité-style, and this helps to bring home Damgaci's growing sense of dislocation. Borders may be porous, but it is still possible to feel a stranger in a strange land. Really, though, the movie is Damgaci's-a brave, tender, and frequently very funny tribute to her love for Khan. Read aloud, her letters to him make for something wonderful and new in the history of lovers beseeching. Communicating in English, their shared tongue, Damgaci's clumsy grasp of the language elevates into rhetoric all the more moving for being flawed. Likewise, through Khan's ham-fistedly hilarious videos, you miss him on Dagmaci's behalf. Politics may turn this comedy about unlikely lovers into a tragedy, but even in its fleeting ungainliness, My Marlon and Brando is a fitting homage to Damgaci and Khan, two matched souls that no impassable border could ever tear asunder. Co-hosted with The American Turkish Society and Moon and Stars Project.

– Peter Scarlet

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Crossing Borders: A Cinematic Journey from the West to the East

An In-Depth Conversation on My Marlon and Brando, a film by Huseyin Karabey, competing in the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival

Date: May 2, 2008
Time: 7:00 PM-8:30 PM
Location: NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway (corner of Waverly), Screening Room 109, New York, NY 10003

The American Turkish Society and Moon and Stars Project Present Crossing Borders: A Cinematic Journey from the West to the East
An In-Depth Conversation on GITMEK / MY MARLON AND BRANDO

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Huseyin Karabey’s feature debut Gitmek / My Marlon and Brando makes its North American Premiere in 2008 Tribeca Film Festival’s World Narrative Feature Competition . Three years ago, in real-life, Hama Ali, a charismatic B movie actor from Iraq, and Ayca,a fiery actress from Turkey, met on a film-set. Their love affair continued across borders through video love letters until the war in Iraq. As people fled from East to West seeking safety, Ayca decided to make the journey from West to East, seeking her lover. My Marlon and Brando, a feature film in which Ayca plays herself, is based on her extraordinary and, ultimately unexpected, experiences in such sad, mad times….

PANELISTS:

Having studied Dramaturgy and Theater Science at Istanbul University, Ayca Damgaci began her professional acting career at Tiyatro Oyunevi (Theater Playhouse) in 1998. She won the Best Actress Award for her performance in My Marlon and Brando at the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival. She is the founder and one of the lead vocals for “Gocebe Sarkilar” (The Nomadic Songs), a music band singing Sephardic, Roman, Armenian, Andalucian, Balkan, and Anatolian songs. Damgaci is currently rehearsing day and night for two theater productions by Bilsak Theater Atelier and Garaj Istanbul.

Bilge Ebiri is a Turkish American film critic and filmmaker. He writes about film for New York Magazine, Bookforum, and Nerve.com. His first feature film, a comedy thriller entitled New Guy, was released in 2004, and he is currently at work on his second.

Film producer, Lucinda Englehart, is based in London but works on co-productions around the world. Having studied Political Science at Cambridge University, she moved to Cape Town. Here, she wrote extensively on the experience of documentary subjects telling their stories of apartheid memory and produced a number of South African feature films and documentaries. She met Huseyin Karabey at the Venice Film Festival and having heard the extraordinary true story told in My Marlon and Brando, came on board to produce this feature film with him.

Regarded as one of the new directing talents in Turkey’s growing independent film scene, Huseyin Karabey developed My Marlon and Brando with Ayça Damgaci. His previous work includes Boran, a short film that explores the disappearance of 5,000 Turkish political activists in the 1990s by bringing together actual facts and dramatic elements, and the feature-length docudrama Silent Death. His documentary Breath was an exclusive look at Pina Bausch, the world-famous German choreographer. Karabey lectures at universities and cultural organizations in Turkey, and his films have won numerous awards.

Review | My Marlon and Brando (2008)

Rotterdam
My Marlon and Brando Gitmek (Turkey - Netherlands - U.K.)
By JAY WEISSBERGAn

A-si Film Yapim (Turkey)/Motel Films (Netherlands)/Spier Films (U.K.) production, in association with Mechant Loup Prods., Ajans 21. (International sales: Insomnia World Sales, Paris.) Produced by Huseyin Karabey, Lucinda Englehart, Sophie Lorant. Executive producer, Lucinda Englehart. Co-producers, Jeroen Beker, Frans van Gestel, Dennis Tal, Harry Sutherland. Directed by Huseyin Karabey. Screenplay, Karabey, Ayca Damgaci.

With: Ayca Damgaci, Hama Ali Khan, Mahir Gunsiray, Volga Sorgu Tekinoglu, Savas Emrah Ozdemir, Cengiz Bozkurt, Ani Ipekkaya, Nesrin Cavadzade, Hakan Milli, Saadet Ciraci, Claude Leon, Serkan Salman, Ferdiye Bolu, Ahmet Yuksel Or, Omer Sahin, Riza Bas, Rahim Simsek, Sibel Ince, Sabri Mucairet. (Turkish, English, Kurdish, and Farsi dialogue)

The true-life border-crossing romance between a Turkish actress and her Kurdish lover gets a semi-fictional work-up when the real thesp takes on her own role in docu helmer Huseyin Karabey's fiction-feature debut, "My Marlon and Brando." Though there's something oddly masochistic about watching someone play herself in a tragedy, star Ayca Damgaci isn't aiming for the therapeutic route, and while Karabey works best when sticking close to his docu roots, he's crafted a moving statement on war and the confining artificiality of borders. Euro arthouses and fests should join in the journey.
Amid the growing paranoia created by constant news reports of the U.S.' imminent invasion of Baghdad, thesp Damgaci tries to stay in close contact with Hama Ali Khan, an actor in Iraqi Kurdistan she fell in love with some months before. With English as their sole common language, they exchange letters and video diaries (Hama Ali's real vids are used) full of the hyperbole of new love.

But as war breaks out, Damgaci becomes increasingly frustrated by the distance between her home in Istanbul and his in Suleymaniye, near the Iranian frontier. Appeals to Kurds for advice to get across the border are met with discouragement, so she finally makes the cross-country trip by bus and cab, arriving at the town of Habur, only to find that she can't get through to Iraq.

Damgaci is both naive and brave -- she understands what she wants and is determined to get it, but Hama Ali's constant delays make her question whether he really wants to be with her after a year and a half apart. When she finally gets him on the phone, they agree it'll be easier to meet in Iran, so north she goes, into an unknown country where she feels more isolated than ever.

It's painful at times, watching Damgaci go through her story as if it's happening all over again, especially as weariness, fear and despair take control. Her letters are achingly honest, full of deep yearning and insecurity, and this added authenticity unquestionably makes for a more poignant film. Counter to expectations, she's a baby-faced, zaftig woman, Hama Ali an older, jovial fellow: This touch of the everyman strengthens the sense of commonality.

Helming is best when approaching the subject from a docu viewpoint; Karabey ("Silent Death") has an appropriately curious eye for the details around his characters in the form of emotionally focused reportage. An extended scene where Damgaci and her cab driver stumble on a rural wedding inserts both a sense of joy and a warmly ethnographic aspect, but Karabey's style as a fiction helmer isn't fully formed.

Music uses melodies from the various nations, including the unmistakable, riveting voice of Kurdish singer Aynur Dogan, in ways that often increase the sense of melancholic longing. As a title, "My Marlon and Brando" sounds less jokey when heard among a list of endearments ("You are my everything," etc.), and a literal translation of the Turkish "Gitmek," approximately "take oneself away to a place," doesn't work well in English.

Camera (HDV-to-35mm), A. Emre Tanyildiz; editor, Mary Stephen; music, Kemal S. Gurel, Huseyin Yildiz, Erdal Guney; production designer, Alper Yanar; costume designer, Yasemin Taskin; sound (Dolby), Mohammed Mokhtari, Denis Kologlu, Arwin Bakker; line producer, Ozcan Alper; assistant director, Guliz Saglam; casting, Banu Ozturk. Reviewed at Rotterdam Film Festival (Time & Tide), Jan. 25, 2008. Running time: 93 MIN.

Review | Fighter (2008)

Helmer Natasha Arthy's martial arts drama about a student torn between her Turkish family and her kung fu dreams.

Fighter (Denmark)
A Sandrew Metronome release of a Nimbus Film production, in co-production with Angel Film, Filmgear, Nordisk Film Shortcut, Blixt Kamera. (International sales: Delphis Films, Montreal.) Produced by Johnny Andersen. Executive producers, Brigitte Hald, Bo Ehrhardt. Directed by Natasha Arthy. Screenplay, Arthy, Nikolaj Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg.

With Semra Turan, Cyron Melville, Xian Gao, Nima Nabipour, Molly Blixt Egelind, Behruz Banissi, Sadi Tekelioglu, Ozlem Saglanmak.
(Danish, Turkish, English dialogue)

By ALISSA SIMON
The headstrong daughter of conservative Turkish immigrants in Copenhagen tries to meet her uneducated parents' high expectations while remaining true to her private passion -- kung fu -- in "Fighter." Quality teen drama boasts an appealingly feisty heroine and high-energy martial arts action choreographed by Xian Gao ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). Fresh spin on cross-cultural romance and coming-of-age plotlines will compel fests to enter the ring. The first Danish action pic to employ international stunt and wire specialists, "Fighter" garnered enthusiastic reviews and healthy box office on Dec. 12 local release. Niche arthouse play, particularly in Europe and Asia, is conceivable.
High school student Aicha (engaging nonpro Semra Turan) is constantly on the run, literally and figuratively. Between familial duties and devotion to her sport, she has little time for schoolwork, and certainly none for a boyfriend. Although her traditional father forbids it, Aicha joins an elite kung fu club run by a strict Chinese sifu (Gao) who secretly admires her spunk. Males and females fight together, making Aicha slightly uncomfortable.

After advanced student Emil (agile heartthrob Cyron Melville) is ordered to practice with Aicha, the two gradually develop deeper feelings. An exhilarating extended montage of them training together, running and across roof tops, features breathtaking wire- and stuntwork.

Meanwhile, Aicha's older brother Ali (Nima Nabipour), a physician, hopes to marry Jasmin (Ozlem Saglanmak), a woman from a higher-status family; they're anxious that Aicha's immodest behavior not jeopardize the wedding. When Omar (Behruz Banissi), a friend of Jasmin's family, joins Aicha's class, the stage is set for disaster until Aicha learns to claim responsibility for her own choices.

Fine fight choreography furthers the emotional and dramatic development of the plot. The intensity of Aicha and Emil's feelings is convincingly portrayed through the physicality of their stylized matches, something more sensual than another awkward teen sex scene.

The graceful young actors, many nonpro with martial-arts experience, lend the story extra credibility. Gao has a commanding presence, despite very little dialogue.

Standout production design and cinematography convey apt visual corollaries for the heroine's lack of private time and space, surrounding her with constantly ticking watches, clocks and alarms. Aicha's recurring nightmare of fighting a masked ninja gets a sleek fantasy look that contrasts with the rest of the pic's grainy urban atmosphere.

Camera (color, 16mm-to-35mm, widescreen), Sebastian Wintero; editor, Kaspar Leick; music, Saqib, Frithjof Toksvig; production designer, Peter de Neergaard; costume designer, Susie Bjornvad; sound (Dolby SR); sound designer, Hans Moller; martial arts choreographer, Xian Gao; casting, Anja Phillip, Lena Paaske. Reviewed at Gothenburg Film Festival (Nordic competition), Jan. 31, 2008. (Also in Berlin Film Festival -- Generation 14plus). Running time: 97 MIN.

Review | The Other Side of Istanbul (2008)

The Other Side of Istanbul
(Documentary -- Germany)
By JAY WEISSBERG

A Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie Berlin, Dondu Kilic Filmproduktion production. (International sales: Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie Berlin, Berlin.) Produced by Anna de Paoli, Erdem Murat Celikler. Executive producers, Dondu Kilic, Hartmut Bitomsky. Directed by Dondu Kilic. Written by Andreas Hug, Kilic.

With: Mehmet Tarhan, Mustafa Cagrici.

Like much in Turkey, and Istanbul in particular, the gay scene sits uncomfortably between East and West, making it a ripe topic that receives only superficial treatment in Dondu Kilic's well-meaning but formless "The Other Side of Istanbul." Meant to explore the difficulties faced by gay men in Turkish society, docu loads up on pointless scenes offering no insight, while a larger perspective beyond the few subjects interviewed remains either elusive or unaddressed. Pic will work best for auds coming to the material for the first time, though even they'll wonder at the narrow focus.

Part of the frustration derives from the wasted opportunity: Articulate activist Mehmet Tarhan is immersed in the discourse and, along with his supportive Kurdish family, cries out for more screen time. Young Mustafa speaks of machismo and class hierarchy in the gay scene, but more on these key topics, along with the subject of honor killings, would expand docu's limited horizons. Generic shots of the city, plus an overlong wedding sequence, add nothing, while Kilic fails to provide any background on a transsexual demonstration in Bursa. Handheld lensing is standard; arrangement of scenes feels random.

Camera (color, HD), Vojtech Pokorny; editor, Kilic, Mariejosephin Schneider; music, Niclas Ramdohr. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama Documentaries), Feb. 9, 2008. Original title: Das andere Istanbul. Turkish, English, Dutch dialogue. Running time: 82 MIN.

Review | The Edge of Heaven

The Edge of Heaven
Bottom Line: Intricate and moving drama about life's struggles and near misses.

By Ray Bennett
May 24, 2007

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN
The Match Factory presents a Corazon International Production in co-production with Anka Film in association with NDR and Dorje Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Fatih Akin
Producers: Andreas Thiel, Klaus Maeck, Fatih Akin
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designers: Tamo Kunz, Sirma Bradley
Music: Shantel
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Co-producers: Erhan Ozogul, Funda Odemis, Ali Akdeniz
Cast:
Nejat Aksu: Baki Davrak
Yeter Ozturk: Nursel Kose
Susanne Staub: Hanna Schygulla
Ali Aksu: Tungel Kurtiz
Ayten Ozturk: Nurgul Yesilgay
Lotte Staub: Patriycia Ziolkowska
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating
CANNES -- Director Fatih Akin continues his insightful exploration of the things that divide and bridge different cultures and generations in his absorbing In Competition film "The Edge of Heaven." Like his 2004 Berlin Golden Bear winner "Head-On," the film deals with Turkish folk living in Germany but this time he brings his story back to Istanbul.

Love was his topic in the earlier film, and now Akin turns his attention to death. It may not be a wise thing to label the major chapters announcing the deaths of key characters, but he tells their stories with flair and compassion. Audiences that responded to "Head-On" will be pleased with "Heaven," and festival and art house prospects look good.

The director, who also wrote the script, achieves a keen-eyed view of the Turkish expatriates in this film while sustaining his remarkable ability to make them universal. His tale is about two families whose fate becomes entwined in ways they don't discover within the time frame of the film.

It starts in Germany with Turkish immigrant Ali (Tuncel Kurtiz), a crusty retired widower whose son Nejat (Baki Davrak) is a successful academic. Uncouth but charismatic, Ali still seeks pleasures of the flesh, which is how he meets Yeter (Nursel Kose), a severely beautiful Turkish woman who works in a brothel. Taken with her charms and pleased to be speaking his native tongue, Ali proposes that he become her sole customer and asks her to move in with him.
Having been threatened by Muslim men who tell her she must give up her way of life, Yeter accepts Ali's offer. Nejat is tolerantly amused by this turn of events but contentment is brief as there is darkness in his father's character that leads to a fatal confrontation.

Meanwhile, Yeter's daughter has gone missing in Istanbul and Nejat tries to find her. On a visit to the city, he falls in love with a German bookshop that is up for sale and, being a professor of the language, he buys it. So now he's a very German Turk back in Turkey.

The film then moves to introduce Yeter's daughter Ayten (Nurgel Yesilgay) who is involved with an underground group in Turkey. When she winds up with a gun in her possession following a street protest, she hides the gun and flees to Germany seeking asylum. There, she meets Lotte (Patrycia Ziolkowska) and they become lovers to the disapproval of Lotte's mother, Susanne (Hanna Schygulla).

When Ayten's appeal is rejected, she is returned to Turkey and imprisoned for offences against the state. Lotte becomes a German ex-patriot in Turkey, and the very human dilemma is viewed from another angle. Attracted by the German books, Lotte goes to the bookstore and meets Najet, who offers her a room. As she has been warned never to mention Aynet's name, the two never learn that they are seeking the same person. When Lotte visits her lover in jail, Aynet asks her to find the hidden gun and fate takes another turn.

Akin weaves their stories with clarity even as it becomes apparent that he has time-shifted certain scenes, and he makes observant sense about the fragility of human connections. Rainer Klausmann's cinematography captures the contrasting cities of Hamburg and Istanbul vividly. The acting is fine throughout, with Kose and Schygulla especially effective as mothers who see themselves all too clearly in their daughters. It is only late in the film that the German professor sees his father in him and the final scenes speak profoundly of acceptance and forgiveness.

Fatih Akin's 'Heaven' tops Germany's Lolas

Fatih Akin's ensemble drama "The Edge of Heaven" took the top Lolas at the 58th German Film Awards [1] Friday, including best pic, director and screenplay, beating favorite "Cherry Blossoms," which won three prizes including the runner-up Silver Lola for pic. "The Edge of Heaven," a Turkish-German production about two deaths that bring strangers together, also picked up a Lola for editing.

Akin's "Auf der anderen Seite" (The Edge of Heaven) is a story of loss, mourning and forgiveness set in both Germany and Turkey [2]. "Danke, danke, danke," said a grateful Akin, a Hamburg-based director of Turkish descent whose hard-hitting films about the struggles and confusion of Turkish immigrants in Germany have won also honors at the Berlin and Cannes film festivals. "It's extraordinarily difficult to measure art in any way," said Akin, 34, whose 2003 film "Gegen die Wand" (Head-On) also drew international accolades. "So I'm delighted. We don't make films for prizes but rather for life," It is the second best film Lola for Akin, whose international breakthrough "Head-On" swept the awards in 2004. This year's victory is particularly sweet, however. Akin has repeatedly butted heads with the German Film Academy, criticizing the way the academy selects its Lola nominees. Hoisting his golden statue Friday night, he made reference to the public spat, addressing star Til Schweiger, who recently resigned from the German academy after his boxoffice smash "Rabbit Without Ears" was snubbed in the Lola nominations."Just watch, Til, we're going to join (the academy) again!" Akin said.

Some 1,500 guests attended the glitzy event, held at Berlin's Palais am Funkturm. Presented by Germany's federal culture ministry, the Lolas are handed out in 15 categories and carry $4.4 million in prizes.

The winners are chosen by the German Film Academy's more than 1,000 members.




Notes

[1] For her latest drama "Cherry Blossoms" about a grieving widower who journeys to Japan, Doris Dorrie was nominated for six Lolas, the German equivalent of the Oscar.Close behind were Fatih Akin's cross-cultural drama "The Edge of Heaven" with five Lola nominations and Christian Petzold's cerebral mystery thriller "Yella" with four.

[2] Turkish migrants in Germany were the key theme of TV productions honored by the Adolf Grimme Institut in 2007. Winner of five Grimme awards in the fiction category was “Wut” (Anger) by German-Turkish helmer Zuli Aladag, about a middle-class family being bullied by a Turkish youth, on ARD. Tackling similar themes from the lighter side, further awards were snatched by series “Tuerkisch fuer Anfanger” (Turkish for Beginners), also on ARD, and telepic “Meine verrueckte tuerkische Hochzeit” (My Crazy Turkish Wedding) on ProSieben.

Review | Summer Book (Tatil Kitabi)

Summer Book (Tatil Kitabi) by Dan Fainaru in Istanbul

Dir:Seyfi Teoman. Turkey , 2008. 92 mins.

Winner of Best Film in the national section at Istanbul, Seyfi Teoman's small-scale but poetic evocation of summer in a small provincial Turkish town will elicit a warm response both from festival programmers and Turkish communities abroad. The quiet, peaceful beauty of its landscape and its authentic-seeming characters will reward the patient viewer of this laid-back portrait of family life in Silifke, a town close enough to the Mediterranean to benefit from its weather but not enough to be a tourist attraction.

But Teoman's understated tone, sparse dialogue and detached point of view would seem to restrict Summer Book, which also played at Berlin, from breaking out much further than this limited audience.

Spread over the period of one summer holiday and seen mostly, but not exclusively, through the eyes of 10-year-old Ali (Gunay), Summer Book starts on the last day of the school year and ends with the first day of the new term. In between, it covers not only Ali's conflicts with boys of his own age and his early encounters with the grown-up world around him, but also his older brother Veysel's (Ozuag) desire to leave his military boarding school and move to an open university in Istanbul and their mother Guler's (Tokun) suspicions that her husband has a mistress.

Towering above them is Ali's father/husband Mustafa (Inan), who runs his business and his family with an iron fist. And in the shadows, his uncle Hasan (Birsel), once an aspiring business man, now the town's butcher, who has to take over when Mustafa suffers an unexpected stroke and is immobilized in a hospital.

And that's about it. While this may seem thin for a full-length feature, surprisingly it works. Teoman imposes on his film the rhythm of life itself in places like Silifke. The audience is left to figure out quite a few issues, including the truth about Mustafa's illicit relationship - which is an issue for a while and then is dwarfed by other events. Numerous details are unobtrusively sneaked in, such as the family's constant money worries, their respect for religion, the routine of their lives and how power plays out within the family.

Catalan cameraman Arnau Valls Colomer, who worked with Teoman on his short Apartment, does a great job using natural light. The decision to work most of the time in long shots also successfully integrates the characters into the landscape. With one exception (Birsel), the cast has had no previous experience, which adds to the immediacy of the picture as a whole, as no one seems to be acting.

Production companies :Bulut Film
Worldwide distribution :Wide Management + (33) (1) 5395 0465
Producers :Yamac Okur ,Nadir Operli ,
Screenplay :Seyfi Teoman
Director of photography :Arnau Valls Colomer
Production designer :Nadide Argun
Editor :Cicek Kahraman
Sound :Theron Patterson

Main cast: Taner Birsel ,Ayten Tokun ,Osman Inan ,Harun Ozuak,Tayfun Gunay

Fatih Akin to Un Certain Regard Jury Duty

61e FESTIVAL DE CANNES
du 14 au 25 mai
Jury Un Certain Regard
Fatih AKIN, Président
(Réalisateur allemand)

2008 |Three Monkeys/Uc Maymun by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Three Monkeys/Uc Maymun [1] 2008 Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria [2]
109 min.
ÜÇ MAYMUN FR: (Les Trois singes)
Directed by: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
NBC Film Production
Screenplay by: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Ercan Kesal
Cast: Yavuz Bingöl, Hatice Aslan ve Ercan Kesal
Synopsys: The story revolves around the family of a businesman's driver.

[1] Named "Hayaller" originally during the shooting.

[2] Eurimages supports 11 European co-productions including Hayaller - Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)(Turkey, France, Italy) 235 000 Euros and Hayat Var - Reha Erdem (Turkey)(Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria) 200 000 Euros
STRASBOURG, 19.07.2007 -- At its 107th meeting held from 14 to 16 October 2007 in Alicante, the Board of Management of the Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund agreed to support 11 feature films for a total amount of 4 380 000 Euros

Nuri Bilge Ceylan sends Three Monkeys to Festival de Cannes

The poster of the Festival de Cannes 2008 is a photograph by David Lynch, adapted by Pierre Collier, a cinema poster artist.

A mix of old and new, of Hollywood glitz and auteur fare, has proven a recipe for success as the film industry's biggest annual festival gearing up for its 61st edition from May 14 to May 25.

After viewing 1,792 films from 96 countries, organisers selected 19 movies to compete for the prestigious Palme d'Or that winds up the yearly 12-day extravaganza of showbiz parties, red-carpet screenings and wheeling and dealing.

When a final 20th film from France is announced in the coming days, the countdown per continent will be Asia (3), Europe (7), Latin America (3), the United States (3), and a film each from Israel, Canada and Turkey.

The list of 19 films competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or award. A 20th film from France is to be announced in the next few days.

"Uc Maymun" (The Three Monkeys) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)
"Le Silence De Lorna" (The Silence of Lorna) by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium)
"Un Conte de Noel" (A Christmas Tale) by Arnaud Desplechin (France)
"Changeling" by Clint Eastwood (United States)
"Adoration" by Atom Egoyan (Canada)
"Waltz With Bashir" by Ari Folman (Israel)
"La Frontiere De l'Aube" (The Frontier Of Dawn) by Philippe Garrel (France)
"Gomorra" by Matteo Garrone (Italy)
"24 City" by Jia Zhangke (China)
"Synecdoche, New York" by Charlie Kaufman (United States)
"My Magic" by Eric Khoo (Singapore)
"La Mujer Sin Cabeza" (Woman Without A Head) by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina)
"Serbis" by Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)
"Delta" by Kornel Mundruczo (Hungary)
"Linha de Passe" (Line of Passage) by Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas (Brazil)
"Che" by Steven Soderbergh (United States)
"Il Divo" by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
"Leonera" by Pablo Trapero (Argentina)
"The Palermo Shooting" by Wim Wenders (Germany)
Out of competition:

"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" by Woody Allen (United States)
"The Good, The Bad, The Weird" by Kim Jee-Woon (South Korea)
"Kung Fu Panda" by Mark Osborne, John Stevenson (United States)
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" by Steven Spielberg (United States)
Feature Film Jury
Sean PENN, President
(American actor, director, screenwriter)
Sergio CASTELLITTO (Italian actor, director, screenwriter)
Natalie PORTMAN (Israeli-American actress)
Alfonso CUARON (Mexican director)
Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL (Thai director)
Alexandra Maria LARA (German actress)
Rachid BOUCHAREB (French director)

Awards | 27th International Istanbul Film Festival

INTERNATIONAL GOLDEN TULIP COMPETITION

The International Jury of the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival presided over by Michael Ballhaus and composed of Joan Dupont, Selim Eyüboğlu; Bent Hamer, Pawel Pawlikowski, and Kirsi Tykkilainen has decided to give:

The GOLDEN TULIP Award to "EGG"directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu (Turkey), "for its poetic and subtle portrayal of a man adrift in a modern world, who, forced by circumstances, returns to his native village to find meaning and the possibility of love."
The SPECIAL PRIZE of the Jury to "THE WAVE" directed by Dennis Gansel (Germany) "for the powerful and gripping way in which it shows how our need for purpose and community can be manipulated to disastrous effect."
NATIONAL COMPETITION

The National Jury of the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival presided over by Semih Kaplanoğlu, and composed of Sylvain Auzou, Pınar Kür, Michèle Maheux and Nurgül Yeşilçay has decided to give:

the BEST TURKISH FILM OF THE YEAR Award to "TATİL KİTABI / SUMMER BOOK"directed by Seyfi Teoman "for being a first film that conveys hope, tackling the theme of innocence with a cinematographic narrative and a humane approach";

the BEST DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR Award to DERVİŞ ZAİM for his film "NOKTA / DOT" for plainly translating a largely forgotten traditional art to the cinematic language with a masterful aesthetic, and for creating a powerful impact".
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey gave a monetary prize of 50,000 YTL to each of the above-mentioned winners.

the BEST ACTRESS Award to AYÇA DAMGACI for her performance in "Gitmek / My Marlon and Brando";
the BEST ACTOR Award to SERHAT TUTUMLUER for his performance in "Ara".
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey gave a monetary prize of 10,000 YTL to each of the above-mentioned winners.

the SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY to "Ara"by Ümit Ünal for "strikingly tackling subjects that are still considered taboo in today's society within the context of interpersonal relationships by delving deep into its characters' personalities through masterful dialogues."

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE FILM AWARD, "FACE"

The FACE Award (Council of Europe Film Award) is presented to the director of a film that arises public awareness and interest in human rights issues, creates better understanding of their importance, and best reflects the Council's values of respect for human rights, individual freedom, political liberty and the rule of law. The award includes a sculpture in bronze and a cash prize of Euro 10,000. It is awarded as part of the Human Rights in Cinema section of the festival. The Human Rights Jury of the 27th International İstanbul Film Festival is composed of Nurdan Arca, Philippe Boillat, Tony Gatlif, Abderrahmane Sissako and Jan Vandierendonck decided to give the award to:

"BLIND MOUNTAIN" by Li Yang (China) for "for its powerful message against all violence, no matter its form to women all over the world, because this message is both universal and timeless."
FIPRESCI AWARDS

The FIPRESCI Jury of the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival presided over by Kirill Razlogov and composed of Necla Algan, Madhu Eravankara, Burak Göral, Gyözö Matyas and André Waardenburg gave:

The FIPRESCI Award in the International Competition to "BEN X"by NIC BALTHAZAR (Belgium), for "the powerful cinematic expression of agony and ecstasy of a teenager suffering from autism."

The FIPRESCI Award in the National Competition, in memory of Onat Kutlar, to "TATİL KİTABI / SUMMER BOOK"directed by Seyfi Teoman, for "a sensitive and cinematically pure image of painful life experiences through a child's eyes and feelings."

As in the previous years, Efes Pilsen has given a prize of US$ 30.000 to the winner of the Onat Kutlar Prize, Seyfi Teoman, to be used for his next film project.

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS sponsored by the Radikal Newspaper and determined by the votes of the Festival audience, are given to:

"YUMURTA / EGG"by Semih Kaplanoğlu (Turkey) in the International Competition, and "ULAK / THE MESSENGER"by Çağan Irmak in the National Competition.

MEETINGS ON THE BRIDGE FEATURE FILM PROJECT DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP AWARD
Organised for the first time within the Meetings on the Bridge series of seminars, the Feature Film Project Development Workshop Award was given to Belma Baş for her project "ZEFİR / ZEPHYR". Thirteen projects remained from the 113 applications after the pre-selection by Zeynep Özbatur, Fatih Özgüven and Derviş Zaim. From among these 13 projects, Karl Baumgartner, Gergana Dakovska, Ellis Driessen, Marit van den Elshout, Isabelle Fauvel, Noemi Ferrer, Chinlin Hsieh, Michel Reilhac, Jan Vandierendonck selected "ZEPHYR". The winning project will also be presented a monetary award of US$10.000 with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey.

White Angel wins two awards at 41st WorldFest

Mahsun Kirmizigul's film "Beyaz Melek" (White Angel) that represented Turkey at the 41st WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in the U.S., where it was awarded best foreign film and the jury’s special award for the best director.

Starring actors including Yildiz Kenter, Arif Erkin, Erol Gunaydin and Gazanfer Ozcan, the film follows an old man who invites his nursing home friends to experience the kindness his village offers for the elderly.

WorldFest traces its actual beginnings to August 1961, when it began screening foreign & art films as Cinema Arts, an international film society. It became a competitive international film festival seven years later, in April 1968, and has been in continuous operation ever since. It is one of the original three film festivals in North America, with San Francisco and New York as the first two venues. Now there are over 900 USA film festivals of various levels and quality, most being non-competitive screening events! It is perhaps the longest-running film festival in the world operating under the same director.

Cinema Honorary Awards to Bora, Günay and Hun

Cinema Honorary Awards were presented at the opening ceremony of the 27th International İstanbul Film Festival .

Cinema Honorary Awards which are annually given to those artists who contributed significantly to the development of Turkish Cinema are presented this year to:

Ekrem Bora, a star, who has acted in the gamut of roles in the Yeşilçam spectrum, from baby-faced movie hunk to strong-featured authoritarian patriarch. From Metin Erksan's masterpiece "Acı Hayat" ("Bitter Life") (1963), Atıf Yılmaz' "Pembe Kadın" ("Pink Lady"), to Ülkü Erakalın's many films including "Gözleri Ömre Bedel" ("Eyes Worth a Life"), Ekrem Bora has become one of the unforgettable figures of Yeşilçam.

İzzet Günay played in many movies which are seen among classics of Yeşilçam for both their plots and acting. All made Izzet Günay forever imprinted on the audiences' memory. His characters who don't run from a fight and stick with the just, the Ottoman male who is street-savvy but has a soft heart and knows how to love, all contributed into making him one of the unforgettable faces of Yeşilçam.

Ediz Hun is the actor most associated with Yeşilçam's romantic young male stars. His name was the first to come to mind in classical Yeşilçam melodramas. Some of his memorable roles were Kenan in the Orhan Aksoy adaptation of Kerime Nadir's "Hıçkırık" ("Sigh"), Şevket in Memduh Ün's adaptation of Reşat Nuri's "Yaprak Dökümü" ("Falling Leaves") and Peregrini in Mehmet Dinler's adaptation of Halide Edip's "Sinekli Bakkal" ("The Clown and His Daughter").

27th International İstanbul Film Festival takes Start

The eagerly awaited 27th International İstanbul Film Festival has started with the opening gala held at the Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Centre on the evening of April, 4th.

Acknowledgement plaques were given to the Festival Sponsor, AKBANK; the theme sponsors, TEKNOSA, BAŞAK GROUPAMA, COLINS, DIGITURK, SABAH NEWSPAPER, NTV and EFES PILSEN.

27th International İstanbul Film Festival also welcomed Claudia Cardinale, a dazzling icon of Italian cinema, forever embedded in our memories with both her beauty and talent. Cardinale received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Festival. Luchino Visconti's 1963 masterpiece starring Claudia Cardinale, Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon will also be screened at the İstanbul Film Festival with the presence of the actress.

The opening ceremony of the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival took start with the opening speech of Şakir Eczacıbaşı, the Chairman of the Board of the Istanbul Foundation foe Culture and Arts, the organising institution of the festival.

After the opening ceremony, the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival started with the screening of the Lebanese film "Sukkar Banat / Caramel" in the presence of the director and lead actress of the film, Nadine Labaki.

The 6th Turkish Films Week in Berlin

Turkish films to be screened in Berlin

The 6th Turkish Films Week will take start in Berlin next week. Documentaries and short films will also be presented during Turkish Films Week which will end on April 12th.

The 6th Turkish Films Week is organized by "Theatre Aktuel Berlin" association under the auspices of Berlin State Prime Minister Klaus Wowereit. "Mutluluk" (Happiness), directed by Abdullah Oguz, will be the first film that will be screened at the opening of the week on Thursday evening.

"Mavi Gozlu Dev" (Blue eyed Giant), "Yasamın Kiyisinda" (The Edge of Heaven), "Yumurta" (Egg), "Hazan Mevsimi" (Autumn), "Fikret Bey", "Bayrampasa", "Munferit" (Individual), "Hicran Sokagi" (Sadness street), "Meine Mutter, mein Bruder und ich" (My Mother, My Brother and I), "Riza", "Ademin Trenleri" (Adem's Trains), "Kader" (Destiny), and "Iyi seneler Londra" (Happy New Year London) are the other films that will be screened on three separate theatres.

Awards | Yesilcam Film Awards

1. Yeşilçam Ödülleri
Best film: Mutluluk (Abdullah Oğuz)
Best director: Fatih Akın (Yaşamın Kıyısında)
Best Screenplay: Fatih Akın (Yaşamın Kıyısında)
Best male actor: Şener Şen (Kabadayı)
Best female actor: Özgü Namal (Mutluluk)
Best supporting male actor: Tuncel Kurtiz (Yaşamın Kıyısında)
Best supporting female actor: Nursel Köse (Yaşamın Kıyısında)
Best cinematography: Mirsad Heroviç (Mutluluk)
Best music: Zülfü Livaneli (Mutluluk)
Turkcell first film award: Mahsun Kırmızıgül (Beyaz Melek)
Digitürk debut talent award: Saadet Işıl Aksoy (Yumurta)

French theaters get Egged in April

Kaplanoğlu’s film to hit French theaters in April

Turkish director Semih Kaplanoğlu's award-collecting film "Yumurta" (Egg) is scheduled to open in movie theaters in France on April 23.

Fog and Night | Sis ve Gece (2007) - Turgut Yasalar

Fog and the Night is the search of an investigator who has lost his confidence in his organization and whose happy"family father" order has been disrupted by his young lover.And introverted man due to his profession , not a big talker or well in expressing his feelings,Sedat is being consumed , going through the hardest time of his life , not able to silence his guilty conscience because he was unsuccessful in solving the murder of his partner , whom he saw a brother .His faith in his organization is shaken as he witness the schemes in machination inside the organization and between the organization and the state.Meanwhile , while trying to find his lover who has disappeared after falling for a former militant , he does not refrain from making use of the filthiest methods of his profession.

40th SIYAD Awards

SIYAD (Turkish Film Critics) 40. Anniversary Awards ceremony on March 03,2008 announced 2007 winners in the following categories.

YUMURTA (EGG)
Best Film: Yumurta/Egg

Best Director: Semih Kaplanoğlu (Yumurta/Egg)

Mahmut Tali Öngören Award for best screenplay: Semih Kaplanoğlu, Orçun Köksal (Yumurta/Egg)

Cahide Sonku Award for best fmale performance: Saadet Işıl Aksoy (Yumurta/Egg)

Best male performance: Nejat İşler (Yumurta/Egg)

Best supporting female performance: Derya Alabora (Adem'in Trenleri/Adam and the Devil )

Best supporting male performance: İlyas Salman (Sis ve Gece/Fog and Night)

Best Cinematography: Özgür Eken (Yumurta/Egg)

Best Musical Score: Zülfü Livaneli (Mutluluk/Bliss)

Best Art Direction: Naz Erayda (Yumurta/Egg)

Best Editing: Ayhan Ergürsel, Suzan Hande Güneri, Semih Kaplanoğlu (Yumurta/Egg)

Review |Uneasy Ottomans

Read other reviews from NBC Films web site

Uneasy Ottomans

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Climates takes the temperature of a failing marriage
By SCOTT FOUNDAS
Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - 7:00 pm

Turkish writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Climates is about the winds of change that blow through seasons and marriages. It begins with a woman, Bahar, perched atop a hillside in the Turkish resort town of Kas, while her husband, Isa, explores the ruins below. It is a beautiful day, and this vacation is long overdue, having been too many times postponed due to Bahar’s schedule as the art director on a television series and Isa’s as a university professor. Yet, as she watches him, slowly, almost imperceptibly she begins to cry inside. That night, they will quarrel during dinner with friends. (“Don’t worry, they enjoy seeing us miserable,” she assures him.) And before the vacation has ended, on a stretch of deserted beach that is like one of those paradisiacal oases that peek out from the pages of travel-agency brochures, he will suggest that they should try living apart for a while.

Climates is the fourth feature film by Ceylan, who won two major prizes at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for the exquisite Distant, and like his others, it’s something of a family affair — only this time, instead of casting his relatives in the leading roles, Ceylan has cast himself and his real-life wife, Ebru, as Isa and Bahar. And if, in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, such a decision might foster a mood of lurid home-movie voyeurism, both Ceylans are such commanding and subtly expressive performers that any charges of nepotism here are as erroneous as in the storied collaborations of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. This is also the first movie Ceylan has shot in high-definition video, which lends the images such startling clarity that it is possible to identify the individual beads of sweat that form on Bahar’s bosom as it bakes beneath the sweltering Kas sun. Yet the things Ceylan sees in sharpest relief lie beyond the reach of any digital camera.

I am talking about the hairline fissures that can form in even the most seemingly rock-solid relationship, and how such a relationship might end, without hysterics and by mutual agreement of both parties, for no reason other than that it has simply run its course. Such ideas are hardly fashionable for movies at a time when the Jennifer Aniston–Vince Vaughn The Break-Up is what passes as sophisticated grown-up entertainment, and I suspect that Climates will not be easy viewing for those who feel marooned in long-term partnerships, or maybe for any of us who have known the suddenness with which love can turn to revulsion. Of course, the same could be said of Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage or Alan Parker’s Shoot the Moon or Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives, and Climates merits a place alongside them in any inventory of the screen’s wise and disquieting portraits of marital collapse.

But there is something you will see in Climates that is not to be found in any of those other films. Back in Istanbul, some months after that day on the beach, Isa stands longingly outside the apartment of a former mistress (the fiery Nazan Kesal), whom he has just run into (with her current boyfriend) in a bookstore. After thinking about it for a while, she opens the door to him, and what follows can only be described as the most awkward and berserk and sensationally unrestrained movie sex scene since the ones in Last Tango in Paris — a clumsy ballet of ripped clothes and bodies slamming against furniture that shudders with violent passion and the sense of two lonely, desperate souls connecting out of some irrepressible, primal need.

Not long after that, Isa begins to think he may have behaved in haste, that perhaps he and Bahar should give things another go. So he travels to Ishakpasa, where she is working, and their reunion there, amid the flurries of midwinter, is something beyond words. The shades of disgust, longing, forgiveness and resignation that flash across both lovers’ faces are like the storm clouds that interrupt a placid spring day and then, just as quickly, disappear — the whole complex history of woman and man condensed into a few sublime seconds of screen time. With that come no easy answers or tidy resolutions, but as Bahar literally fades from our view and an airplane that may or may not be carrying Isa streaks across a brilliant sky, we’re filled with the melancholic reminder that, in life as in nature, each ending brings with it another new beginning.



CLIMATES | Written and directed by NURI BILGE CEYLAN | Produced by ZEYNEP ÖZBATUR | Released by Zeitgeist Films |

SİYAD announces awards

Critics association announces awards

Turkish film producer Üstün Karabol will be this year's recipient of the Turkish Film Critics Association's (SİYAD) labor award alongside actors Kadir İnanır and Müjde Ar and filmmaker-scriptwriter Safa Önal, who will receive the association's honor awards, the association announced on Wednesday.

The SİYAD board of directors said in a statement that Karabol, the producer of such films as Serdar Akar's "Dar Alanda Kısa Paslaşmalar" (Offside) (2000) and Mustafa Altıoklar's "İstanbul Kanatlarımın Altında" (İstanbul Under My Wings) (1996), was deemed worthy of the labor award for "the efforts he spent in the development and promotion of the art of cinema in Turkey since the 1960s," and particularly for his "contributions in making European cinema enter wide release in Turkey." The association announced the nominees for its best film honor earlier this month, with the shortlist consisting of Semih Kaplanoğlu's poetic drama "Yumurta" (Egg), Abdullah Oğuz's screen adaptation of Zülfü Livaneli's novel "Mutluluk" (Bliss), Barış Pirhasan's "Adem'in Trenleri" (Adam and the Devil), Ömer Vargı's "Kabadayı" (Tough Guy) and Turgut Yasalar's "Sis ve Gece" (The Fog and the Night).

The 40th annual SİYAD Turkish Cinema Awards will be handed out at a ceremony at İstanbul's TİM Show Center on March 3.

IIFF 2008 | Juries shaping for istanbul

27th International Istanbul Film Festival program is beginning to take shape. The Festival is sponsored by Akbank and scheduled to take place between April 5-20, 2008. 7 of the films that will be featured in this year's program will also be competing for an Oscar at the 80th Annual Academy Awards.

International Competition Jury

• PRESIDENT: Michael Ballhaus (Cinematographer)

National Competition Jury

• Semih Kaplanoğlu	Nurgül Yeşilçay	Elif Şafak

• PRESIDENT: Semih Kaplanoğlu
• Nurgül Yeşilçay (Actress)
• Elif Şafak (Author)
• Michèle Maheux (Toronto Film Festival Director)
• Sylvain Auzou

  				Michele Maheux	Sylvain Auzou

• INTERNATIONAL İSTANBUL FILM FESTIVAL
  İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts
  Istiklal Caddesi 64
  Beyoğlu 34435 İstanbul
  Phone: +90 212 334 07 00
  Fax: +90 212 334 07 02

  film.fest@iksv.org

Rotterdam 2008 | Egg (Yumurta)

Egg (Yumurta) - TT (IFFR 2008)

Turkey, Greece 2007
Director Semih Kaplanoglu
Producer Semih Kaplanoglu, Lilette Botassi
Production company Kaplan Film Production, Inkas Film Production
Sales Coach 14
Print source Coach 14
Scenario Semih Kaplanoglu, Orçun Koksal
Cast Nejat Isler, Saadet Isil Aksoy, Ufuk Bayraktar, Tülin Özen, Gülçin Santircioglu, Kaan Karabacak, Semra Kaplanoglu
Photography Özgür Eken
Editor Ayhan Ergürsel, Semih Kaplanoglu, Suzan Hande Güneri
Art Design Naz Erayda
Sound Ismail Karadas
Length 97'
Website www.kaplanfilm.com

A poetic Turkish film in which a poet from Istanbul returns to his birthplace after the death of his mother and tries to find his roots. He manages thanks to a young woman. Part two of a trilogy-to-be by the talent Kaplanoglu (Part 1 was Angel's Fall, IFFR 2006).

Egg is the second part of a trilogy by the outstanding Turkish talent Semih Kaplanoglu (preceded by Angel's Fall and to be followed by Milk).

Yusuf (Nejat Isler), a book store owner and poet living in Istanbul, receives a phone call informing him that his mother has died. He returns to his hometown, after several year's absence, to arrange the funeral. In his family home he meets Ayla (Saadet Isil Aksoy), the young woman who spent the last years of his mother's life taking care of her. The poet notices the young woman's charm and is touched by it. Contact between the two is almost non-verbal, but there is a growing understanding between them. Ayla tells Yusuf about his mother's last wish. At first he hesitates to fulfil it, but later agrees and the two set off on a mission.

This film is a wonderful, sensitive, realistic and poetic return to one's past. It is also the journey of a city man back to his roots, his memories. It is a return to the world that for so many nowadays seems to have been forgotten - the world of simplicity, of a life that we once had. It is also a search for one's identity, for family ties. And within that, the ties to his mother. (LC)

Rotterdam 2008 | My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek)

My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek) - TT (IFFR 2008)

Turkey, Netherlands, United Kingdom 2008
Director Hüseyin Karabey
Producer Hüseyin Karabey, Lucinda Englehart, Frans van Gestel, Jeroen Beker
Production company A-si Film Yapim, Spier Films, IDTV FILM/Motel Films
Sales Insomnia World Sales
Print source Lucinda Englehart
Scenario Hüseyin Karabey, Ayca Damgaci
Cast Ayca Damgaci, Hama Ali Kahn, Nesrin Cavadzade, Emrah Ozdemir, Cengiz Bozkurt, Mahir Gunsiray
Photography Emre Tanyildiz
Editor Mary Stephen
Sound Mohammed Mokhtari
Music Kemal Sahir Gurel, Huseyin Yildiz, Erdal Guney
Length 92'
Website www.asifilm.com

Dramatic road movie based on a true story about a young theatre actress from Istanbul who wants to go to her lover. The problem is that he is Kurdish, is in northern Iraq and the American invasion of Iraq makes communication even more difficult. With the original video letters.

Ayça is a Turkish actress and she lives in Istanbul. On a film set in the West of Turkey, she meets Hama Ali, a Kurdish actor. The two fall in love while shooting a film. After the shoot, Ayça returns to Istanbul and Hama has to go back to his home, Süleymaniye in northern Iraq . Ayça and Hama continue their relationship on the telephone and via letters, while America prepares to attack Iraq. The post often doesn't work and the phone lines in Iraq are usually cut off. From time to time, Ayça receives a declaration of love from her lover on video. Ayça can no longer bear the distance between them and decides to travel to northern Iraq. But getting into a country at war turns out to be just as difficult as getting out.
The protagonists in the film are not actors who would quickly be cast for an average love story. My Marlon and Brando is a real story with and about real people. Ayça and Hama Ali are actors in their everyday lives, here they play themselves. In this way the film creates a tense balance between documentary and fiction. The love letters and video letters in the film are real, but Ayça is acting her own life. Result: a powerful and penetrating road movie in which a committed film maker approaches the world through a personal story.

Rotterdam 2008 | Brain Surgeon

Brain Surgeon - SH (IFFR 2008)

Turkey 2007
Director Ömer Ali Kazma
Producer Selen Korkut
Production company A Film
Sales A Film
Print source A Film
Photography Ömer Ali Kazma
Editor Ömer Ali Kazma
Sound Ömer Ali Kazma
Length 15'Part of the series 'Obstructions' about craftsmanship: brain surgery performed by a Turkish surgeon, a virtuoso at his job.

This film forms part of the series 'Obstructions' about human actions and skills; about maintenance, repair, production and creation. Here we follow the well-known Turkish brain surgeon Ali Zirh who performs a brain operation with incredible control on a patient who has become paralysed on the right side.

Rotterdam 2008 | Hidden Faces (Sakli yüzler)

Hidden Faces (Sakli yüzler) - TT (IFFR 2008)

Director Handan Ipekçi
Producer Handan Ipekçi
Production company Yeni Yapim Film, Tradewind Pictures GmbH, Bir Film Ithalat Ihracat Ticaret
Sales Bavaria Film International
Print source Bavaria Film International
Scenario Handan Ipekçi
Cast Senay Aydin, Istar Gökseven, Berk Hakman, Cem Bender, Nisa Yildirim, Füsun Demirel
Photography Feza Caldiran
Editor Handan Ipekçi
Art Design Deniz Özen, Esra Yildiz
Sound Nurkut Özdemir, Umut Senyol
Music Anima
Length 115'

Complex and intriguing Turkish drama about revenge killing. A young woman who went into hiding from her family talks about her life in a documentary. An uncle who sees the film in Germany won't let it rest .

There have been a few Turkish feature films (and books) dealing with the subject of crimes committed in order to ‘safeguard family honour’, the so-called honour killings, but few of them have been successful. Hidden Faces by Handan Ipekçi, known for her socially critical films, is one of the rare realistic dramas which, with respect for women, shows the true face of this problem.
The structure of the film is complex and intriguing. The story begins in a German cinema where a Turkish documentary Honor Killings - A Violation of Human Rights is showing. The audience distainfully watches the confessions of the young woman Zurhe. She loved a local shepherd in her village and had a child by him before he abandoned her. To restore the family’s honour, Zurhe’s uncle, Ali, forces her 17-year-old brother Ismail to strangle the baby in front of her eyes. Her father kills himself instead of killing his daughter. When an enlightened uncle from Germany comes to take her with him, he too is killed by the family males. The bloodshed is blamed on the underaged Ismail, who is only given a five-year sentence. All these facts are revealed in flashbacks and the documentary film director plays the dangerous game of wanting to find Zhurhe, who is now living under a different identity. Her uncle Ali sees the documentary and is determined to finish the job he began several years earlier. (LC)

Article | "Gitmek" (My Marlon and Brando)

Hüseyin Karabey, Turkey’s pride at Rotterdam film festival
Turkish filmmaker Hüseyin Karabey poses for a photograph at the Rotterdam Film Festival, where his film “Gitmek” is being screened.

It is another frightfully cold and windy day as I head to meet with director Hüseyin Karabey during the International Rotterdam Film Festival.


His first feature film, "Gitmek" (My Marlon and Brando), just had its world premiere the night before -- and obviously it went quite well, as Karabey greets me with a relieved expression and a warm smile. As for me, not only am I excited to talk with the man who has shot this wonderful film but I am also more than happy to finally talk with a compatriot in this crazy jamboree. We are among the handful of Turks attending one of the most world's most popular festivals for film professionals in the world.

"Gitmek" is one of the best films I have seen that has come out of Turkey in recent years. It is simple, yet profound; meticulously shot, but with the right amount of documentary feel; it has a captivating female lead and, even more important, it is genuine. On a film set in Anatolia, actress Ayça (played by Ayça Damgacı) meets Hama Ali (Hama Ali Khan -- who happens to be a Kurdish actor). Ayça and Hama Ali fall in love, but Ayça lives in İstanbul and Hama Ali in Sulaimaniya, Iraq. In the following months, they communicate over the telephone and with letters and, once in a while, Hama Ali sends Ayça tender yet passionate video diaries. However, the year is 2003 and eventually the US declares war on Iraq. In this time of chaos how will they ever see each other? The strong-minded Ayça wants nothing more than to unite with her beloved. She decides to embark on a journey from İstanbul to Sulaimaniya via southeastern Turkey, Iran and eventually Iraq. Thus her real adventure and introspection begins. This is the story of a real woman in a real world and one has to congratulate Karabey for his determination in making this film.

Reversing standards

Coming from a Kurdish family himself, Karabey ended up studying in İstanbul. He is better known for his documentaries. When I ask him how his journey toward fiction started he replies: "Well, I always saw cinema as a whole and never really differentiated between documentary and fiction. When I saw what was broadcasted on television I realized that the media never showed what was really going on in the country or the world. What I saw on the screen was not what I or the people I knew were experiencing. I wanted to change that and make something that told the story of ordinary folks like us and not far-fetched characters living in a bubble."

Indeed Karabey has achieved his aspirations, as the delightful Ayça Damagacı, whom the film's story is also based on, is not the picture-perfect damsel in distress. Ayça is chubby, not the smartest person in the world and, furthermore, she is a woman -- thank God, someone finally realized that strong female characters could lead a story in Turkish cinema!

As we continue our conversation Karabey further comments, "Besides the lead being a woman, another 'standard' we wanted to reverse was the concept of going to the East instead of the West in the search for happiness. Ayça's quest is not as such and her heart lies in the East -- in the middle of a war. As we watch her travel through Diyarbakır, Van and even Iran, we realize that the people residing in these places, which we have misconceptions about, also have lives and maintain wonderful traditions and practices that enhance their joy de vivre." I notice that Karabey always uses the word "us" when he is talking about the making of his film. To him "Gitmek" is the collaborative effort of his crew and I admire his sense of camaraderie.

The production story of the film is even more interesting. One of the few directors to hold the complete rights to his films, Karabey gathered a significant amount of his funding from abroad -- namely the Hubert Bals Fund of the Rotterdam Film Festival, where he is currently being hosted. He was also supported by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and, later on, he formed a co-production team with producers from the Netherlands and the UK. Karabey states: "As you know, the production of independent films is quite difficult in Turkey. However, if I managed to make this film, this means that I can form an example and shed a light for younger filmmakers who want to do something that is not the usual mainstream [material]."

"Gitmek" will open in Turkish theaters at the end of April. I recommend this film to anyone who enjoys good cinema. I am already looking forward to Karabey's next film.

30.01.2008
EMİNE YILDIRIM ROTTERDAM

Real Mavi Boncuk |Ertem Egilmez film

Mavi boncuk (1974)

Directed by Ertem Egilmez
Writing credits: Zeki Alasya, Ertem Egilmez, Sadik Sendil

Cast (in credits order)
Emel Sayin as herself
Tarik Akan ... Yakisikli(handsome0
Zeki Alasya ... Seker Kamil
Metin Akpinar ... Süleyman
Halit Akçatepe ... Mistik
Münir Özkul ... Baba Yasar
Kemal Sunal ... Cafer
Adile Nasit
Perran Kutman ... Maid




Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

part 9

Profile | Çağan Irmak

Çağan Irmak was born in Izmir in 1970. He graduated from Aegean University, School of Press and Broadcasting from the department of Radio-TV. He has been awarded the "Sedat Simavi" prize for his short films "Fairy-Tale" and "Victim", which were shot during his time at university. In 1992 he started working in the movie industry as an assistant director to various acclaimed directors. A few of these directors are as following: Orhan Oğuz, Mahinur Ergun, Filiz Kaynak and Yusuf Kurçenli. His short film "Play Me Old and Wise", which he both wrote and directed himself, was awarded the first runner up prize at IFSAK (Istanbul Photography and Cinema Association) in 1998 and then went on to be screened at the London Film Festival.

After his extensive experience as an assistant director, Irmak started to work as a director in television and quickly made a name for himself with his original style of storytelling and his technical expertise. He eventually became a household name with two projects; ‘Asmalı Konak’(2002), which was also shown on Greek television, and ‘Çemberimde Gül Oya’(2004), which was a project that he had written himself and had managed to shed light on a specific period of political history bringing a wide range of audiences together despite their generational gaps.

His first feature film "Wish Me Luck" was produced in 2001. In 2004 his second feature film which he had both written and directed, "All About Mustafa", was highly acclaimed by film critics. In 2005 his third feature film, which he again had both written and directed, "My Father and Son" was awarded the "Best Director", "Best Screenplay" and "Best Picture" prizes by the Turkish Film Critics’ Association.

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Short Films
Play Me Old and Wise (1998)

Features
Wish Me Luck (2001)
All About Mustafa (2003)
My Father and Son (2005)
The Messenger (2007)


"ALL ABOUT MUSTAFA" LIST OF AWARDS:

41st GOLDEN ORANGE AWARDS
Behlul Dal Jury Special Prize
Best Song Award

26th TURKISH FILM CRITICS’ ASSOCIATION AWARDS
Best Supporting Actress
Serif Sezer


"MY FATHER AND SON" LIST OF AWARDS:

13th CASOD (Contemporary Movie Actors Society) "Best Actor" Awards, 2006

Jury Special Prize
Yetkin Dikinciler
Best Leading Actor
Çetin Tekindor

25th Istanbul Film Festival, 2006

Best Leading Actor
Fikret Kuşkan
Best Leading Actress
Şerif Sezer
People's Choice Award
Çağan Irmak

11th Nurnberg Turkish/German Film Festival, 2006

People's Choice Award
Çağan Irmak

11th Sadri Alisik Awards, 2006

Best Supporting Actress
Özge Özberk

27th SIYAD (Association of Movie Critics) Turkish Film Awards, 2006

Best Leading Actor
Çetin Tekindor
Best Picture
Çağan Irmak
Best Director
Çağan Irmak
Best Supporting Actress
Şerif Sezer
Best Leading Actress
Hümeyra
Best Screenplay
Çağan Irmak

2008 | Ulak / messenger by Çağan Irmak

official web site of Ulak/messenger

Çağan Irmak’s long-awaited ‘Messenger’ finally hits the road
Director Çağan Irmak’s latest film “Ulak,” which opened this week in theaters across Turkey, follows Zekeriya, who travels from village to village to tell children stories about İbrahim, a “messenger.”
Finally, after all the curiosity we've experienced about what kind of film young Turkish director Çağan Irmak would give us following his successful "Babam ve Oğlum" (My Father and My Son), we receive news that his new "Ulak" (Messenger) has hit the silver screen.


Despite the fact that making films with only small breaks in between brings with it some obvious difficulties, after watching "Ulak," it was clear that director Irmak has not been spinning his wheels in this brief period between films.

It is completely normal that when people think of Irmak these days, the first thing to come to mind is his box office hit "Babam ve Oğlum." Almost all agree it was a film not easily forgotten. To those who thought this young director would continue on his path with similar styles, Irmak, with "Ulak," has begun to say something completely different to his audience. "Ulak" is the kind of film which, as you watch it, you'll start looking inside. It is as though, from the very beginning of the film to the end, you are wandering around in a fairy tale. But not just as an observer and a listener, rather, as though you are interacting with everything. It is a film that makes viewers ask themselves "is this real, or just a story?" over and over again, starting off somewhat like one of the stories your grandmothers and grandfathers might have told you when you were young. But as the film goes on, following the courier's specific tale, everything changes color suddenly. The screenplay for "Ulak," which has been well hidden until now, brings forth with it echoes of words we used to hear from our uncle, the storyteller: "Like all good tales, our story today begins with the name of our Creator..."

The person who we enter into this journey with is none other than Zekeriya, the traveler. Everywhere he goes Zekeriya gathers all the children around him to tell them stories about İbrahim, a "courier" or "messenger." (This is where the film gets its title from.) Zekeriya's goal is that everyone should know the stories connected with this enigma of a messenger. But this old man is no ordinary storyteller. When he tells his tales, he wants to enliven every aspect of the minds of the children he is talking to -- to the point that, no matter whether good or bad, his tales become unforgettable. And this "Messenger İbrahim" is in fact a symbol of courage. He is someone who can elicit the untapped sense of action just sitting and waiting in some people. Maybe he is an idol smasher or maybe a revolutionary. Whatever İbrahim is, as Zekeriya tells his stories, the pain in his own heart becomes lighter. But it is in the final village that Zekeriya stops in that the color of the story starts to change a bit. This village is a spot that seems literally damned, as though the sins surrounding it have washed over it wave after wave. Those listening to Zekeriya's stories here begin to believe that "Messenger İbrahim" will definitely one day come there and that, as such, there will be no more hidden sins in this village.

Perhaps Irmak is trying to tell a story from centuries of years ago with this film. Or perhaps this is a story from these days. But whatever the time frame, the message contained in the story is applicable to yesterday, today and even tomorrow. Maybe the film is an attempt to reach tomorrow using the language of yesterday. In any case, the actors are different but the roles are the same. The director underscores the necessity of people like İbrahim in today's world, with all its vulgarities. As we mentioned from the start, "Ulak" is not a film that can be compared to "Babam ve Oğlum." Some moviegoers might be disappointed by this, but for those interested in what Irmak has to say, it is still a film worth seeing. While cinematographer Mirsad Herovic captures scenes as beautifully as he did in "Babam and Oğlum," Evanthia Reboutsika's musical score adds incredible sounds and action to the visuals. Hümeyra, Şerif Sezer and Yetkin Dikinciler, as well as all the younger stars of this film, deliver great performances while Çetin Tekindor in the role of Zekeriya is quite unforgettable.

26.01.2008
FATİH SELVİ

Four Turkish titles at Rotterdam film festival

Four Turkish films, including Semih Kaplanoğlu's award-winning "Yumurta" (Egg) and Handan İpekçi's honor killing drama "Saklı Yüzler" (Hidden Faces), are featured in the Netherlands' International Rotterdam Film Festival, which marks its 37th edition Jan. 23-Feb. 3.

The 12-day festival, which kicked off Wednesday with the world premiere of Argentinean filmmaker Lucía Cedrón's debut feature "Cordero de Dios" (Lamb of God), will screen hundreds of independent productions from across the world.

Among Turkish titles lined up in the festival program is "Brain Surgeon," a short film by Ömer Ali Kazma, featured in the "Shorts: As Long as It Takes" section. The 15-minute film, part of the series "Obstructions," which centers on craftsmanship, details a brain surgery operation performed by Ali Zirh, a Turkish surgeon.

Another Turkish film in the lineup is "Gitmek" (My Marlon and Brando) by Hüseyin Karabey. The Turkish-Dutch-UK joint production, a dramatic road movie, is featured in the festival's "Time and Tide" category, in which "Egg" and "Hidden Faces" are also featured.

"My Marlon and Brando" is based on a true story about a young stage actress from İstanbul who wants to go to her lover. The only problem is that her lover is Kurdish, is in northern Iraq and the American invasion of Iraq makes communication even more difficult for the couple. The protagonists in the movie -- Ayça and Hama Ali -- are actors in their real lives, and in the movie they play themselves.

The Rotterdam Film Festival, under the direction of Rutger Wolfson, this year selected "Free Radicals" as its theme, referring to independent-minded filmmakers who often draw fierce reactions, drawing inspiration from the chemistry term that stands for "special atoms or molecules that can function as links in processes and catalysts of change."

Profile | Fatih Akin

Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg and began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, Sensin - You're The One! (Sensin - Du bist es!), which received the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival, followed by Weed (Getuerkt, 1996). His first full length feature film, Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos, 1998), won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films include: In July (Im Juli, 2000), Wir haben vergessen zurueckzukehren (2001), Solino (2002), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner of the German and European Film Awards Head-On (Gegen die Wand, 2003), Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul (2005), and The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite, 2007).

2008 | Chico by Özgür Yildirim

The latest corazón-production CHIKO, a first feature film by Özgür
Yildirim, will be premiered at the Berlinale 08 in the Panorama section


Chico Germany 2007/2008, Feature Film
Credits
Director Özgür Yildirim
Screenplay Özgür Yildirim
Director of photography Matthias Bolliger
Cast :
Denis Moschitto Chiko
Moritz Bleibtreu Brownie
Volker Özcan Tibet
Philipp Baltus Scholle
Jelica Batarilo Schwester Jessica
Fahri Ögün Yardim Curly

Production company:Corazón International GmbH & Co. KG (Hamburg)
Producer Fatih Akin; Klaus Maeck

Özgür Yildirim
born 1979 Hamburg

2007/2008 Chiko
Screenplay,Director
2004 Alim Market
Director
2003 Der nötige Schneid/Under the Knife
Director

Article | Fatih Akin's projects cross borders

Fatih Akin's projects cross borders

German-Turk has two films in the Oscar race

By ALI JAAFAR

Crossing borders comes naturally to Fatih Akin.

The Teuton-Turkish multitasking multihyphenate has two films in the race for a best foreign language Oscar nomination -- Germany's "Edge of Heaven," which he helmed, and Turkey's "Takva" which he co-produced. But he's also got a slew of other projects under way, not all of them as a producer or director.

While he's busy helming "Garbage in the Garden of Eden," a years-in-the-making doc about the impact of the Turkish government's policy of using an idyllic Turkish village as a landfill site, he's also collaborating with Martin Scorsese at the World Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit org dedicated to restoring lost world cinema treasures.

Akin's Hamburg-based shingle Corazon is also hard at work on developing a number of the helmer's own projects -- including a proposed biopic of legendary Kurdish filmmaker Yilmaz Guney (who won the 1982 Palm d'Or for "Yol" before dying of cancer in 1984) and the final part of Akin's proposed "Love, Death and the Devil" trilogy -- as well as boosting film industry ties between Germany and Turkey.

The globetrotting exploits of the 34-year-old Hamburg-born son of Turkish immigrants, who won the 2004 Golden Bear at Berlin for "Head-On," are reflected in his work. "Edge of Heaven," which won screenplay awards at this year's Cannes fest and European Film Awards, travels between Germany and Turkey with its meditations of East-West miscommunication and the fractured intersecting lives of a group of ordinary Germans and Turks drawn together by extraordinary events.

Akin has taken an innovative approach to tubthumping the pic in Germany.

"I've toured all over Germany with the film, not just in the big cinemas but in the tiny villages, too," he says. "For a long time, there was this idea that to be a German citizen you had to have German blood. This is a very old-fashioned idea. I am a Turkish-German filmmaker, which means I am a bastard of two cinemas."

Akin's decision to embark on a grassroots campaign to drum up support for his pic may be one of the reasons why Teuton auds have taken the pic -- as much Turkish as it is German -- to their hearts.

As the poster-boy for European multiculturalism, the wunderkind is doing more than most in the film biz to rep a positive face for Turkey as the country's discussions to join the European Union inch ahead amid criticism from some quarters in the West over the nation's human rights record.

"I wanted to add an extra dimension and perspective to how the media have presented Turkey joining the European Union, as I feel that their view can be at times limited," he says.

But he acknowledges the challenges Turkey is facing. The internal battle over the future of the country between the secular traditionalists -- who founded modern-day Turkey in 1923 under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk -- and the current ruling AK party -- whose leaders are devout Muslims -- has been overshadowed by a rise in anti-Kurdish nationalism. The Turkish military's air strikes in December against suspected Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq, in retaliation for a series of attacks this year against Turkish targets, threatens to further destabilize a region already reeling from violence.

The situation in Turkey has brought up an ironic, and unwanted, comparison with a dark chapter in the history of Akin's adopted home. "It's like Germany in 1935. This buildup creates anger against Kurdish people," Akin says. "Kurdish people are getting hit in the street, getting their windows smashed. Cinema is a reflection of society, and what I like about Turkish films right now is their dialogue is forcing audiences to deal with these issues."

One such film is "Takva."

Akin's involvement with "Takva," about a devout Muslim living in Istanbul who finds his faith devastatingly tested when he takes on a job as a rent collector for his local imam, was crucial to the film getting made. With a modest budget of $1.6 million, the Turkish side had managed to raise 80% of the financing. It was the friendship between Onder Cakar, who penned the screenplay, and Akin that led to the all-important final coin arriving from funding body Eurimages as well as the Hamburg Film Fund via Akin's shingle Corazon.

The expansion from auterism -- Akin writes and directs all his own projects -- into producing is a longterm shift for the breathless maven. "I love the fact that with producing I can protect my own work. That's why I became a producer," Akin says. "As a filmmaker, you have a story to tell, but maybe one day I won't have anything more to say. At least I'll still have producing left as an option. It's like gambling. You put money in a slot machine and suddenly you have a project."