35th MWFF | The Turks

MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL August 18 to 28, 2011
Jury presided over by Spanish director Vicente Aranda
383 FILMS FROM OVER 70 COUNTRIES | 230 features and medium-length films | 153 short films

FIRST FILMS WORLD COMPETITION
BODY - Mustafa Nuri (Turkey)
SEPTEMBER - Cemil Agacikoglu (Turkey)

HORS CONCOURS / WORLD GREATS
SHADOWS AND FACES - Dervis Zaim (Turkey)

FOCUS ON WORLD CINEMA
HAYDE BRE – Orhan Oguz (Turkey)
MERRY-GO-ROUND – Ilksen Basarir (Turkey)
PRESS – Sedat Yilmaz (Turkey)
THE SUN – Atilla Cengiz (Turkey)

Ceylan's Latest Slated for Cannes

Writer, Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's latest film, BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU'DA was selected for the main sectionn of the 64th Cannes Film Festival running May 11-22, 2011. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (TR: Bir Zamanlar Anadolu) is Turkish film, starring Yılmaz Erdoğan as a doctor living on the Anatolia. Also starring: Taner Birsel, Ahmet Mumtaz Taylan and Muhammet Uzuner. Gokcecan Gursoy (Av mevsimi, Ask Tesadüfleri Sever, GORA)provided post production visual effects.

Jury Presidents along with all the films were also announced.

JURY Main Competition: Robert DE NIRO, JURY CINEFONDATION and Short Films: Michel GONDRY, JURY UN CERTAIN REGARD : Emir KUSTURICA, JURY CAMERA D’OR: BONG Joon-Ho

"So far, the surprising omissions from the list are Andrei Zvyagintsev's Elena, about an old woman attempting to rescue her alcoholic son from poverty, Yorgos Lanthimos's Alps, about a night nurse who runs a bizarre psycho-therapeutic bereavement service, and Brillante Mendoza's Prey, starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman abducted by an Islamist separatist group. But the whispers are that at least one of these films – probably Alps – will be added to the competition list in the coming weeks." Guardian

"Mavi Boncuk |Opening Film |

Out of Competition
Woody ALLEN | MIDNIGHT IN PARIS 1h40

Competition
Pedro ALMODÓVAR LA PIEL QUE HABITO 2h00
Bertrand BONELLO L'APOLLONIDE - SOUVENIRS DE LA MAISON CLOSE 2h02
Alain CAVALIER PATER 1h45
Joseph CEDAR HEARAT SHULAYIM (Footnote) 1h45
Nuri Bilge CEYLAN | BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU'DA (Once upon a time in Anatolia) 2h30
Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE LE GAMIN AU VÉLO 1h27
Aki KAURISMÄKI LE HAVRE 1h43
Naomi KAWASE HANEZU NO TSUKI 1h31
Julia LEIGH SLEEPING BEAUTY - First Film - 1h44
MAÏWENN POLISSE 2h01
Terrence MALICK THE TREE OF LIFE 2h18
Radu MIHAILEANU LA SOURCE DES FEMMES 2h15
Takashi MIIKE ICHIMEI (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samuraï) 2h06
Nanni MORETTI HABEMUS PAPAM 1h42
Lynne RAMSAY WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN 1h50
Markus SCHLEINZER MICHAEL - First Film - 1h34
Paolo SORRENTINO THIS MUST BE THE PLACE 1h58
Lars VON TRIER MELANCHOLIA 2h10
Nicolas WINDING REFN DRIVE 1h35

Behzat Ç | A New Ankara Based Police TV Serial

Bio | Beren Yüce

Seren YÜCE (1975, Turkey) studied archaeology and then worked as directing assistant on various television programmes. Yüce then made the transition to the film world as assistant director on respectively A Man’s Fear of God (Özer Kiziltan, 2006), The Edge of Heaven(Fatih Akin, 2007) and Pandora’s Box (Yesim Ustaoglu, 2008). Majority is his feature debut.

Çogunluk/Majority (2010)

Bio | Belma Bas

Belma Bas
Belma BAS (1969, Ordu, Turkey) received her BA in English Literature from Istanbul University in 1992. A literary translator since 1990, she also worked full-time for Turkish film institutes as an international relations and festival manager from 1991 to 1998. Her debut short film Poyraz (Boreas) premiered in the official competition at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. Zephyr is her first feature length film.

Poyraz/Boreas (2006, short) WATCH, Zefir/Zephyr (2010)

Rotterdam IIFR | Zephyr

Zephyr BF-2011

Teenage girl Zephyr spends her youth in the house of her grandparents, in the stunningly beautiful countryside. Every day she awaits the return of her mother. A deep look into the psyche of the girl and her discoveries about love, life and nature.

This minimalistic, beautifully photographed debut tries to fathom the actions of the 11-year-old Turkish girl Zephyr. Her globe-trotting mother has been away for years and this has deeply damaged Zephyr emotionally. She lives with her grandparents in a beautiful hilly area, where she is especially interested in the dead animals that she respectfully buries.
The fact that her mother keeps leaving has made her suspicious. She does not bond, because this only leads to saying farewell. Her grandparents lead a simple, self-sufficient life, with mushrooms and berries they pick themselves and fresh milk. Snails and spiders surround them and it looks as if Zephyr feels more at home with the animals than in the world of adult people. The soundtrack meanwhile heralds the approaching disaster.
Together with Bas' short-film debut Poyraz, the film Zephyr, made with an almost entirely non-professional cast, forms the start of the film series The Heroine's Journey Beyond Winds.

Director Belma Bas
Producer Birol Akbaba, Seyhan Kaya, FC Istanbul
Sales Medit GmbH
Print source FC Istanbul
Scenario Belma Bas
Cast Seyma Uzunlar, Vahide Gordum, Sevinc Bas, O. Rustu Bas, Fatma Uzunlar, Harun Uzunlar
Photography Mehmet Y. Zengin
Editor Berke Bas
Production design Canan Cayir
Sound design Ismail Karadas
Length 93'
Website www.zephyrfilm.com

Rotterdam IIFR | Majority

Majority BF-2011

A wonderful portrait of a rural family and modern city existence, told through the life (and its problems) of a teenage boy, his relatives and friends. The director tackles present day Turkish society in a subtle and attractive way.

Mertkan (21) is a passive young man who still lives with his parents and works in the office of his father’s building company. In his spare time, he hangs round with friends and visits clubs in Istanbul. His life is stable but empty, until he meets the Kurdish Gül. His dominant, uncompromising father is very negative about Kurds and opposes their contact. The question is whether Mertkan can shake off all expectations and make his own decision.
In this powerful debut, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Lion of the Future, Seren Yüce examines Turkish taboos in a delicate manner, using a complex father-son relationship, growing up, and the position of women in a society dominated by men.
There’s an important role in Majority for the architecture of the city, as a metaphor for the complexities of life. Yüce regards his film drama as self-criticism, criticism of Turkish society, of which he is himself part.

Programmer Note by Ludmila Cvikova:

If you ask me for my favourite film of 2010 then I will tell you I have got two: the Turkish film Majority and the Romanian one Tuesday, After Christmas. The former because of its seemingly uncomplicated look into complicated, modernizing society in Turkey. The latter because of its virtuosity in directing and acting of a few long shots that the film consists of.
I still freshly remember the excitement of the Majority-crew in Venice, after the premiere. They were standing there, on the stage, the whole group on the background of red colour and trying to get control over their excitement while one of them was translating into English what was being said. I followed the whole discussion and was amazed once again by the excellent work of the director with the actors. You would not recognize them outside the film - as they totally amalgamated with their characters.
When we got out of the cinema I knew: this is one of the strongest Turkish films of the year. Also for its sublime reflection of the subjects like family traditions and their hierarchy, modern youth within the society, military service and more.

TURKEY 2010
Director Seren Yüce
Producer Sevil Demirci, Önder Çakar Yeni Sinemacilik
Sales The Match Factory GmbH
Print source The Match Factory GmbH
Scenario Seren Yüce
Cast Bartu Kücükcaglayan, Settar Tanriögen, Nihal Koldas, Esme Madra
Photography Baris Özbicer
Editor Mary Stephen
Production design Meral Efe
Sound design Mustafa Bölükbasi
Music Gokce Akcelik
Length 102'

Audience Award for Feo Aladag's Die Fremde

Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers 2011

DIE FREMDE by Feo Aladag, Germany | AUDIENCE AWARD EUROPEAN FEATURE FILMS | 20 000 € (Ville d’Angers, Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma et Le Monde) to the French distributor for the promotion of the film. 2 000 € offered to the director by the Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma

WHEN WE LEAVE | DIE FREMDE | Feo Aladag | 2010 - Allemagne - 99mn

Germans-born Umay flees her oppressive marriage in Istanbul, taking her young son Cem with her. She is hoping to find a better life with her family in Berlin, but her unexpected arrival creates intense conflict. Her family is trapped in their conventions, torn between their love for her and the values of their community. Ultimately they decide to return Cem to his father in Turkey. To keep her son, Umay is forced to move again. She finds the inner strength to build a new life for her and Cem, but her need for her family’s love drives her to a series of ill-fated attempts at reconciliation.

Born in 1972 in Vienna, Feo Aladag studied acting in Vienna and London and also completed studies in communication sciences and psychology at the University of Vienna. She then worked as a freelance editor for daily newspaper in Austria, writing mainly about film and TV. After having written several scripts for television, she started studying in directing at the DFFB (Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie, Berlin) in 2004. The next year she founded the film production company Independent Artists Filmproduktion, based in Berlin, together with Züli Aladag. Die Fremde is the company’s first cinema feature film.

CAST AND CREW

Interprétation : Sibel Kekilli, Settar Tanriögen, Derya Alabora, Florian Lukas, Tamer Yigit, Serhad Can, Nizam Schiller
Scénario : Feo Aladag
Image : Judith Kaufmann
Son : Jörg Kidrowski
Montage : Andrea Mertens

Production : Independant Artists Filmproduktion, Joseph-Haydn-Str.1, 10557 Berlin, Allemagne / Tel : +49 30 39 74 22 12 / Email : office@independent-artists-filmproduktion.de

Ventes internationales : Telepool, München Sonnenstrasse 21, 80331 Munich, Allemagne / Tel : 49-(0)89-55-876-0 / Email : telepool@telepool.de

Mavi Boncuk: Faith, Family, Immigration and Homicide

Jan 23, 2011

The conflict between Umay's love for her traditional family and her need to run her own modern life drives “When We Leave.” Yet the film is notable for its empathetic attention to the multiple points of view that separate Umay from her ...

http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/

Mavi Boncuk: A Second Lola for Sibel Kekilli

Apr 24, 2010

But the star of the evening was Sibel Kekilli, who won the best actress Lola for Feo Aladag's "Fremde/When We Leave." Kekilli, who won the Lola for her debut in Fatih Akin's "Head-On" (2004) had nearly vanished from the German film ...

http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/

Die Fremde Wins Grand Prize for Best Film on 37th Film Festival Ghent

Oct 22, 2010

The jury about Die Fremde: “This touching story about a turkish young woman (Sibel Kekilli) in Berlin is about the new neighborhoods in which we live, in the same world, at the same place, and yet not at the same time. ...

http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/

Tribeca | Hat Trick for Turkish Expats

Apr 30, 2010

Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Sibel Kekilli as Umay in When We Leave (Die Fremde), directed and written by Feo Aladag. (Germany). Sponsored by Delta Air Lines. Winner receives two BusinessElite ticket vouchers for anywhere ...

http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/

A French Award for Majority by Seren Yüce

Young European filmmakers are invited to Angers to present their first films (competition of 9 full length European films) to the audience, industry professionals, and press. More than 80 films are screened in 6 official categories: European and French short and feature films, European student films and European animated films. 200,000 Euros in awards are given out by juries and the public at the end of the festival.

Jury of Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers 2011. Left to Right from the top Claude-Eric POIROUX(Délégué général), Clémence POESY, Nater T. HOMYOUN, Wen WU, Xavier KAWA-TOPOR, Yannick RENIER. (Bottom left) Carmen MAURA, Robert GUEDIGUIAN, et Tonie MARSHALL. Mardi 25 janvier 2011. (Photo: Thierry BONNET/Ville d'Angers)


GRAND JURY PRIZE EUROPEAN FEATURE FILMS (Equal)
ÇOGUNLUK (Majority) by Seren Yuce, Turkey -and- OBRATNOE DVIZHENIE (Reverse Motion) by Andrey Stempkovsky, Russia
10 000 € (Ville d’Angers, Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma, Le Monde) to the French distributor for the promotion of the film. 1 000 € to the director by the Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma. Free subtitling offered by LVT for the distribution of the film in France
Mavi Boncuk |

MAJORITY | ÇOGUNLUK | Seren Yüce | 2010 - Turquie - 102mn

Twenty-one-year-old Mertkan has a stable but unfulfilling life in Istanbul: living at home with his parents, working as an office boy in his father‘s construction company, hanging out with his buddies in shopping malls and discos. When he meets Gül, a Kurdish girl from eastern Turkey, awkward Mertkan starts to become a bit more self-confident. But Mertkan‘s father opposes any association with “those people who only want to divide our country”.

Seren Yüce was born in Istanbul in 1975. He graduated from Bilkent University of Ankara, Archeology Department. Between 1999- 2005 he worked as 1st AD on television series. In 2006, he was the 1st AD in Özer Kiziltan’s Takva / A Man’s Fear of God and 1st AD in Fatih Akin’s The Edge of Heaven. Recently, he was the 1st AD for Yesim Ustaoglu in Pandora’s Box. Çogunluk is his first feature length film.

Çogunluk is a piece of self-criticism: of myself, and of the Turkish society. […] The film is set in Istanbul, which has the typical silhouette of any developing country’s metropole, littered with a dusty mixture of yellow and grey concrete. I feel that Architecture is the clothing of a society. This “clothing” is therefore very important to me when thinking of the visual composition of the film. The way the city is clothed tells a lot about the place, its inhabitants, and affects their lifestyle, their interactions with fellow inhabitants. […] My aim is to take a look at “us” through the story of a family. It would be wrong and inadequate to generalise and summarise Turkish society by Mertkan and his family’s story. Turkey is built on many economic and cultural levels, it is composed of many diverse ethnic groups. The mentality of the ruling class is perpetuated widely into the society. Mertkan and his father are examples of this mentality and products of this perpetuation. At the moment there are numerous movements in Turkey which must be reckoned with in order to break this oppressing mentality. Through the film Çogunluk, I sincerely hope to create some awareness among today’s youth and the upcoming generations, reminding all of us that education and social change start, first and foremost, in the family.

CAST AND CREW
Cast : Bartu Küçükçaglayan, Settar Tanriögen, Nihal Koldas, Esme Madra
Scénario : Seren Yüce
Image : Bari Özbiçer
Son : Mustafa Bölükba
Montage : Mary Stephen

Production : Yeni Sinemacilik, Sevil Demirci, Önder Çakar

Ventes internationales : The Match Factory
Balthasarstr. 79 – 81
50670 Cologne Allemagne
Tel : +49 221 539 709-0 / Email : info@matchfactory.de

Turkish Film Cliche Dialogues (Humor)

güzel oldugunuz kadar küstahsiniz da.
annecigim, ben bu amcayi cok sevdim. ona baba diyebilir miyim?
bana annemi tekrar anlatir misin babacigim?
senin annen bir melekti yavrum.
neden agliyorsun annecigim?
hayir yavrum aglamiyorum. gözüme toz kaçti.
benim de senin yaslarinda bir oglum vardi evladim.
seni sevmiyorum, seninle oyun oynadim, bunu anlamadin mi hala. ( aktor veya aktrist amansiz
bir hastaliga -genellikle ince hastaliga- tutuldugu zaman sevgilisine soyledigi ilk cümle.)
annen sen dogarken öldü yavrum.
nolur gerçegi söyleyin doktor yasayacak miyim?
o kizla evlenirsen, seni mirasimdan mahrum, evlatliktan menederim.
nayir necla, nolamaz.
hayir siz kovmuyorsunuz, ben vazifemden istifa ediyorum.
tanrim, bu resim... bu resim...
ben fakir bir gencim, sen ise zengin bir fabrikatorun kizisin.
biz ayri dünyalarin insaniyiz.
aman tanrim, göremiyorum... göremiyorum.. kör oldum.
görüyorum... görüyorum..
evlenince pembe pancurlu bir evimiz olacak.
aman allahim, ne kadar mesudum.
hayir.. durun.; kemal suçsuzdur.. aradiginiz suçlu benim;
bizim bu dünyada yasamaya hakkimiz yok mu be hakim bey abicim. ha?
bu ses.. bu ses.. olamaz, git.. git buradan..
vücuduma sahip olabilirsin ama ruhuma asla.
üstlendigin vazife çok mühim kemal, bu görevi layikiyla yapacagindan eminim.
ben kör bir gencim, hayatimi keman çalarak kazanirim. rica ederim duygularimla oynamayin.
sen arkadasimin askisin.
sizi ebediyete kadar bekleyecegim.
lütfen haddinizi biliniz.
metanetinizi muhafaza ediniz. tanridan ümit kesilmez.
tanrim ne kadar bedbahtim.
bana yillar önce çilgincasina sevdigim bir kadini hatirlattiniz...
babanin kanini yerde koma ogul.
iste bana yazmis oldugun ask dolu mektuplar. meger hepsi yalanmis. al bunlari.
hayir tamer... olaylar sandigin gibi degil.
fakirsin sen.. fakir.. fakir..
beni paranla satin alabilecegini mi sandin?
bu resimdeki amca kim anne
sen kaç yigidim, ben onlari oyalarim.
hayir.. hayir.. tertemiz hislerimle oynadin benim.
biliyordum.. ölmedigini biliyordum rifat.
oh ne saadet.
yaa justinyanus, iste buna osmanli tokadi derler.
yettim yigidim.
yavrum istanbul sana neler etmis?
saadet dolu yuvamiza kara bir gölge düsürdün.
bizim gibi insanlar serefleri icin yasarlar, namuslari icin ölürler. ama sen bunu anlayamazsin.
ben artik yarim bir insanim.
çocugumun ameliyat parasi icin yaptim herseyi.
aglamak istiyorum.
demek ikimiz de ayni kadini sevdik.
olmadi neriman, yapamadim.. seni unutamadim.
ben sirtimda tas tasir, yine seni okuturum yavrum.
söyleyemedim anne, babamin simitçi oldugunu yine söyleyemedim;
son nefesimde herseyi itiraf etmek istiyorum. katil benim.
demek askimiz bir yalandi.
parayla saadet olmaz evladim, bunu sakin unutma.
tanrim neden, neden ben;
allahim...sen sen ...bu ses;olamaz...

nayir nolamaz benimle nastik nop gibi oynayamassin

artik muhitime geldim.. insem diyordum

anne.. anneciğim

- vaziyet ne merkezde ?
- berkemal.
- ala, taharriye devam edin. emirlerimi bilahare alacaksınız

Süt Kardeşler:

Şener Şen: terbiyesiz herif;
Şener Şen: bu ne laubalilik heee, hülleci, çık dışarı
Hale Soygazi & Kemal Sunal: çok naziksiniz/ ıhhhı, öyleyimdir/üstelik de çok küstahsınız/ aman efendim, iltifat ediyosunuz, ıhıhhıı
Şener Şen: küçüklüğünü bilirim senin, sümüklünün tekiydin, babanı da sevmezdim zaten
Şener Şen: ne bağırıp duruyosun lan, sütoğlan
Kemal & Ayşen Gruda: emine, ne diyon? / aggaagubugu /...
Şener & Kemal: baban benim/ sahi mi?/ hıı/ yok canıım/ hııhıı/ allaalla/ hıııı
Şener & Kemal: bu sütoğlanı hiç sevmiyorum/ ben de sevmiyorum/ babasını da sevmezdim/ babamı karıştırma/ bu ne laubalilik? hülleci

Çiçek Abbas:

Şener Şen: ne bakıyosunuz lan
Şener Şen: yaktın beni lan, ulan çiçek abbaas
Minibüsçü: şu güzelliğe bak cüneyt arkın halt etmiş hey yavrum hey, şakir abiim evde mi, evde mi?
Şener Şen: müslüman mahallesi diil mi lan burası, hee?
Şener Şen: sana buralarda gözükme demedim mi lan?
Şener Şen: niye öptün lan beni? su getirin yüzümü yıkıycam
Şener Şen: allahın fordçusu


Battal Gazi:

Cüneyt Arkın:
cahille budalanın ne yapacağı belli olmaz
bu bir, onaltı yerinden daha deliciim pis gövdeni
bana delibaş alyon derler elenora/ ben öküzbaş alyon diye duymuştum şövalye, yanlış mı söylemişler
hoşçakal düşman beldenin yaman güzeli
ben senin kancık kelleni ödlek bedeninden ayırmaya geldim
ooo, bizans kargasi pelamon da burda demek
ben de senin kelleni almaya niyetliyim bizans kargası
hele davran bizans kargası

Book | Cinema in Turkey REVIEW

Cinespect REVIEW
Lost in Translation
Carlos J. Segura | Dec 08, 2010 |

What makes a film American, French, German, English or, in this case, Turkish? To answer that begs the question: what defines something (or someone) as Turkish? It’s an especially interesting curiosity in this case, particularly when you take into account how young Turkey is as a country (it was founded in 1923) and how many long standing influences stand behind it due to its Ottoman past and how much it is and has been influenced by countries in the west. Savas Arslan’s “Cinema in Turkey: A New Critical History” (336 pages; Oxford University Press, U.S.A.; $35.00) looks into what defines a film as Turkish, who gets to define a film as such and how Turkey’s production system, particularly in the golden age of its industry known as Yesilcam, operated and where it took inspiration from in terms of its production mode and its filmmaking styles.

Turkey’s film beginnings are relatively late; only sixty feature films were made before 1945 according to Arslan; this left Turkey to consume mainly imported cinema, namely American, Soviet and Western European films. However, once World War II began the number of films from these territories died down, leaving a void that is filled by the importation of Egyptian films. One should add that what makes these import practices notable is that while cinema was developing in Turkey the republican reformers—the elite responsible for shaping the identity of the country into something more modern, Westernized—almost completely ignored the cinema. No film schools or studios were opened by these folks.

Essentially, this means cinema in Turkey was up for grabs in terms of the way its identity was to be molded. And it is with Egyptian melodramas that the identity of Yesilcam, often operating under what Arslan refers to as a “melodramatic modality,” begins to take shape; the popularity of Egyptian films, and the direction of Yesilcam’s identity, were dictated by the very people the republican elite was looking to push by the wayside in terms of their influence on the identity of Turkey: the rural, lower-class filmgoer. With this groundwork laid Arslan establishes the identity of Yesilcam as often being tugged at from two opposing sides. One minute it is pro-Westernization and modernization and the next it’s not. It is because the cinema of Turkey began and evolved according to the spectators of Turkey rather than according to the dictates of the republican elite that Arslan’s thesis is especially interesting. The way the he creates links between Turkey’s history and cultural identity while interweaving these subjects with Turkey’s cinematic history and identity is easily the most interesting and compelling reason to read ”Cinema in Turkey.”

If you’re looking for more of a breezy guide to particular films, stars and directors then you may feel slightly shortchanged. To be clear and specific Arslan does touch on filmmakers, stars, and films. There is an entire chapter devoted to these subjects entitled “High Yesilcam II: Genres and Films.” However, it only accounts for 76 pages of the book. This chapter is more samples from across the board rather than an exhaustive and comprehensive list of examples it seems.

So where does Turkey, or rather Yesilcam, stand on the world stage at the moment? The chapter “Postmorterm for Yesilcam: Post-Yesilcam, or the New Cinema of Turkey” posits that some believe that Turkey is finally finding a filmic identity it can call its own, noting a film called “The Bandit” as the best example of this. Along with this possibility come films by art house or film festival directors like Nuri Bilge Ceylan or directors like Faith Akin (arguably the most famous director of Turkish origin) and Ferzan Ozpetek, which the books points out some have called Orientalists, men guilty of exploiting their roots for western audiences, at worst. At best, they are going past representing any one culture or nation, instead moving over to the realm of world cinema. This is due in large part to the fact that newer generations are becoming more secular, educated, global and interconnected with the rest of the world. Interestingly, the book points out that the new generation of Turkish filmgoers, students or young people for example, find in Yesilcam ironic or so-bad-it’s-good pleasures (not far off at all from how so many of the young see certain films here in America).

As you will note by the content and analysis made in “Cinema in Turkey”, along with it having been pointed out earlier in this piece, the book is not strictly a primer on Turkish films. It is a critical, occasionally challenging work, typical of the kind written with the academic minded reader in mind; the language does occasionally get in the way of the history and ideas Arslan propose. (Arslan is an associate professor of film and television at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul.) However, he fixes in and reiterates key words and ideas so often that you ultimately will not find yourself lost.

The final analysis that emerges from this book is of a cinematic identity that always seemed in flux until it came close to finding some kind of an idea of itself in the ‘60s and ‘70s; or at the very least it had the support of spectators that were unified by and validated these films by their attending them. However, due to the rise of television it soon lost support in the ‘80s and because of the rise of urban and educated spectators it is now forced to find a new identity. Filmic and cultural identities seem to be constantly searching for themselves in this instance.

Book | Cinema in Turkey

Cinema in Turkey | A New Critical History by Savas Arslan

ISBN13: 9780195370058
ISBN10: 0195370058
Hardback, 336 pages
Also available: Paperback

Savas Arslan is Associate Professor of Film and Television at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is the coeditor of Media, Culture and Identity in Europe and the author of Melodrama (in Turkish).

Table of Contents
Preface

1. Introduction
2. Pre-Yesilcam: Cinema in Turkey Until The Late 1940s
3. Early Yesilcam: The Advent of Yesilcam in the 1950s
4. High Yesilcam I: Industry and Dubbing
5. High Yesilcam II: Genres and Films
6. Late Yesilcam: Melting in the 1980s
7. Postmortem for Yesilcam: Post-Yesilcam, or the New Cinema of Turkey

Review | Tete de turc

Tete de turc (France)
Variety Review By JORDAN MINTZER

A Warner Bros. France release of a Aliceeleo Cinema, Aliceeleo, France 2 Cinema production, in association with La Banque Postale Image 3, Sofica EuropaCorp, with participation of Canal Plus, CineCinema, France Televisions, CNC. (International sales: Other Angle Pictures, Paris.) Produced by Patrick Godeau. Executive producer, Francois Galfre. Directed, written by Pascal Elbe.
With: Roschdy Zem, Pascal Elbe, Ronit Elkabetz, Samir Makhlouf, Simon Abkarian, Forence Thomassin, Valerie Benguigui, Monique Chaumette, Laure Marsac, Stephan Guerin-Tillie, Brigitte Catillon, Gamil Ratib, Moussa Masskri, Leo Elbe.

A fast-paced network narrative that ventures into the ever-newsworthy French suburbs, "Tete de turc" (slang for "scapegoat") scores solid notes for ambition, but doesn't quite pull itself together in a satisfying manner. Centered around an explosive incident that leaves one benevolent doctor in a coma and one teenager in hiding, thesp-cum-helmer Pascal Elbe's ("Father and Sons") wide-reaching scenario shows Gaul's immigrant populations at the mercy of roaming gangs and abusive cops, living under conditions more akin to Deadwood than to Dijon. Domestic release by Warner Bros. France should yield respectable coin, with Euro and Francophone bookings a strong possibility.



Unlike other recent banlieue films, which are either pure genre exercises ("District B13," "The Horde") or pure arthouse studies ("35 Shots of Rum," "Games of Love and Chance,"), Elbe's script situates itself between the two, using a thriller framework to tackle the harsh realities currently plaguing the outskirts of Paris, Lyons and Marseilles.

Based on a 2006 incident in which a Senegalese woman was burned alive on a bus by a band of violent teens, the action here is transplanted to France's less publicized Turkish and Armenian communities, and presents several characters linked together by an attack that occurs in the pic's opening minutes.

When physician Simon (Elbe) pays a call to a menacing housing project, his vehicle is ambushed by rock-throwing youths, including high schooler Bora (Samir Makhlouf), who launches a Molotov cocktail but then rushes to save the doc before his car explodes. As Simon rests in a coma, Bora tries to avoid exposing himself to the cops and his hot-blooded seamstress mom (Ronit Elkabetz), but he's soon beaten down by drug dealers angry that the neighborhood is now filled with roving reporters and police patrols.

Meanwhile, Simon's detective bro, Atom (Roschdy Zem), is conducting his own jaw-breaking investigation to find the culprit, but he's unaware that a local nutcase (Simon Abkarian) -- who lost his wife due to Simon's attack -- is also plotting revenge. As expected from such a dramatic structure, the various plot points eventually tie together, and somebody doesn't make it out alive.

There's a swell of different themes (social injustice, family secrets, coming-of-age struggles) presented here, and pic's major flaw is its attempt to give them all equal coverage rather than concentrating on the stronger ones. Bora's tale -- marked by lively performances from newcomer Makhlouf and Israeli actress-helmer Elkabetz ("The Seven Days") -- is an engrossing depiction of an immigrant youth's fight to save his skin and reputation while doing the right thing. But the various subplots involving Simon and Atom only hamper the overall narrative flow.

Washed-out, handheld imagery by Jean-Francois Hensgens ("District 13: Ultimatum") tends to overexpose the tense atmosphere, depicting the suburbs as a virtual no man's land where walking to school in broad daylight can be a highly treacherous affair.

French title is a play on both Bora's ethnic origins and the role he serves in the eyes of his family, friends and the larger community.

Camera (color, Panavision widescreen), Jean-Francois Hensgens; editor, Luc Barnier; music, Bruno Coulais; production designer, Denis Mercier; costume designer, Jacqueline Bouchard; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS Digital), Pierre Tucat, Arnaud Rolland, Daniel Sobrino; assistant director, Olivier Coutard; casting, Nicolas Ronchi. Reviewed at UGC Cine Cite Les Halles 4, Paris, April 5, 2010. (In City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival.) Running time: 87 MIN.

Europe's LUX prize goes to When We Leave

Mavi Boncuk |

Feo Aladag’s When We Leave (Die Fremde) has won the 2010 European Parliament LUX Cinema prize worth 90,000 Euros.

The film, which is this year’s German foreign-language Oscar submission, tells the story of a Turkish woman (Sibel Kekilli) [1] trying to make a new life in Berlin after escaping an abusive husband in Istanbul. The European Parliament’s president Jerzy Buzek presented the award to Aladağ at a special ceremony today (24 Nov). She is the first female director to be shortlisted since the award began in 2007.

The award carries a cash prize of 90,000 Euros towards subtitling the film in all official EU languages, adapting the original version for visually- or hearing-impaired people and producing a 35mm print per EU Member State or for the DVD release. The LUX Prize is awarded to films that illustrate the founding values of European identity, explore cultural diversity or contribute insights to the EU integration debate.

This year’s other finalists were Filippos Tsitos’ Akadimia Platonos and Olivier Masset-Depasse’s Illégal.

[1] Sibel Kekilli (born 16 June 1980 in Heilbronn, West Germany) is a German actress of Turkish origin, who gained public attention after starring in the 2004 film Gegen die Wand (Head-On). She has twice won the highest German movie award Lola.

Mavi Boncuk: A Second Lola for Sibel Kekilli

Apr 24, 2010

But the star of the evening was Sibel Kekilli, who won the best actress Lola for Feo Aladag's "Fremde/When We Leave." Kekilli, who won the Lola for her debut in Fatih Akin's "Head-On" (2004) had nearly vanished from the German film ...

http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/

Die Fremde Wins Grand Prize for Best Film on 37th Film Festival Ghent

Oct 22, 2010

The jury about Die Fremde: “This touching story about a turkish young woman (Sibel Kekilli) in Berlin is about the new neighborhoods in which we live, in the same world, at the same place, and yet not at the same time. ...

http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/

Tribeca | Hat Trick for Turkish Expats

Apr 30, 2010

Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Sibel Kekilli as Umay in When We Leave (Die Fremde), directed and written by Feo Aladag. (Germany). Sponsored by Delta Air Lines. Winner receives two BusinessElite ticket vouchers for anywhere ...

http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/

Cinematographer Baris Ozbicer talks about Kaplanoglu’s Honey

»Bal« (Honey) is the third part of the Yusuf Trilogy, which traces the origins of a soul. Like in his previous films, Semih Kaplanoglu decides to work without music to create the emotional world of a seven-year-old Yusuf (Boras Atlas, quite simply adorable) in the film. It is also full of enduring images and soundscapes – from the jingle of the bells Yusuf wears (presumably so his family can hear where he is), to the sights and sounds of the forest.

Cinematographer Baris Ozbicer recalls Johannes Vermeer with his rich colour palette perfectly matching the rustic setting, emphasised by Kaplangoglu’s slow pacing that initially renders many scenes like intricate still life. (Amber Wilkinson San Sebastian Film Festival)

Director of photographer Baris Ozbicer joined a Q&A session after screening of Hone/Bal. Festival Advisor Erju Ackman translated Q&A from and into Turkish/English.

Baris studied film both in Turkey and England. After finishing film school in Fine Arts, Film and Television Marmara University, he came to London Film School and had diploma in the Art and Technique of Filmmaking.

He worked in commercials, short films, documentaries and music videos since 1998. He also worked as a camera opertor with Sahwin Kumar, Atif Yilmaz and Gigi Rocatti. In 2004, he started to work as a director of photography: Toos up (2004), Happy New Year London (2007), Honey (2010) and Majority (2010). The films and himself as cinematographer had received many awards at major festivals such as Venice, Berlin, Istanbul, Antalya, Adana. He’s been recently nominated Best European Cinematographer.

Baris Ozbicer’s Website

Montreal Turquaze by Kadir Balci

Reviewed in Montreal By RONNIE SCHEIB
Turquaze (Belgium-Turkey)

A Kinepolis Film (in Belgium) release of a Menuet production in co-production with GU-Film. Produced by Dirk Impens. Co-producer, Gulin Ustun. Directed, written by Kadir Balci.
With: Burak Balci, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Nihat Alptug Altinkaya, Tilbe Saran, Sinan Vanden Eynde, Hilal Sonmez, Maaike Cafmeyer. (Flemish, Turkish, French dialogue)

With his luminously lensed first feature, "Turquaze," Kadir Balci joins the roster of talented helmers of Turkish descent working abroad. A pensively joyous romance with a dash of ethnic angst, the pic introduces a trio of Turkish brothers living in Belgium who redefine family dynamics after their father's death. While two of the siblings embody the opposite poles of assimilation, Balci concentrates on the middle son and his love affair with a perky Flemish blonde, charting a search for cultural equilibrium. Skedded for late September release in Belgium, "Turquaze" might shine as a modest European sleeper.

Pic has a symmetry Goldilocks could appreciate: Eldest brother Ediz (Nihat Alptug Altinkaya) reps his Turkish father's authoritarian old ways, discouraging his wife (Hilal Sonmez) from learning Flemish while he himself revives an affair with a Flemish former flame (Maaike Cafmeyer). The youngest brother, 18-year-old Bora (Sinan Vanden Eynde), is too ready to conform -- technologically addicted, and prone to whatever mischief his assorted delinquent pals dream up. Timur (the helmer's brother Borak Balci), on the other hand, strikes a perfect balance between honoring his heritage and opening his mind to his adoptive country.

Timur works as a guard in an art museum, which suits his contemplative nature well, the museum's painted landscapes recalling his grandfather's descriptions of the Turkish countryside. But he's a musician by training and inclination, and he experiences his epiphany of perfect integration when he auditions for a brass band, fulfilling his father's never-attempted dream. Despite some casual cultural insensitivity about his name ("I'll just call you Tim"), the bandleader readily grants him a tryout, during which the other members spontaneously pick up the unfamiliar melody as he plays.

In "Turquaze," music proves an infectious universal language, a notion made more than just a quaint sentiment by Bert Ostyn's dazzling original score, which incorporates everything from string quartets to Turkish marches, his track intermingling rock orchestrations and folk tunes.

This interactive harmony also reigns in Timur's relationship with Belgian girlfriend Sarah (Charlotte Vandermeersch) -- but only as long as the couple keep their relationship to themselves. Once their prejudiced, opinionated relatives intrude, discord holds sway, and the couple broods, breaks up and must cross borders and continents for the chance to reunite.

Balci's young protagonists, though perfectly capable of stupidity and shortsightedness, mostly come off as patient, caring and intelligent, displaying a level of sanity both welcome and rare in a domestic drama. It's a spirit consistent with the casual symmetry of director Balci's script and the intimacy achieved by Ruben Impens' free-flowing photography.

Camera (color, widescreen), Ruben Impens; editor, Nico Leunen; music, Bert Ostyn; production designer, Kurt Rigolle; costume designer, Tine Verbeurgt; sound (Dolby SRD), Jan Deca. Reviewed at Montreal World Film Festival (Focus on World Cinema), Aug. 30, 2010. Running time: 95 MIN.

65 countries vie for 2010 Foreign Language Film Oscar®

“Bal” (“Honey”) is among the films from sixty-five countries, including first-time entrants Ethiopia and Greenland, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.

The 2010 submissions are:

Albania, “East, West, East,” Gjergj Xhuvani, director;
Algeria, “Hors la Loi” (“Outside the Law”), Rachid Bouchareb, director;
Argentina, “Carancho,” Pablo Trapero, director;
Austria, “La Pivellina,” Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, directors;
Azerbaijan, “The Precinct,” Ilgar Safat, director;
Bangladesh, “Third Person Singular Number,” Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director;
Belgium, “Illegal,” Olivier Masset-Depasse, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Circus Columbia,” Danis Tanovic, director;
Brazil, “Lula, the Son of Brazil,” Fabio Barreto, director;
Bulgaria, “Eastern Plays,” Kamen Kalev, director;
Canada, “Incendies,” Denis Villeneuve, director;
Chile, “The Life of Fish,” Matias Bize, director;
China, “Aftershock,” Feng Xiaogang, director;
Colombia, “Crab Trap,” Oscar Ruiz Navia, director;
Costa Rica, “Of Love and Other Demons,” Hilda Hidalgo, director;
Croatia, “The Blacks,” Goran Devic and Zvonimir Juric, directors;
Czech Republic, “Kawasaki’s Rose,” Jan Hrebejk, director;
Denmark, “In a Better World,” Susanne Bier, director;
Egypt, “Messages from the Sea,” Daoud Abdel Sayed, director;
Estonia, “The Temptation of St. Tony,” Veiko Ounpuu, director;
Ethiopia, “The Athlete,” Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew, directors;
Finland, “Steam of Life,” Joonas Berghall and Mika Hotakainen, directors;
France, “Of Gods and Men,” Xavier Beauvois, director;
Georgia, “Street Days,” Levan Koguashvili, director;
Germany, “When We Leave,” Feo Aladag, director;
Greece, “Dogtooth,” Yorgos Lanthimos, director;
Greenland, “Nuummioq,” Otto Rosing and Torben Bech, directors;
Hong Kong, “Echoes of the Rainbow,” Alex Law, director;
Hungary, “Bibliotheque Pascal,” Szabolcs Hajdu, director;
Iceland, “Mamma Gogo,” Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, director;
India, “Peepli [Live],” Anusha Rizvi, director;
Indonesia, “How Funny (Our Country Is),” Deddy Mizwar, director;
Iran, “Farewell Baghdad,” Mehdi Naderi, director;
Iraq, “Son of Babylon,” Mohamed Al-Daradji, director;
Israel, “The Human Resources Manager,” Eran Riklis, director;
Italy, “La Prima Cosa Bella” (“The First Beautiful Thing”), Paolo Virzi, director;
Japan, “Confessions,” Tetsuya Nakashima, director;
Kazakhstan, “Strayed,” Akan Satayev, director;
Korea, “A Barefoot Dream,” Tae-kyun Kim, director;
Kyrgyzstan, “The Light Thief,” Aktan Arym Kubat, director;
Latvia, “Hong Kong Confidential,” Maris Martinsons, director;
Macedonia, “Mothers,” Milcho Manchevski, director;
Mexico, “Biutiful,” Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, director;
Netherlands, “Tirza,” Rudolf van den Berg, director;
Nicaragua, “La Yuma,” Florence Jaugey, director;
Norway, “The Angel,” Margreth Olin, director;
Peru, “Undertow” (“Contracorriente”), Javier Fuentes-Leon, director;
Philippines, “Noy,” Dondon S. Santos and Rodel Nacianceno, directors;
Poland, “All That I Love,” Jacek Borcuch, director;
Portugal, “To Die Like a Man,” Joao Pedro Rodrigues, director;
Puerto Rico, “Miente” (“Lie”), Rafael Mercado, director;
Romania, “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle,” Florin Serban, director;
Russia, “The Edge,” Alexey Uchitel, director;
Serbia, “Besa,” Srdjan Karanovic, director;
Slovakia, “Hranica” (“The Border”), Jaroslav Vojtek, director;
Slovenia, “9:06,” Igor Sterk, director;
South Africa, “Life, above All,” Oliver Schmitz, director;
Spain, “Tambien la Lluvia” (“Even the Rain”), Iciar Bollain, director;
Sweden, “Simple Simon,” Andreas Ohman, director;
Switzerland, “La Petite Chambre,” Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond, directors;
Taiwan, “Monga,” Chen-zer Niu, director;
Thailand, “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul, director;
Turkey, “Bal” (“Honey”), Semih Kaplanoglu, director;
Uruguay, “La Vida Util,” Federico Veiroj, director;
Venezuela, “Hermano,” Marcel Rasquin, director.

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

2010 Antalya Golden Orange Awards

2010 47th Antalya Golden Orange Awards

Best Feature Film: “Çoğunluk”
Best Debut Feature Film:”Gişe Memuru” (Tolga Karaçelik)
Best Director: “Çoğunluk” Seren Yüce
Best Screenplay: “Atlıkarınca” Mert Fırat , İlksen Başarır
Best Cinematographyi: “Saç” and “Gişe Memuru” Ercan Özcan
Best Film Music: “Kar Beyaz” Mircan
Best Female Performance: “Sinyora Enrica ile İtalyan Olmak” Claudia Cardinale
Best Male Performance: “Gişe Memuru” Serkan Ercan and “Çoğunluk” Bartu Küçükçağlayan
Best Supporting Female Performance:”Kağıt” filmi ile Ayşen Grude
Best Supporting Male Performance:”Kavşak” Cengiz Bozkurt and “Saç” Rıza Akın
Best Editing: “Gölgeler ve Suretler” Aylin Zoi
Best Art Direction: “Haydi Bre” Nihat Düşko
Antalya City Jury Prize: “Kavşak”
Best Short Film: Berf (Erol Mintaş)
Best Documentary Film:”Anadolu’nun Son Göçerleri” (Yüksel Aksu)
Best Debut Documentary: “Ofsayt” and “Herkes Uyurken”
Film Writers SİYAD NationalAward: “Sineklik”

Film Writers SİYAD International Award: “Gölgeler ve Suretler” (Derviş Zaim)
Best Male Performance International Film: Nik Jelila
Best Female Performance International Film:: Emma Suarez
Jury Award for best Documentary: “Ordu’da Bir Argonot”
Public Golden Orange Award: “Son Helva”
Documentary Jury Award:”Dönüşü Olmayan Yol”
Digital Film Academy Award: “Bisiklet”
Behlül Dal Special Jury Award: “Press” Aram Dildar and “Atlı Karınca” Zeynep Oral
Dr. Avni Tolunay Special Jury Award: “Sinyora Enrica ile İtalya Olmak” Elvan Albayrak

Çoğunluk/Majority (2010) by Seren Yüce

“Çoğunluk” (Majority), a film directed by Seren Yüce, was among the 12 films featured in this year’s Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days program. The film tells of the son of a working class family in present-day İstanbul. Starring Bartu Küçükçağlayan and Settar Tanrıöğen, Seren Yüce worked as an assistant to Özer Kiziltan on Takva: A Man’s Fear of God (04) and to Fatih Akin on The Edge of Heaven (07). The Majority (10) is his feature directorial debut.

full credits
Principal Cast: Bartu Kucukcaglayan, Settar Tanriogen, Nihal Koldas, Esme Madra
Producer: Sevil Demirci, Onder Cakar, Seren Yuce
Cinematographer: Baris Ozbicer
Editor: Mary Stephen
Sound: Mustafa Bolukbasi
Music: Gokce Akcelik
Production Designer: Ozkan Yilmaz

synopsis

Mertkan leads a simple life in Istanbul until he meets Gül, a Kurdish girl from Eastern Turkey who has run away from her family. But their relationship is obstructed by Mertkan’s father Kemal, and the chauvinist culture in which Mertkan is imbued.
“Humanity’s complicated structure, which is disguised under the veil of technology, is always affected by the power of masculinity. Majority is a critique of myself and Turkish society, of which I am a member. My aim is to look at ‘us’ through a family, which is the core of society.” (Seren Yüce)

Will it be possible one day for a character of a Turkish movie to look back at his youth and get to understand his tyrannical father as did the liberated character of Padre padrone? Nowadays, we hear a great deal about the oppression suffered by women in many traditional societies, but Seren Yüce shows us an oppressed young man. The son is subdued to his father. Fear of his father proves more powerful for him than his love for an “alien” girl. Is this passive character aware of this oppression? This film makes us face a paradox: In a patriarchal society a woman may find it easier to emancipate herself than a man. (Tadeusz Sobolewski)

world sales The Match Factory
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Tel. +49 221 53970 90
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www.the-match-factory.com
Production Company: Yeni Sinemacilik

TIFF Notes
Sometimes a debut feature startles by virtue of the simple clarity of the story it tells. Such is the case with first-time feature director Seren Yüce’s The Majority, which transforms a sober account of family life into a trenchant social critique.
The film revolves around Mertkan, the shiftless scion of a middle-class family and the heir apparent to his autocratic father’s construction company. Mertkan works so hard at upholding his image as a freewheeling young man with no responsibilities that he has lost interest in pretty much everything: cruising the malls with his friends, smoking in his dad’s SUV or working for his father’s business all bore him equally. He feels no need to plumb for any meaning in life or any inkling of a professional calling.
When he meets Gül, a young woman putting herself through university by working as a waitress, Mertkan seems poised to break out of his empty routine. However, his family disapproves of his new girlfriend on the grounds of her being a minority from the Eastern city of Van; their values are too imposing for Mertkan to challenge. He is, after all, unaccustomed to doing anything that requires real effort.

While setting out along the arc of a coming-of-age narrative, The Majority builds to much more. Through Yüce’s examination of one man’s choices – or perhaps his lack thereof – the film offers an alarmingly realistic study of a stratum of Turkish society that nurtures nationalism and militarism through the seemingly innocuous relationships of parents and their children. The fact that the film is set within a liberal and modernized Istanbul makes Mertkan’s inability to shun tradition all the more ironic. The Majority emerges as a study of the inertia of private values that can co-exist with a fast-changing public sphere.

Cameron Bailey

Seren Yüce’s slow-paced, feature debut Majority is a critique of Turkey’s misogynistic culture, in which the victim of social oppression is a young man who doesn’t have the courage to get out from under his father’s thumb and be with the woman he loves (Esme Madra).

Mertkan (Bartu Küçükçağlayan, in his film debut) is a non-ambitious slacker in his early 20s who has little desire to do anything but hang out with his friends, much less work for his father’s construction company. The only person who sparks life in him is Gül (Madra), a Kurdish student who has run away from her family to attend university in Istanbul. Their relationship, however, is immediately opposed by Mertkan’s father Kemal (Settar Tanrıöğen).

The slow pace that Yüce sets in the film further conveys the endlessly oppressive setting. The story’s men are either overbearing, like Kemal, or submissive. Moreover, they control everything in the macho society but are emotionally inept for the fact that they never really have to interact with the other half of the population.

At the Q&A following the film’s official Venice Days screening, the director said the story, which he also wrote, “comes from myself and my neighbourhood and the friends I remember from when I was [the characters’] age. Unfortunately, not much has changed, the cycle continues today.” Küçükçağlayan, a theatre actor who had to tone down his performance for first film role, and Madra spoke of the nurturing, friendly atmosphere created on set by Yüce, who held few rehearsals and asked only of his actors that they be “real.”

For his part, Tanrıöğen admitted that playing Kemal was easy. “There are so many men like him in Turkey that it was easy for me to recognize the character and portray him,” said the veteran actor of his standout performance. Majority was produced for approximately €250,000 by Turkish company Yeni Sinemacilar and will be released domestically at the end of October by Özen Film. International sales are handled by The Match Factory.

Natasha Senjanovic – Cineuropa.org

Turkish Cinema at ERA NOWE HORYZONTY 2010

The ERA NEW HORIZONS IFF is a member of FIAPF (Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films) - a Paris-based regulator of international film festivals.

New Cinema of Turkey

11'e 10 kala/Pelin Esmer / Turkey, France, Germany 2009 / 110’
A Run for Money/Kaç para kaç/Reha Erdem / Turkey 1999 / 91’
Angel’s Fall /Meleğin düşüşü/Semih Kaplanoğlu / Greece, Turkey 2005 / 90’
Ara /Ümit Ünal / Turkey 2008 / 89’
Bornova Bornova/İnan Temelkuran / Turkey 2009 / 85’
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul/Istanbul hatirasi - Köprüyü geçmek/Fatih Akin / Germany, Turkey 2005 / 90’
Distant /Uzak/Nuri Bilge Ceylan / Turkey 2002 / 110’
Dot /Nokta/Derviş Zaim / Turkey 2008 / 85’
Journey to the Sun /Günese Yolcoluk/Yeşim Ustaoğlu / Turkey, Netherlands, Germany 1999 / 104’
Kosmos /Reha Erdem / Turkey, Bulgaria 2010 / 122’
My Marlon and Brando /Gitmek: Benim Marlon ve Brandom/Hüseyin Karabey / Turkey, Netherlands, France 2008 / 92’
Nieszczęsny los/Dark Cloud/ Bahti Kara/Theron Patterson / Turkey 2009 / 92’
Oh Moon /A ay/Reha Erdem / Turkey 1988 / 100’
On Board /Gemide/Serdar Akar / Turkey 1998 / 112’
Pandora’s Box /Pandoranin kutusu/Yeşim Ustaoğlu / Turkey, France, Germany, Belgium 2008 / 112’
Should I Really Do It? /Bunu Gerçekten Yapmalı Mıyım?/İsmail Necmi / Turkey 2009 / 90’
Sommersault in a coffin Tabutta rovaşata/Derviş Zaim / Turkey 1996 / 75’
The Salt of Life /Hayatin Tuzu/Murat Düzgünoğlu / Turkey 2009 / 98’
The Small Town /Kasaba/Nuri Bilge Ceylan / Turkey 1997 / 82’ Shown with: Cocoon / Cocoon / 20’

Retrospective: Zeki Demirkubuz

Block-C /C-Blok/Zeki Demirkubuz / Turkey 1994 / 90’
Destiny /Kader/Zeki Demirkubuz / Turkey, Greece 2006 / 103’
Envy /Kiskanmak/Zeki Demirkubuz / Turkey 2009 / 96’
Fate /Yazgi/Zeki Demirkubuz / Turkey 2001 / 120’
Innocence /Masumiyet/Zeki Demirkubuz / Turkey 1997 / 105’
The Confession /İtiraf/Zeki Demirkubuz / Turkey 2001 / 100’
The Third Page /Üçüncü sayfa/Zeki Demirkubuz / Turkey 1999 / 92’
The Waiting Room /Bekleme odası/Zeki Demirkubuz / Turkey 2003 / 92’

ERA NOWE HORYZONTY is a festival of film visionaries, of uncompromising artists who have the courage to follow a path of their choice against the current trend and to tell about the most important things using their own unique language. Roman Gutek – Festival Director

info: