World Report: Turkey (January 2009)

Turkey Film Scene: Local

With the 2009 calender year upon us, I looked back at last year’s domestic box office stats and surprisingly, Turkish cinema’s top ten box office films were all local products. Audience numbers went up last year and the top ten largest grossing films population preferred mostly mainstream, formulaic homegrown comedies over Hollywood films and even a critical favorites like Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s Three Monkeys.

Last month proved to be a great start for helmer Özcan Alper’s debut film Sonbahar (Autumn). The drama centers around a young man, named Yusuf, who was sentenced to jail in 1997 and released ten years later because of his health issues. When he returns to his village at the top of the mountains of Eastern Black Sea, it appears that the life of his village had changed. There he had his relations with his elderly mother, his childhood friend, and a beautiful Georgian woman. Most important of all, Yusuf had the chance to communicate with the rough nature. The film is both about individual perception of life and the social contradictions of Turkey in itself.

Another important film that was released in the 2nd of January was Süt (Milk) from Semih Kaplanoğlu. It was the second film of his ‘Yusuf Trilogy’ (by chance, the leading characters’ name are Yusuf in both films; the English translation of the name would be Joseph). Süt is more of a poetry-like work of art in comparison to the first film Yumurta (Egg). The film starts with powerful sequence – a stunning ritual of a hodja (muslim preacher) making a woman vomit snakes from her month. The centers around a young adult in Yusuf and his mother and sees Yusuf trying to find himself within the words of poems; within his real life; within his responsibilites; within his manhood; and within himself. We had watched Yusuf after his mothers death in Egg and who knows what direction the filmmaker will bring us with the final chapter of the trilogy with Bal (Honey). 

Turkey Film Scene: International

While it didn’t make it into the final five noms, Three Monkeys‘ was a semifinal finalist for the Foreign film category. It was the first time that a Turkish film came close to being nominated for the award.

Yeşim Ustaoğlu’s new film Pandora’nın Kutusu (Pandora’s Box) has just been released. Featuring 90 year-old Tsilla Chelton, the actress claimed acting prizes at both the San Sebastian and Amiens Film Festivals. 

Lastly, the 38th annual International Film Festival Rotterdam awarded their top prize the VPRO Tiger Award to three films:
Ramtin Lavafipour‘s Iranian smuggling drama Be Calm, Count to Seven, Yang Ik-June‘s South Korean gangster melodrama Breathless and Turkey’s Mahmut Fazil Coskun‘s Wrong Rosary – a drama of unrequited love.

Onur Ertugrul is the editor-in-chief for Bakiniz.com