World Report: Turkey (March 2009)

For the last two months, Turkey has been busy with festivals and awards and the most frequently named films were Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s Three Monkeys and Autumn from helmer Özcan Alper. Three Monkeys has been released in several territories already (its U.S. debut begins May 1st) but Alper’s Autumn, a film that was admired on its home turf and has won several awards in local festivals is still looking to break out on the international scene.

On the 22nd of February, the Turkish Film Critics’ Awards were handed out by Siyad. Autumn won for Best Film, and Ceylan took home Best Director. At the beginning of the month, the 2nd edition of the Yesilcam Awards (a prestigious, Oscar-like ceremony with 1500 people voting) delivered great news to Ceylan in the Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Director categories. Autumn collected the First Film of a Director Award. See pic of director and cast above // director claiming prize below.

Just last week the Ankara International Film Festival gave out its awards – the highlight of the festival was Eight Days of Dilber from director Cemal San. 

In the last two months, a trio of recently released films are a mention. We have Two Lines from Selim Evci. Two Lines received its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Evci’s feature length debut was made on a small budget. Here is the trailer:

A controversial film was released recently — it translates as Saw The Sun. Former Arab singer Mahsun Kirmizigül‘s second film benefitted from his popularity and it also helped that he received some acclaim from critics this time out. The film is about the Kurdish issue – the migration from east to the west and human rights. For the first week the film was viewed over a million audience from all over the country.

On the 27nd of March, My Only Sunshine from Reha Erdem will be released. Erdem is one of the more innovating and inspired Turkish filmmakers of late, here he delivers a portrait about a girl living with his grandfather and a gay father in a house by the shore of Istanbul. Erdem received praise from world audiences on the fest circuit with this picture. See trailer below:  

And lastly, the 28th International Istanbul Film Festival is on its way. It begins next month on the 4th. We’ll provide readers with more info in the next issue.

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