FOKUS: TYRKIA FOCUS: TURKEY
FOCUS: TURKEY
If it were possible to capture the situation of Turkish cinema today in a single snapshot, it would require a split-screen lens. One side of the photo would show a thriving movie industry pumping out at least 130 movies annually to satisfy a massive audience eager to see Turkish entertainment on the big screen. Local titles like DUGUN DERNEK 2: SUNNET (WEDDING FEAST 2: CIRCUMCISION) regularly knock Hollywood blockbusters out of the top ten at the box office. The other side of the snapshot would be prize-winning arthouse films that attract (almost literally) only a handful by comparison.
The variety is nothing less than impressive: a close-up and personal documentary about a group of young boys, their dreams and their disappointments; an enjoyably eccentric hybrid of documentary and fiction that plays out like a postcard from an unlikely tourist destination; a dystopic vision of post-apocalyptic Istanbul; a poetic coming-of-age story from the country that is both timely and timeless; two contemporary stories of people who leave the country to find work in the city, and their battle to preserve their dignity as well as their lives; and finally, a story about returning to the country when life in the city gets unbearable.
This schizophrenia is not reflected in our selection. No blockbusters here. Not surprisingly, our focus is on the smaller scale films. The films in this specially curated selection are plucked from the past year’s film crop. The two oldest are just over one year old, having had their world premieres in Venice in August 2015. The most recent film premiered in Antalya in October 2016, and TIFF will be its international premiere. With only one exception, these are first features; the remaining title is the director’s second film.
More than a simple assessment of the talent pool on hand in Turkish cinema today, the hope is that this selection will in sum impart a sense of the complex nature of Turkish identity. The current political situation in Turkey is not directly a theme in any of these films, but together they are somehow a report from the front.
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