Despite Erdem’s movie is full of stunning images with the potential to capture the soul of Turkish East when woven together, he sets his story in a world of his own; imposing it on a piece of reality, instead of stretching the reality towards magic. One might argue otherwise but seeing the other-worldliness of his […]
Turkish film director Serdar Akar teamed-up with fellow debutante Önder Çakar for this shocking companion piece to “A Madonna in Laleli” by film school classmate Kudret Sabancı, which picked up multiple awards at film festivals in Antalya and Ankara, including the coveted Golden Orange for Second Best Film. Captain İdris (Erkan Can) heads up the […]
Social commentary in recent Turkish films is a rare feat. Smooth and incisive social commentary is even rarer. Bornova Bornova has it in its core. While with its plot it is reminscent of Demirkubuz and Ceylan – his recent ones -, what interests Inan Temelkuran is rather different. Both Ceylan and Demirkubuz often focus in […]
Nuri Bilge Ceylan has long established himself a director with his finger on the pulse of modern day Turkey. His latest contribution, Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), which took the Jury’s Grand Prize at Cannes, is a visually engaging and memorable piece of cinematography, which stands out on its own as […]
For many years for the Turkish audience Yol (The Road) was the greatest Turkish movie which no one had ever seen. As a teenager with cinematic interests, growing up in Istanbul in the 90s, I used to wonder what so special about this movie was, that would make it so different from hundreds of others […]
Tatil Kitabi (Summer Book), Seyfi Teoman’s debut feature revolves around Ali, a 10-year old from a small provincial town in Turkey’s south. He lives with his mother and aging father in Silifke. The wealthy by small town standards father runs a farming business. His mom is a homemaker. In the course of his summer vacation , […]
There is probably no other Turkish movie that depicts the sort of lives its characters are leading more powerful than Kader (Destiny). These are the lives of those that fall between the total outsiders and the traditional Turkish family women and men. Their conscience keeps them afloat, but it is also the source of their […]