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ANKARA: Turkish cinema, now a regular in Venice Film Festival

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  • ANKARA: Turkish cinema, now a regular in Venice Film Festival

    Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
    Aug 3 2014

    Turkish cinema, now a regular in Venice Film Festival

    Emrah Güler


    Turkish cinema has become a regular fixture at the Venice
    International Film Festival since 2008, following a nearly decade-long
    stupor. This year, acclaimed Turkish-German director Fatih Akýn will
    compete for the Golden Lion with 'The Cut,' while newcomer Kaan
    Müjdeci's 'Sivas' is in the lineup for the Future of the Lion award.
    Here's a look at Turkey in Venice throughout the years


    Kaan Müjdeci's debut feature "Sivas" will compete for the Lion of the
    Future given to the first feature of young directors.

    Back in 1990, director Yusuf Kurçenli's "Karartma Geceleri" (The
    Blackout Nights) competed for the Golden Lion in the world's oldest
    film festival, the Venice International Film Festival. Three other
    films were selected to the Golden Lion line-up before that, all in the
    1980s, Erden Kýral's "Ayna" (The Mirror), Ali Özgentürk's "Bekçi" (The
    Guard) and the late Ömer Kavur's "Anayurt Oteli" (Motherland Hotel).

    Then the winter sleep came when Turkey was nowhere to be seen in
    Venice for almost two decades, save for two directors, Yeþim Ustaoðlu
    (in 2002) and Ferzan Özpetek (in 2007), being invited to the jury.
    2008 turned out to be the year when Turkish cinema's luck turned
    around, with two films included into the lineup for the main
    competition.

    An adaptation of Melania G. Mazzucca's best-selling Italian novel "Un
    Giorno perfetto" by Turkish/Italian director Ferzan Özpetek, the
    previous year's jury member, as well as director Semih Kaplanoðlu's
    "Süt" (Milk), the second film in Yusuf's Trilogy, were both listed in
    the line-up competing for the Golden Lion. "Un Giorno perfetto," the
    story of the 24 hours in a family right before a general election,
    brought Isabella Ferrari the best actress award.

    Two years later, in 2010, newcomer Seren Yüce's "Çoðunluk" (Majority),
    with its accurate portrayal of Turkey's urban middle-class
    sensibilities, won the Lion of the Future award. Then came another
    Lion of the Future two years later for director Ali Aydýn's "Küf"
    (Mold), the heart-breaking story of a father's quest to find his son
    who had been missing for 18 years. That film was screened during the
    International Film Critics' Week.

    The same year, in 2012, another jury alum, internationally acclaimed
    female director Ustaoðlu's "Araf" (Somewhere in Between) was included
    into the Orrizonti (Horizons) section of the festival. The film was a
    coming-of-age story, featuring small lives and big dreams through a
    love triangle. In a lesser known success story for Turkish filmmakers
    that year, the directorial debut of the Palestinian actress Hiam
    Abbass' "Inheritance," screened in the Venice Days section, had two
    Turkish names, Faruk Özerten and Ender Sevim, among its production
    credits.

    'The Cut' and 'Sivas'

    There seems to be a two-year rule where Turkish cinema shines in
    Venice. This year seems to be no exception with two films premiering
    and competing in the upcoming 71st Venice Film Festival, set to open
    on Aug. 27. While acclaimed Turkish-German director Fatih Akýn's "The
    Cut" will compete for the Golden Lion, Kaan Müjdeci's debut feature
    "Sivas" will compete for the Lion of the Future, or Luigi De
    Laurentiis award, given to the first feature of young directors.

    "The Cut" (pictured left) became the talk of the festival circuit when
    he pulled his film from the Cannes lineup in April for "personal
    reasons." The film, starring French actor Tahar Rahim, centers around
    the sensitive issue of the mass killings of Armenians under the
    Ottomans in 1915, and is the final film in the "Love, Death and the
    Devil trilogy," which includes award winners "Head-On" and "The Edge
    of Heaven."

    Akýn recently made headlines when he said in an interview with
    Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos that he had walked away from a project on
    Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist who was murdered in 2007.
    "I couldn't persuade any Turkish actors to play Hrant's role. All of
    them found the script too harsh. That's why I had to cancel the
    project," Akýn said.

    "The Cut" will compete against such films like Abel Ferrara's biopic
    of the fallen Italian filmmaker "Pasolini," Ramin Bahrani's recession
    drama "99 Homes," David Gordon Green's Texan drama "Manglehorn," and
    "The Look of Silence," Joshua Oppenheimer's follow-up to his acclaimed
    2012 documentary "The Act of Killing."

    Müjdeci's feature "Sivas" tells the friendship between an 11-year-old
    boy and his dog in the steppes of Central Anatolia. Keep in mind that
    the boy's name is Aslan, which in Turkish means lion. The Future of
    the Lion award will have a whole new meaning if "Sivas" wins the award
    come September.

    August/04/2014

    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-cinema-now-a-regular-in-venice-film-festival.aspx?PageID=238&NID=69904&NewsCatID=381



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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