Celebrating cinema from Turkey that South Africans can identify with
|||Theresa Smith
The Turkish Film Festival was started four years ago as a way to forge cultural links between South Africa and Turkey.
Mehmet Göksel, the second secretary at the Turkish Embassy in Pretoria, is one of the organisers who helped to choose the films. He pointed out that the six films have been chosen to emphasise some of the common problems, personalities and purposes between the two nations.
“You can find yourself in a South African film, and a South African citizen can find a point of commonality in a Turkish film. So we tried to choose films that a South African citizen could watch and they would recognise the story or the family,” said Göksel.
The films are meant not only to foster a better understanding for the people, but also potentially encourage tourism: “So, you will see Istanbul, or other places,” he added.
Göksel says they will host internationally awarded Turkish directors Tolga Karaçelik (Ivy, Toll Booth) and Emin Alper (Frenzy, Beyond the Hill) as well as Ahmet Gürata, assistant professor and the chair of the Department of Communication and Design of Bilkent University at the opening of the festival in Joburg on June 11.
The festival will travel around the country, starting in Pretoria next weekend. The opening night film, the award-winning Kurtulus Son Durak, was chosen to portray a modern taken on how six Turkish women deal with the violence of men.
The Turkish Film Festival is at Cinema Nouveau Brooklyn in Pretoria on May 21 and 22; V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on May 28 and 29; Gateway in Durban on June 4 and 5; and Rosebank in Joburg on June 11 and 12. The films that will screen are:
Kurtulus Son Durak (Last Stop: Kurtulus): Dramatic comedy (2012). Tells of a psychologist who moves into a flat in the Istanbul neighbourhood of Kurtulus after her fiance abandons her. Her neighbours try to help her depressed state by transforming themselves into women who stand up against violence perpetrated on them and their kin.
Süt (Milk): Drama (2008). The second film in the Yusuf Trilogy, written and directed by Semih Kaplanoglu, is as much the story of the high school graduate with literary aspira-tions, struggling to transition to adulthood as it is about the social change in his hometown.
Whisper if I Forget: Musical drama (2014) Written and directed by Çagan Irmak, this is a portrait of sixties Turkey. An ageing pop star with Alzheimer’s returns home where she remembers what it was like to climb the ladder to success and deal with an older sister who blamed her for a ruined life.
Can: Drama (2011). Winner of a special Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, this is a drama set in Istanbul. It centres on a couple whose happy life is threatened when they decide to illegally procure a child. (Can is the name of the child).
Son Mektup (Last Letter): War drama (2015). The tale of one of the first Ottoman Empire pilots who meets a fellow Turkish nurse in Gallipolli. When she returns to Istanbul, their blossoming relationship continues through letters.
Turkish Passport: Documentary (2011). Using written historical documents and archival footage of witness testimonies, this documentary tells the story of diplomats posted to Turkish embassies and consulates in European countries who saved numerous Jews during World War II by providing them with Turkish passports.