IFFR 2009

Özcan Alper

Straight our of prison, the once political active Yusuf returns to his Black- Sea hometown. It isn’t just redemption he seeks but a peaceful asylum for his numbered days. His quiet life will take a passionate turn when he meets the beautiful Eka. The stunning début of Turkish Özcan Alper, this film speaks to your heart with its genuineness and exalting images.

Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Autumn

Mehmet Bahadir Er

Maryna Gorbach

A dynamic shooting-style, pitch-perfect written street lingo and a transfixing dog-eat-dog story form the essence of this exciting first feature about two friends who get into deep trouble in Istanbul’s chaotic underground scene. At times funny, at times tragic, but foremostly, jolting in its authenticity.

Black Dogs Barking

Zeki Demirkubuz

Society has turned its back on Bekir, Ugur and Yusuf, three marginals who look for love in the most unlikely places. Director Zeki Demirkubuz’s tour-de-force love-triangle drama strikes a high note as it transforms its distinctly local story into universal themes of loss, sacrifice and defeat.

Innocence

Yeşim Ustaoğlu

Two men of different origin, a western Turk and a Kurd. A true friendship that goes beyond cultural boundaries. Amidst the chaotic background of Istanbul and later a road trip to the East, these two will discover the true value of tolerance and belonging. Yesim Ustaoglu’s overpowering second feature with significant traces of docu-realism.

Journey to the Sun

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Awe-inspiring black-and-white début film of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, shot in a village in Anatolia, about the director's childhood years. Two children are witness to the mysteries of life, in four parts that run parallel to the four seasons.

Kasaba

Semih Kaplanoglu

A young emerging poet, his beautiful but unfulfilled mother and their small Turkish town about to be swallowed by industrialization. A contemplative tableaux of rural life, an allegoric quest for the meaning of existence, family, adulthood and the challenges imposed by tradition. Milk shows us the making of an artist.

Milk

Serdar Akar

First film by the social-realist film collective Yeni Sinemacilar, which became the harbinger of a new style of film making in Turkey: straightforward and thought provoking. The film makers' definition of their approach: 'refined depiction of dramas focusing on characters and socially important issues to Turkey by avoiding cliché patterns'.

On Board

Daghan Celayir

Charming tragicomedy about music and love. Cymbal player in a symphony orchestra has a supporter in the audience.

The One Note Man

An estranged family is brought together upon the news of their mother’s worsening illness. But the tough-minded mother is not so keen on spending time with her bickering adult children. With her teenage grandson she meets for the first time, she will develop a profound bond.

Pandora's Box

Mehmet Can Mertoglu

Sober yet effective début about a cleaner's routines in hospital.

The Slope

Dervis Zaim

A social outcast’s daily adventures couldn’t be more endearing; Mahsun looks like he just escaped from Folsom Prison but his genuineness and warm-hearted kindness make him a one in a million. Acclaimed Turkish filmer Zaim’s debut, with hints of tragicomedy, is a melancholically striking account of a drifter's life in Istanbul.

Somersault in a Coffin

Kazim Öz

The 90s were the heyday of Turkey’s student movement, and acclaimed documentarist Kazim Öz’s second feature The Storm is a true-to-life epic of Kurdish students excitedly anticipating social revolution. Öz’s raw and intense style astutely captures the immediacy of young people aching to change their world.

The Storm

Seyfi Teoman

A long summer vacation by the sea. An ordinary Turkish family whose life takes an unexpected turn. Told through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy, this picturesque and moving début makes a lasting mark for director Seyfi Teoman, who grabbed 'best national film' at the 2008 Istanbul Film Festival.

Summer Book

Selim Evci

Psychologically unnerving and sinisterly suspenseful, first-time director Selim Evci’s Two Lines is an acute observation of the young generation's male-female relationships in modern Turkey. A couple’s cat-and-mouse game culminates in a terrifying climax; established roles collapse and hearts are broken.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025