Mavi Boncuk |GROOM’S BLOCK | DAMAT KOĞUŞU | Director: İlker Savaşkurt / Screenplay: Mehmet Kala / DOP: Serdar Ünlütürk / Editing: İlker Savaşkurt / Original Music: Uğur Ateş / Cast: Barış Atay Musa Can Pekcan, Diyar Karadaş, Feyzan Soykan, İbrahim Aköz ,Caner Erdem ,Turgay Atalay ,Halit Karaata Kirkor Dinçkayıkçı ,Serdar Bordonacı ,Gökhan Yıkılkan ,Özgür Emre Yıldırım ,Münibe Millet / Producer: Abbas Nokhasteh, İlker Savaşkurt / Production Co.: Openvizor, Tillah / World Sales: Openvizor / Turkey / 2016 / DCP / Colour / 104´ / Turkish; English s.t.
The film’s story and characters are drawn from everyday life. In the Groom’s Block, the guards and prison administration manipulate tensions in their own benefit, while prisoners–beyond a sense of rule–push each other to the edge of existence. We experience the tension and paradox of a violent prison and justice system reflecting the shifting moral norms and the structure of the Turkish society. The jailed and the jailers enforce violent justice daily, expressing in their lives a society confronted with its need to hide from itself, in desperate denial of its cruel contradictions.
VERGE | EŞİK | Director: Erkan Tahhuşoğlu, Ayhan Salar / Screenplay: Erkan Tahhuşoğlu, Ayhan Salar / DOP: Ayhan Salar / Editing: Ayhan Salar / Cast: Senem Çelikkol, Bedia Yaman, Mine Özen, Raci Küçük, Zeynep Raif, Ali Meriç, Şaziye Güzel, Akan Atakan / Producer: Erkan Tahhuşoğlu, Ayhan Salar / Production Co.: Şiyara Film, Salar Film / World Sales: Şiyara Film / Turkey, Germany / 2016 / DCP / Colour / 83´ / Turkish, Arabic; English s.t.
A city on the verge of a country... A road on the verge of a city... A house on the verge of a road... Two generations, sometimes on the verge of going crazy, sometimes past that verge while living there... Two women from different generations, who are mirrors of each other, and their stories identical to each other... The story of Verge is the story of self-destruction by waiting and missing, dissolving in, and the story of two schizophrenic women of different generations.
NOMAD | GÖÇEBE | Director: Emir Mavitan / Screenplay: Emir Mavitan, Atasay Koç / DOP: Arınç Arısoy / Editing: Alican Özker, Emir Mavitan / Cast: Berke Üzrek, Arda Anarat, Levent Özdilek, Mehmet Ulay, Ümit Erlim, Yağmur Ün, Filiz Üner / Producer: Umut Bayoğlu, Emir Mavitan / Production Co.: Mug Production, Mantra Film, TRT TV Filmleri / World Sales: TRT TV Filmleri / Turkey / 2017 / DCP / Colour / 112´ / Turkish; English s.t.
A merchant father, his son and dogs, on a journey in a dystopic world... A struggle for acceptance into a civilisation in fertile, promised lands they found using an antique map, after crossing the desert... Now, all they need to do is to pass a test: four stakes and a limitless area they will enclose within these stakes. The only rule is they should take off with dawn, and return to the first stake as the sun sets. Critically encompassing the good and the evil, capitalism and communal life, and even people who were forced to leave their homes due to ongoing wars, and refugee problems, Nomad captures its audience at the heart of the film: the relationship between a father and his son.
DON’T TELL ORHAN PAMUK THAT HIS NOVEL SNOW IS IN THE FİLM I MADE ABOUT KARS | ORHAN PAMUK’A SÖYLEMEYİN KARS’TA ÇEKTİĞİM FİLMDE KAR ROMANI DA VAR | Director: Rıza Sönmez / Screenplay: Rıza Sönmez / DOP: Zekeriya Kurtuluş / Editing: Cem Hamamcı, Ayhan Ergürsel / Original Music: Hasan Yükselir / Cast: Yüksel Ermutlu, İsrafil Parlak, Vildan Atasever / Producer: Rıza Sönmez, Emre Oskay / Co-Producer: Hasan Hüseyin Sümbül / Production Co.: İFP İstanbul Film Prodüksiyon / World Sales: İFP İstanbul Film Prodüksiyon / Turkey / 2016 / DCP / Colour / 78´ / Turkish; English s.t.
Blind Singer Yüksel is expecting some respectable customers, however the best musicians of the town are engaged to leave to another city for a folk dance competition, therefore Yüksel needs to locate new musicians. Barber Kâzım takes photographs of people who resemble the characters in the novel Snow by Orhan Pamuk as well as streets and objects to print as postcards, but he has a hard time convincing the townspeople who are not fond of the novel which is set in Kars. The pursuit of the two heroes intersects with three imaginary musicians, two apprentices, and a goose-chasing boy.
PAÇİ THE ART OF HUNTING | PAÇİ-AV SANATI | Director: Elçin Elgür / Screenplay: Elçin Elgür / DOP: Murat Akay / Editing: Mesut Ulutaş / Original Music: Cafer Ozan Türkyılmaz / Cast: Mustafa Memoğlu, Esra Memoğlu / Producer: Kerim Çakır, Elçin Elgür / Production Co.: ECNFİLM / World Sales: ECNFİLM / Turkey / 2016 / DCP / Colour / 100´ / Turkish; English s.t.
13-year-old Liva has been living with her grandfather in the village for a while now. Away from her father and mother, and forced to stay in this village, Liva spends her days playing games on her mobile phone. Each year, with the arrival of the seasonal migration of prey birds, the village gains momentum. A very popular hunting culture, falconry is one of the oldest traditions of the region. Liva is introduced to this culture when she goes out with her grandfather to capture sparrowhawks. This experience would be one of the most significant turning points in Liva’s life from that moment on that would affect her. She will acquire the expertise of hunting and will become one of the region’s most efficient hunters.
THE ART OF SURVIVAL FOR BEGINNERS | YENİ BAŞLAYANLAR İÇİN HAYATTA KALMA SANATI | Director: Burak Serbest / Screenplay: Burak Serbest / DOP: Ali Cihan Yılmaz / Editing: Güney Sokullu / Original Music: Burak Topalakçı / Cast: Edip Tepeli, Doğa Nalbantoğlu, Açelya Devrim Yılhan / Producer: Burak Serbest / Co-Producers: Rodrigo Ruiz Tarazona, Joao Figueiras / Production Co.: Serbest Film / World Sales: Serbest Film / Turkey, Romania, Portugal / 2016 / DCP / Colour / 95´ / Turkish; English s.t.
This is the story of the road trip a 20-year-old boy who lost his mother, father and sister in a traffic accident takes on a caravan with his best friend in order to hold onto life again. Kayra loses his mother, father and sister in a traffic accident. His grandmother is the only one alive in his family. She lives in another city, but she is mentally unstable. Kayra considers suicide but then he thinks of Ezgi–his trainer and platonic love. Then he pours his heart out to her but his feelings remain unrequited. So he decides to commit suicide, but only after visiting his grandmother. So, he rents a caravan with his best friend Sertaç, and hits the road.
SEYFİ TEOMAN BEST DEBUT FILM JURY
ÇİĞDEM MATER
Born in Ankara in 1978. After studying film in Anadolu University of Eskisehir, she received her MA degree on communication sciences from Marmara University. Between 1997 and 2005 she worked as translator, correspondent and producer to foreign media such as ABC News, Boston Globe, Sky News, Radio France International, ARTE, Le Nouvel Observateur, Los Angeles Times. From 2005 to 2009, she was program coordinator for Anadolu Kultur and run the Caucasus Program. In 2009 and 2010, she was the coordinator for Mithat Alam Film Center of Bogazici University. Since 2010 she produces documentaries and feature films. She was the associate producer of Çoğunluk/ Majority, co-producer for Sivas, and producer for Dust Cloth. She is the producer of Layer (2017). She also works as line producer for the international projects which have been shot in Turkey like Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow and Eric Baudlaire’s AKA Jihadi. She is the founding coordinator for Armenia Turkey Cinema Platform which aims to support co-production between Turkey and Armenia where there is no diplomatic relations. She is a volunteer for Hrant Dink Foundation and member of the International Hrant Dink Award Committee.
ŞEBNEM BOZOKLU
Born in 1979. She graduated from the Dokuz Eylül University Department of Theatre–Acting in 2000, and completed the Acting Programme at Müjdat Gezen Culture and Arts Centre in 2004. She took part in several plays including Hamlet, Trojan Women, Festen with theatre companies such as Müjdat Gezen Theatre, DOT, İstanbul Public Theatre. She acted in several popular TV series including Derman (2007), Canım Ailem (2009-10), Bizim Yenge (2011), Cesur Hemşire (2013-4), Ulan İstanbul (2014), Çifte Saadet (2016) and Altınsoylar (2016). She starred in the feature films Soğuk / Cold (Uğur Yücel, 2014), Yok Artık (Caner Özyurtlu, 2015), Album (Mehmet Can Mertoğlu, 2016) which debuted at Cannes, and Tatlım Tatlım (Yılmaz Erdoğan, 2017).
SİNAN YABGU ÜNAL
Born in 1988 in Istanbul. He is a producer and street photographer. He studied Mechanics-Economic Engineering, quit his studies in 2008 and started working in the automotive industry. In 2010, he started working as production assistant, production supervisor and executive producer in commercials and promotional films. He was executive producer for Kümes / The Coop (2014) by Ufuk Bayraktar, and producer for the shorts Öğretmen, Pullu Tepe, Sessiz Ortak (2015), Emin Fırat Övür’s feature docudrama Anatolian Tales, short Homo-Ludens (2016) and Ümit Ünal’s feature Sofra Sırları (2017).