Film

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Merve Dizdar dedicates her Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award to “the struggle of women”

Merve Dizdar made history in Cannes at the weekend after she was named Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Turkish actress to win the award. She won the prize for her role as Nuray, a teacher in a remote village who has to deal with male harassment at her school, in Nuri Bi...

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Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s new film Kuru Otlar Üstüne to compete for the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival

Turkish film director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest film, Kuru Otlar Üstüne [‘On Dry Grass’] has been selected to compete for the Palme d'Or and other top prizes at France’s prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Kuru Otlar Üstüne is one of 19 feature films to be selected for the festival’s 76th edition, w...

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London premiere of Emin Alper’s Burning Days to double up as earthquake fundraiser

Global film streaming platform MUBI and distribution company The Match Factory are working with film charity Balık Arts to present crime thriller Burning Days. The new film by award-winning Turkish director Emin Alper, will get its London premiere at the Rio Cinema in Dalston, East London, on Satur...

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Film review: Same Night Different Blue (Aynı Gecenin Laciverti) has the most ironic plot twist ever

Aynı Gecenin Laciverti (Same Night Different Blue) is a crime thriller where comic animation and live action merge. The film starts out with a homeless man looking through the small hole of his shelter. Light is seeping in like a laser beam, but what’s the catch here? Elsewhere are two thieves – K...

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Film review: Plastic Dream (Plastik Rüya) is a brilliantly executed film on aging and beauty

Plastic Dream delves into the life of Belma (Nihal Yalçın), a woman nearing her 40s – an age dreaded by those living in our while not totally ruthless, but still highly sexist society. Belma goes to a cosmetic dermatologist for dry skin problems, but she leaves with a whole new parasitic consciousn...

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Film review: Fehmi Öztürk’s debut short film, Free Fun, is “peak comedy”

This short sci-fi comedy was the most entertaining film at the recent Taste of Anatolia – Films From Turkey 2022 film festival, and got a good laugh out of me for its ending! Kika, a drag queen, enters this virtual hedonistic club game called ‘Free Fun’ where everyone, both players and non-player c...

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Film review: plants replace women in Biz Susunca (Without Them), a powerful short film about our patriarchal world

A dystopian patriarchal world, where in the absence of women, plants are the substitutes for men to fully control. Each man owns an empty pot called a ‘void’, which they must fill with a plant purchased from the “Board of District Void and Matchmaking Administration” at some point and take care of...

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Film review: Nosema – a compelling documentary about a family from one of Turkiye’s last Chaldean Catholic villages

A nostalgic glimpse at Şimuni and Hurmüz Diril’s last reunion with their family in their home village of Meer (Kovankaya), one of the only remaining Chaldean Catholic villages in Türkiye today. Director Etna Özbek films the family as they prepare for the winter season, stocking supplies and wrappin...

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Director Cey Sesiguzel on why his Cyprus documentary offers a “fresh perspective”, as he appeals for funds to complete the film

An award-winning British Turkish Cypriot filmmaker has set out to do what most documentaries on the Cyprus Problem fail to achieve, to create a balanced and historically accurate film about this long-running, complex political dispute. Londoner Cey Sesiguzel started his film, The Divided Island, ba...

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The UK’s only Turkish film festival Taste of Anatolia – Films from Turkey is back, with screenings in London and Cambridge

The fourth edition of the UK’s only independent Turkish film festival, Taste of Anatolia – Films from Turkey (TOA) starts this weekend with a gala party in Cambridge, followed by a week of screenings that will run until 11 November 2022. Launched in 2018, for the first time in the festival’s four...

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