Whereas westerns reflect a longing for a vanished past, Turkish cinema is examining and lamenting modernisation as it happens
By the time Sergio Leone got to Monument Valley in 1968 to film exteriors for Once Upon a Time in the West, its sandstone buttes – engrained in the popular consciousness by their presence in John Ford's westerns – had already assumed the hulking mythic grandeur the great Italian director needed for his story of American beginnings. Nuri Bilge Ceylan was surely hoping for a little of the same when he had his night convoy of murder investigators sweep their headlights across the vast prairie in last year's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. The auburn-grey hills around Keskin, near the capital Ankara, might not be as singular a location as the Utah valley, but they've got their own mute, unknowable magnificence – a suitable backdrop for Ceylan's gloomy night of the Turkish soul.
By the time Sergio Leone got to Monument Valley in 1968 to film exteriors for Once Upon a Time in the West, its sandstone buttes – engrained in the popular consciousness by their presence in John Ford's westerns – had already assumed the hulking mythic grandeur the great Italian director needed for his story of American beginnings. Nuri Bilge Ceylan was surely hoping for a little of the same when he had his night convoy of murder investigators sweep their headlights across the vast prairie in last year's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. The auburn-grey hills around Keskin, near the capital Ankara, might not be as singular a location as the Utah valley, but they've got their own mute, unknowable magnificence – a suitable backdrop for Ceylan's gloomy night of the Turkish soul.
- 2/26/2013
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★☆☆ From visionary director Reha Erdem (Times and Winds, Kosmos) comes Jîn (2013), an environmental parable that uses the bitter Turkish-Kurdish conflict as a universal metaphor for the destructive disposition of humanity upon a frail and delicate natural world. Narratively influenced by the tender storytelling of fairy tales, Jîn feels like a contemporary adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood, with the film's titular protagonist (played brilliantly by Deniz Hasgüler) materialising transcendentally from behind the camouflage of the Turkish woodlands - complete with her red headscarf and surrounded by the serene beauty of nature.
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- 2/17/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The line-up for the London Turkish Film Festival has been announced. The 18th edition of the festival will run from February 21 to March 3 at The Odeon West End, The Rio Cinema Dalston, The Institute of Contemporary Arts and The Cine Lumiere.
Highlights of this year's festival will include the world premiere of Yilmaz Erdogan's The Butterfly's Dream and a masterclass with Times And Winds director Reha Erdem. In addition to narrative and documentary features - five of which will compete for the Golden Wings Digiturk Digital Distribution Award, worth £30,000 - the festival will also screen a selection of short films.
The Golden Wings Lifetime Achievement Award will this year honour actor and director Kadir Inanir, who will be the special guest at the Opening Night Gala and will be attending a Q&A screening of his new film Farewell Katya. An audience award will also be given to one...
Highlights of this year's festival will include the world premiere of Yilmaz Erdogan's The Butterfly's Dream and a masterclass with Times And Winds director Reha Erdem. In addition to narrative and documentary features - five of which will compete for the Golden Wings Digiturk Digital Distribution Award, worth £30,000 - the festival will also screen a selection of short films.
The Golden Wings Lifetime Achievement Award will this year honour actor and director Kadir Inanir, who will be the special guest at the Opening Night Gala and will be attending a Q&A screening of his new film Farewell Katya. An audience award will also be given to one...
- 2/12/2013
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A faintly impenetrable Turkish fable about a thief with healing powers that doesn't quite beguile
Tiny pendants of audiovisual poetry adorn this otherwise faintly impenetrable Turkish fable – about a thief with healing powers who arrives in a heavily fortified town populated by suspicious minds – but it needed a hypnotist film-maker of Tarkovsky or Béla Tarr's calibre to dangle them in such a way as to beguile us. Instead, writer-director Reha Erdem – following up 2006's rapturous Times and Winds – offers a Stars in Their Eyes-level cover of these arthouse heavy hitters: there are notes of Stalker in the film's abandoned, paper-strewn interiors, and of Solaris in its free-floating extraterrestrial imagery, and a hero who's part Irimias, the poet-swindler of Tarr's masterwork Sátántangó, part Peter Pumpkinhead (pace Xtc). Munching sugarcubes for no apparent reason, lead Sermet Yesil makes a winsome savant, but his tendency to communicate with his beloved in...
Tiny pendants of audiovisual poetry adorn this otherwise faintly impenetrable Turkish fable – about a thief with healing powers who arrives in a heavily fortified town populated by suspicious minds – but it needed a hypnotist film-maker of Tarkovsky or Béla Tarr's calibre to dangle them in such a way as to beguile us. Instead, writer-director Reha Erdem – following up 2006's rapturous Times and Winds – offers a Stars in Their Eyes-level cover of these arthouse heavy hitters: there are notes of Stalker in the film's abandoned, paper-strewn interiors, and of Solaris in its free-floating extraterrestrial imagery, and a hero who's part Irimias, the poet-swindler of Tarr's masterwork Sátántangó, part Peter Pumpkinhead (pace Xtc). Munching sugarcubes for no apparent reason, lead Sermet Yesil makes a winsome savant, but his tendency to communicate with his beloved in...
- 6/14/2012
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
We've just opened a virtual cinema featuring the work of Reha Erdem, ranging from the blackly comic to the eerily poetic (and we should note right at the top that not every film mentioned here will be viewable in every country; we do what we can). In the Us, most were first introduced to Erdem when his Times and Winds, which had won the award for Best Film (as well as the Fipresci Prize) at the Istanbul International Film Festival in 2006, saw a limited theatrical run two years later before its release on DVD. It's "a film bewitched by the rhythms of everyday life in a remote Turkish village," wrote Ed Gonzalez in the Voice. "Erdem sees pain and love the same way he does the moon and sun — as constant, illuminating forces — and his camera pushes forward as if on an axis, peering at family and communal experience through...
- 2/28/2012
- MUBI
With domestic films repeatedly ranking in the nation's most viewed, the Turkish industry is booming as others around it stall
You couldn't move for new waves in the noughties: even Antarctica looked capable of knocking out its own film scene. But the Latin American buena onda in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, the South Korea extreme-Asia offshoot and the Russian blockbuster boom all had one thing in common. They found it hard to sustain their initial impact, whether it was because the global media moved on to the next big thing, or their key directors were poached by Hollywood, or there was a lack of sustained investment. Gael García Bernal reflected on the Mexican version of the problem at an Nft talk: "When we did Amores Perros, Mexico only made six films that year. There will be 65 films this year. But I don't know how many of those will be seen.
You couldn't move for new waves in the noughties: even Antarctica looked capable of knocking out its own film scene. But the Latin American buena onda in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, the South Korea extreme-Asia offshoot and the Russian blockbuster boom all had one thing in common. They found it hard to sustain their initial impact, whether it was because the global media moved on to the next big thing, or their key directors were poached by Hollywood, or there was a lack of sustained investment. Gael García Bernal reflected on the Mexican version of the problem at an Nft talk: "When we did Amores Perros, Mexico only made six films that year. There will be 65 films this year. But I don't know how many of those will be seen.
- 11/22/2011
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
How is global online cinema powerhouse Mubi celebrating Tribeca's 10th Film Festival? With past Tff films available for your online viewing pleasure... (Pictured above: Reha Erdem's 2006 film, Times and Winds) Mubi, the global online cinema for the best of independent, international and classic cinema, is celebrating the 10th Tribeca Film Festival in New York by offering to online audiences a selection of films that have played in past programs. From short experimental films and visionary debuts to compelling documentaries and gems from overseas, Mubi's highlights represent a look at the broad, exciting range of Tribeca's programming over the years, and gives overseas audiences the chance to see what makes the festival special. See what's playing in your country here.
- 4/21/2011
- TribecaFilm.com
Animated Exeter, Exeter
Last year it was Exeter Castle, this year the animation festival spills over on to the city's best-known landmark, with a son-et-lumière piece projected on to Exeter Cathedral (graphics by artists Tundra* and music from Portishead's Beth Gibbons). Free exhibitions and events include a helpful workshop on how to animate vegetables, while guest of honour Joanna Quinn looks back on her distinctive body of work. Plus, of course, over 140 films, from shorts compilations (like the return of Spike And Mike's "Sick And Twisted" programme) to recent features The Illusionist and A Town Called Panic.
Various venues, Mon to 26 Feb
Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow
Perhaps Edinburgh should start looking over its shoulder at "the fastest-growing film event in the UK". But Scotland's big enough for the both of them, for now. This one's almost too big for itself, as evidenced by the mini-festivals within it: a promising music and film festival,...
Last year it was Exeter Castle, this year the animation festival spills over on to the city's best-known landmark, with a son-et-lumière piece projected on to Exeter Cathedral (graphics by artists Tundra* and music from Portishead's Beth Gibbons). Free exhibitions and events include a helpful workshop on how to animate vegetables, while guest of honour Joanna Quinn looks back on her distinctive body of work. Plus, of course, over 140 films, from shorts compilations (like the return of Spike And Mike's "Sick And Twisted" programme) to recent features The Illusionist and A Town Called Panic.
Various venues, Mon to 26 Feb
Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow
Perhaps Edinburgh should start looking over its shoulder at "the fastest-growing film event in the UK". But Scotland's big enough for the both of them, for now. This one's almost too big for itself, as evidenced by the mini-festivals within it: a promising music and film festival,...
- 2/12/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The title for Nuri Bilge Ceylan's next project is: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. The leading role will be assigned to Yilmaz Erdogan, a famous Turkish writer, director and actor. Erdogan is best known by his box-office winner films like Vizontele, Magic Carpet Ride, Neseli Hayat. It was a surprise selection on Ceylan's part to choose Erdogan, who also happens to be a popular figure on local television. Taking place in the p.m. portion of the day, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia follows the life of a doctor and a prosecutor. Both Ceylan and Erdogan aren't releasing any further details for now, but we'll update the status of the project in 2010. - Our Turkish film correspondent Onur Ertugrul is back with us with some great news on the next project for one of the decades' best auteurs. Turkish Film Scene – Local: Latest Film Of Zek...
- 12/31/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
Times and Winds
Kino International
NEW YORK -- On first glance, Reha Erdem's Times and Winds could easily be mistaken as "lyrical," but that would be to belie the harshness at its center.
This ambling portrait of three young teens living in a remote Turkish village doesn't quite possess the deep emotional pungency to which it aspires, but it contains more than a few haunting moments along the way. The film is playing an exclusive theatrical run at New York's Anthology Film Archives.
The film, a multiple prize-winner at the Istanbul Film Festival, depicts the interactions among Omer (Ozkan Ozen), Yakup Ali Bey Kayali) and their female friend Yildiz (Elit Iscan), all in their early teens and experiencing troubled relationships with their parents. Omer's father, the village's well-respected imam, treats him disdainfully, incurring his young son's practically murderous wrath. Yakup, who nurtures a crush on the beautiful local schoolteacher, becomes deeply resentful of his father when he spots him spying on her through a window. Yildiz also becomes traumatized when she accidentally sees her parents having sex.
Divided into five chronologically reversed sections corresponding to the times of the day when Islamic prayers are uttered, the film matter-of-factly observes the youngsters' mundane activities, from watching animals copulating to marveling at a solar eclipse to performing the many chores to which they have been assigned. But permeating the sleepy daily rhythms is a palpable undercurrent of tension fostered by the severe disconnect between the generations.
As might be expected, the film looks beautiful, its elegant compositions well capturing the natural beauty of the landscape. Adding to the emotional effect is the powerful musical score, composed of excerpts from symphonies by famed modern composer Arvo Part.
NEW YORK -- On first glance, Reha Erdem's Times and Winds could easily be mistaken as "lyrical," but that would be to belie the harshness at its center.
This ambling portrait of three young teens living in a remote Turkish village doesn't quite possess the deep emotional pungency to which it aspires, but it contains more than a few haunting moments along the way. The film is playing an exclusive theatrical run at New York's Anthology Film Archives.
The film, a multiple prize-winner at the Istanbul Film Festival, depicts the interactions among Omer (Ozkan Ozen), Yakup Ali Bey Kayali) and their female friend Yildiz (Elit Iscan), all in their early teens and experiencing troubled relationships with their parents. Omer's father, the village's well-respected imam, treats him disdainfully, incurring his young son's practically murderous wrath. Yakup, who nurtures a crush on the beautiful local schoolteacher, becomes deeply resentful of his father when he spots him spying on her through a window. Yildiz also becomes traumatized when she accidentally sees her parents having sex.
Divided into five chronologically reversed sections corresponding to the times of the day when Islamic prayers are uttered, the film matter-of-factly observes the youngsters' mundane activities, from watching animals copulating to marveling at a solar eclipse to performing the many chores to which they have been assigned. But permeating the sleepy daily rhythms is a palpable undercurrent of tension fostered by the severe disconnect between the generations.
As might be expected, the film looks beautiful, its elegant compositions well capturing the natural beauty of the landscape. Adding to the emotional effect is the powerful musical score, composed of excerpts from symphonies by famed modern composer Arvo Part.
- 1/16/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kino brings israeli, Turk films to U.S.
NEW YORK -- Art house distributor Kino International has acquired all domestic rights to Joseph Cedar's Israeli war feature Beaufort and Reda Erdem's Turkish drama Bes vakit (Times and Winds).
The fact-based Beaufort looks at an Israeli army unit during the final days of its withdrawal from the Lebanese border after nearly two decades of occupation. The film earned Cedar best director honors at this year's Berlin Film Festival and is nominated for next month's Israeli Film Academy best feature award. His two previous films, Medurat Hashevet (Campfire) and Hahseder (Time of Favor), each took home the top IFA award.
Winds follows three adolescents in a small Turkish village as they struggle against the confines of their traditional parents. The film premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI and best Turkish film awards at the 2006 Istanbul Film Festival.
Kino plans an early 2008 platform release of Beaufort beginning in New York, Los Angeles and Boston. They will release Winds in New York in November after it screens at the Anthology Film Archives' Turkish Film Showcase.
The fact-based Beaufort looks at an Israeli army unit during the final days of its withdrawal from the Lebanese border after nearly two decades of occupation. The film earned Cedar best director honors at this year's Berlin Film Festival and is nominated for next month's Israeli Film Academy best feature award. His two previous films, Medurat Hashevet (Campfire) and Hahseder (Time of Favor), each took home the top IFA award.
Winds follows three adolescents in a small Turkish village as they struggle against the confines of their traditional parents. The film premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI and best Turkish film awards at the 2006 Istanbul Film Festival.
Kino plans an early 2008 platform release of Beaufort beginning in New York, Los Angeles and Boston. They will release Winds in New York in November after it screens at the Anthology Film Archives' Turkish Film Showcase.
- 8/14/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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