THE SPACE BETWEEN: A PANORAMA OF CINEMA IN TURKEY FILM LIST “The Space Between: A Panorama of Cinema in Turkey” will take place at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center from April 27 – May 10, 2012. Please note this list is subject to change. AĞIT a week. Subsequently, Zebercet begins an impatient vigil Muhtar (Ali Şen), a member of the town council, sells a piece and, when she does not return, descends into a psychopathic of land in front of his home to Haceli (Erol Taş), a land ELEGY breakdown. dispute arises between the two families and questions of Yılmaz Güney, 1971. Color. 80 min. social and moral justice come into play. In Ağıt, Yılmaz Güney stars as Çobanoğlu, one of four KOSMOS smugglers living in a desolate region of eastern Turkey. Reha Erdem, 2009. Color. 122 min. SELVİ BOYLUM, AL YAZMALIM Greed, murder and betrayal are part of the everyday life of THE GIRL WITH THE RED SCARF these men, whose violence sharply contrasts with the quiet Kosmos, Reha Erdem’s utopian vision of a man, is a thief who Atıf Yılmaz, 1977. Color. 90 min. determination of a woman doctor (Sermin Hürmeriç) who works miracles. He appears one morning in the snowy border attends to the impoverished villagers living under constant village of Kars, where he is welcomed with open arms after Inspired by the novel by Kyrgyz writer Cengiz Aytmatov, Selvi threat of avalanche from the rocky, eroded landscape. saving a young boy’s life. Despite Kosmos’s curing the ill and Boylum, Al Yazmalım tells the love story of İlyas (Kadir İnanır), performing other miracles, the town begins to turn against a truck driver from Istanbul, his new wife Asya (Türkan Şoray) him when it is learned he has fallen in love with a local girl. AH GÜZEL İSTANBUL and a marriage torn apart by jealousy, alcoholism and an extramarital affair. After leaving his family, İlyas suddenly O BEAUTIFUL ISTANBUL HERŞEYE RAĞMEN returns years later demanding his wife and child back, forcing Atıf Yılmaz, 1966. B&W. 97 min. Asya to question marriage, fatherhood and love itself. DESPITE EVERYTHING O Beautiful Istanbul is a bittersweet comedy that tells the Orhan Oğuz, 1988. Color. 102 min. story of the chance friendship between a failed, but wise UMUT street photographer Haşmet (Sadri Alışık) and a peasant girl Hasan (Talat Bulut) emerges from prison an introverted, HOPE Ayşe (Ayla Algan), who has run away to Istanbul to become lonely man. With no family or money, he takes a job at a Yılmaz Güney, 1970. B&W. 100 min. an actress. Two destinies collide when naïveté meets wisdom Protestant church driving a hearse. He meets a young widow in the big city. Ayşe, and she and her young son move in with Hasan. When Hope tells the story of an impoverished carriage driver, Ayşe turns to prostitution, Hasan is left to take solace in the Cabbar, from Adana, who struggles to make ends meet for company of the young boy who shares his alienation. ANAYURT OTELİ his wife, children and mother. Dreaming of a better life for his family, Cabbar invests all his hope in lottery tickets, but MOTHERLAND HOTEL YILANLARIN ÖCÜ luck fails him. Depicting an unfaltering sense of hope amidst Ömer Kavur, 1987. Color. 110 min. poverty and despair, Güney’s film, his first international REVENGE OF THE SNAKES success, represents a turning point in Turkish cinema through Based on the novel by Yusuf Atılgan, Anayurt Oteli is a dark Metin Erksan, 1962. B&W. 90 min. its neorealism and stark portrayal of the urban poor. drama of loneliness and obsession. Zebercet (Macit Koper) is the quiet young owner of a small-town hotel left to him by Kara Bayram (Fikret Hakan) is a poor farmer working a small his father. A mysterious woman arrives on the train from piece of land with his elderly mother Irazca (Aliye Rona), his Ankara and spends a night in the hotel, promising to return in wife Hatça (Nurhan Nur) and his three children. When 1 TEYZEM BENİM SİNEMALARIM HAMAM MY AUNT MY CINEMAS STEAM: THE TURKISH BATH Halit Refiğ, 1987. Color. 81 min. Gülsün Karamustafa and Füruzan, 1990. Color. 105 min. Ferzan Özpetek, 1997. Color. 94 min. Bright and attractive, Üftade is a woman with incredibly Set in 1960 in a neighborhood on the borders of Istanbul, Hamam tells the story of Francesco (Alessandro Gassman), fanatical parents. Her abusive father and weak-willed mother Benim Sinemalarım is the story of a young girl, Nesibe (Hülya who leaves his busy life and troubled marriage in Rome when force her to live a life of loneliness and silence. Teyzem paints Avşar), from a family oppressed by poor economic he learns that his estranged aunt has died in Istanbul. Upon a realistic picture of the abuse of women within a domestic conditions. Dreaming of a way out and overwhelmed by the his arrival, Francesco is surprised to find that he has inherited setting, and exposes the hypocrisy of society as a whole. pressures of poverty and long working hours, the family a hamam, a traditional Turkish bathhouse. Francesco’s attempts to change their destiny. decision to remain in Istanbul brings his wife Marta to follow him there, where she finds him a changed man. GİZLİ YÜZ THE SECRET FACE YOL Ömer Kavur, 1991. Color. 115 min. THE ROAD TABUTTA RÖVAŞATA Şerif Gören, 1982. Color. 114 min. SOMERSAULT IN A COFFIN Inspired by Orhan Pamuk’s internationally acclaimed novel Derviş Zaim, 1996. Color. 76 min. Kara Kitap (The Black Book), Gizli Yüz tells the story of a One of Gören’s darkest films, Yol tells the stories of five nightclub photographer who is hired by a young woman in prisoners in one of Turkey’s open prisons— this one on the Mahsun (Ahmet Uğurlu) is an unemployed drifter living in an search of someone with a secret face— a clockmaker in a island of Imralı on the Sea of Marmara— who are given one- old neighborhood of Istanbul. Surviving thanks to the charity provincial town. When this woman subsequently disappears, week leaves to see their families in eastern Turkey. As the of local fisherman, Mahsun takes refuge from the cold winter the photographer embarks on a yearlong journey to find her. men’s stories unfold, Gören displays the tragedy and tyranny nights by stealing cars. After learning that a local castle has been converted into a tourist attraction featuring several of their lives caught between the volatility of the political moment and the demands of family, custom and their own dozen peacocks, Mahsun’s decision to steal a peacock brings UÇURTMAYI VURMASINLAR hopes and desires. him a surprising fifteen minutes of fame. DON’T LET THEM SHOOT THE KITE Tunç Başaran, 1989. Color. 100 min. İTİRAF VİZONTELE Yılmaz Erdoğan and Ömer Faruk Sorak, 2001. Color. 110 min. Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite tells the story of political CONFESSION prisoners in Turkey through the eyes of a single child. Set in a Zeki Demirkubuz, 2001. Color. 90 min. Set in a backwards village of southeastern Turkey in 1974, women’s prison, the film follows the relationship between Vizontele develops around the rivalry between sleazy open- inmate İnci and the neglected five-year-old son of another Harun (Taner Birsel) is a rich and successful engineer who air cinema operator Latif (Cezmi Baskın) and the upright prisoner. Once İnci is pardoned, the young boy finds comfort discovers that his wife Nilgün (Başak Köklükaya) is having an mayor of the town, Nazmi (Altan Erkekli). When Nazmi hears in fantasizing that he can continue their relationship through affair. Scared of losing her, and in disbelief, he does not of a new invention that might soon render movie going a magical kite. confront her. Desperate to uncover the truth about his wife’s obsolete, he becomes the first person in the village to own a infidelity, he starts to interrogate her, little knowing that he TV set. Meanwhile, Latif plots against the mayor by is in for an unexpected surprise. proclaiming the new invention to be the work of the Devil. HAZAL Ali Özgentürk, 1979. Color. 90 min. İKLİMLER GÜNEŞE YOLCULUK Depicting rural life and the tragic existence of village CLIMATES womenfolk, Hazal tells the bitter story of a recently widowed Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006. Color. 101 min. JOURNEY TO THE SUN Yeşim Ustaoğlu, 1998. Color. 104 min. woman, Hazal (Türkan Şoray), who is forced by her in-laws to marry her deceased husband’s twelve-year-old brother Ömer Hailed by the New York Foundation for the Arts as “the only Mehmet befriends a young Kurdish man, Berzan, but when (Harun Yeşilyurt) and live with his insufferable mother. masterpiece of the [2006 Cannes] festival,” tells the story of the latter is killed in a street protest, Mehmet determines to Driven by her own desires, she falls in love with a mysterious of a tumultuous relationship between İsa and Bahar. The return his friend’s body home. Güneşe Yolculuk tells the story stranger, Emin (Talat Bulut). contrast between the climates of two towns on opposite of courage and friendship while examining the state of ends of Turkey provide a backdrop for the different climates Kurdish refugees in present-day Turkey. of the main characters’ equally turbulent spirits. 2 ÜÇ ARKADAŞ dry climate. Hıdır (Yılmaz Güney) tries to stay clear of such a mental breakdown as the depth of her isolation is matched illegal activities, but agrees to take a herd of sheep across the only by the pressure to produce a son. A sudden turn of THREE FRIENDS border when his chief is shot.