Istanbul Film Festival continues to revive most significant works of Turkish cinema by restoring these outstanding classics with the collaboration of Zurich Sigorta. Film enthusiasts will have the opportunity to watch a cult classic from its copy digitally restored by Atlas Post Production -- The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet directed by Metin Erksan, starring Fatma Girik.

A cult film now, The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet will be screened from a digitally restored copy and will be on the silver screen again in memoriam Fatma Girik who died last year.

Frequently employing surreal elements in his films, Metin Erksan creates a fantastic world in The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet which he made right after his 1974 version of The Exorcist. Erksan's unique cinematic vision shapes Shakespeare's perhaps the most celebrated play into another unique world in Turkey where Hamlet is female and studies theatre in the USA. The film employs pop songs and imaginary orchestras, and nobody's name is kept except for Hamlet's.

The plot of this fantasy-tragedy-drama is more or less the same as the original play: Hamlet's father is murdered. The ghost of the murdered man appears before his daughter to reveal that his brother, Hamlet's uncle has conspired with his wife to kill him. Hamlet decides to avenge her father's death and pretends to have lost her mind. In order to do that, she stages a play in the palace and invites her actor friends to reveal the conspiracy as a play. Her vengeance is bloody and mortal for everyone.

The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet which was screened at Moscow and San Francisco film festivals is directed by Metin Erksan, the DoP is Cahit Engin, edited by Süleyman Karakaya. The score of the film is composed by Timur Selçuk and Dmitri Shostakovich. Aside from Fatma Girik as Hamlet, the cast includes Sevda Ferdağ, Reha Yurdakul, Orçun Sonat, Nevra Serezli, Ahmet Sezerel, Yüksel Gözen, Ali Cağaloğlu, and Ahmet Turgutlu.