April 18, Wednesday
The festival awards have been announced!
The 37th Istanbul Film Festival that brought together films from all around the world has concluded with the award ceremony at Rahmi M. Koç Museum. 60 films competed at national and international competitions. Writer and TV programmer Yekta Kopan hosted the event where the winning films were announced. You can see the full list of awards at: http://film.iksv.org/tr/festival-odulleri/37-istanbul-film-festivali
Presentations:
A young boy whose only world is his birds …
Banu Sıvacı’s first feature film, The Pigeon from the section “National Competition”, was screened at Atlas Sineması with the participation of the director and the film crew. “I grew up in that neighborhood [in Adana] you see in the film; I was one of those kids playing. The men I know who have a passion for pigeons have always been different from other men. I wondered what kind of adolescence they would have had,” said Sıvacı who explained that even though the story is set in today’s world, the characters still live the 1990s. The director also talked about the challenges of working with pigeons, explaining that they had to spend a lot of time getting the birds used to the camera and they even raised Maverdi, the particular pigeon in the film. Mesut Ulutaş, who has been involved in the project from the very beginning, said: “I actually wanted to stay as the editor only. But directors in Turkey are usually left alone in the filmmaking process. That’s why I found myself doing the work of a producer as well. Doing the planning and everything, we’ve come this far. I had to start working as the editor immediately. I spent some time trying to look at the film from the outside.”
A film about the human psyche and relationships…
Scenes from a Marriage from the section “Bergman: 100 Years” was screened at Beyoğlu Sineması with the presentation of director Melik Saraçoğlu. “This is a difficult film because of both its runtime and content… I honestly think it’ll be difficult for you; it’s hard to swallow,” said Saraçoğlu who also explained that there are two versions of the film, and added: “One is the three-hour-long cinema version; and the other is a television series and takes five hours. When they asked us to pick a film, we preferred to show the longer version, so I’d like to thank the festival for giving us this opportunity. [When it was released] the film attracted so much interest and was a great commercial success. When we look at the series now, this one presents an important example. The film you’re about to watch is a work of art that is very important as a cinema film, a television series and a theater play. It’s a very particular film on the human psyche, magnanimity and compassion.”
