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A report on 45th Antalya Golden Orange and 4th International
Eurasia Film Festivals (10-20 October, 2008) by Gönül
Dönmez-Colin
The national Golden Orange and the International Eurasia Film
Festivals of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey kicked
off with a rewarding program of films from different parts of the
world accompanied with distinguished guests. The national cinema
provided an exciting array of films that show-cased new styles
from old masters, stylistic works of the representatives of the
‘new Turkish cinema’ as well as daring and not so
daring first attempts. The overall theme of the national cinema
section seemed to be conscience and how one deals with it.
Erden Kiral, who was instrumental in introducing Turkish cinema
to the Western world in the 1980s with remarkable social realist
films such as Hakkari’de Bir Mevsim /A Season in Hakkari
(1983) tried his hand in a fantasy melodrama called Vicdan/
Conscience that started as a social commentary about women
working in a brick factory but swiftly moved on to a love
triangle resulting in murder with a dose of lesbianism thrown in.
The digital effects that attempted to post-modernize an otherwise
typical Yesilçam Turkish commercial cinema of the (1950s-1970s)
story were not so welcome for those accustomed to the languid
tempo of Kiral’s previous contemplative works. Nonetheless,
the main actress, Nurgül Yesilçay,who transforms from a factory
worker to a bar girl, then to the devote kept woman of a
fundamentalist and back to the fiery bar girl won the Best
Actress award, while Zekeriya Kurtulus was awarded as the Best
Cinematographer and Mustafa Preshava as the Best Editor.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes winner Üç Maymun / Three
Monkeys,another crime and punishment story that also focuses on
conscience was one of the most discussed films of the festival.
Ceylan’s stand on women is often a subject for debate, but
the fact that in this
film the woman is the scapegoat did not go well with the female
audience. The story, which resembles that of a Yilmaz Güney film
called Baba/The Father (without giving any credit to it)
meandered along the lines of melodrama, nonetheless the film was
beyond reproach from the artistic point of view although some
also questioned the validity of a film that was practically
‘created on the editing board’as one critic pointed
out.
Semih Kaplanoglu continued the trilogy he started with Yumurta/
Egg,with Süt/Milk moving backward in time through the story of
Yusuf, the poet of the first film, who is searching for his
identity before entering manhood. The film’s extremely slow
tempo
seemed to test the patience of the audience but those who could
adjust to it were rewarded with a remarkable story of existence
in a small town at the brink of change. Gitmek/My Marlon and
Brando, the first long feature of Hüseyin Karabey was a crafty
film recounting the true story of its actress, Ayça Damgaci who
fell in love with an Iraqi Kurd during the shooting of a film and
tried to cross borders to re-unite with her beloved.Remarkable
acting by Ayca Damgaci on a script she penned has made this film
a favourite among film festivals this year. (In December, the
film bagged two awards at the 13th International Film Festival of
Kerala 2008.)
Reha Erdem’s Hayat Var / My Only Sunshine carried the pains
of growing up in a small town, which he had already exposed in
his previous film Bes Vakit/Times and Winds (2006), to the slums
of Istanbul in a remarkably shot film that contrasted sharply the
struggles of fourteen-year-old Hayat in a cruel world of adults
with the breathtaking beauty of the waters of Bosphorus.
The most accomplished film of the Turkish competition, according
to this critic was Turkey’s only bona fide woman filmmaker
Yesim Ustaoglu’s Pandoranin Kutusu/Pandora’s Box that
focused on the utter loneliness of urban existence through the
story of
an Alzeimer patient mother and her disjointed family. Garnering
the top award, the Golden Conch at the San Sebastian Film
Festival this year, the film was practically ignored by the jury
headed by the internationally acclaimed actor Tuncel Kurtiz who
preferred another
film, Pazar-Bir Ticaret Masali / The Market – A Tale of
Trade by Ben Hopkins about a wheeler-dealer in a border town
desperate to support his family.Hence,a film by a British
director and foreign producers won the Best Turkish Film Award
along with the Best Script award and Tayanç Ayaydin who plays
the head of the family received the Best Actor award. (On a
similar theme, one can easily say that Majid Majidi’s Berlin
award winner, Song of the Sparrows is a far superior film.)
Dervis Zaim who is credited for having made Turkey’s first
small budget film in the 1996 with Tabutta Rövasata /
Summersault in A coffin received the Best Director award and Jury
Special Price with Nokta / Dot. Just like Conscience and Three
Monkeys, this film also
interrogates crime and punishment and the consequent dilemmas of
conscience,but Zaim tells his story employing the methods of a
traditional Turkish art form, calligraphy, which marks both the
language and the content of the film. Challenging as an
experiment, the film’s main focus (or message if one needs a
message) is somewhat obscured in the work that gives the
impression that it was somehow constructed in haste.
The awards of the 45th Golden Orange Film Festival were somewhat
controversial. Many felt that the main jury decidedly ignored the
art films. Ceylan’s film received only the Special
Effect’s award although SIYAD, representing Turkish critics
chose it as the Best
Film in the competition of the International Eurasia Film
Festival. Milk was not awarded at all and Pandora’s Box
received only the Best Supporting Actress award for Övül
Alkiran.
The 4th International Eurasia Film Festival that runs parallel to
the Golden Orange generously honoured several film personalities.
Paul Verhoeven,Zbigniew Preisner,Michael York,Marisa Tomei,Adrien
Brody,Michael J. Werner of Fortissimo Films,Mickey Rourke and
Maximilian Shell all received prestigious honorary awards. Paul
Verhoeven was the president of the jury that also included Majid
Majidi and Joan Chen.
The festival opened with Turkey born,Rome based Ferzan
Özpetek’s Un Giorno Perfetto/A Perfect Day, a melodrama
that had brought the lead actress Isabella Ferrari the Pasinetti
Award for the Best Actress at the 65th Venice Film Festival. One
of the most beautiful films of the competition was Hirokazu Kore
Eda’s Aruitemo Aruitemo /Still Walking.The ever present
themes of his work, memory and loss, presence and absence were
also sensitively crafted into this film although many critics
felt that it would have been better if the end was left to the
imagination rather than adding an episode that showed what
happened to the family years later. Nonetheless, the Best
Director award was definitely well-deserved. Khamsa by Karim
Dridi (France),the story of excluded minorities,gypsies in this
case, was the favourite of the jury for the Best Film award
although the Netpac (Network For Promoting Asian Cinema) Jury
awarded a Turkish film, Sonbahar/ Autumn, the first feature of
Özcan Alper about the last days of a released political
prisoner, spent in his home town on the Black Sea.
In a special section, composed of films chosen by critics,
‘Journey to Asia’ featured Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of
Time Redux (Hong Kong), Kim Ki-duk’s Bi-Mong /Dream (South
Korea),Hayao Miyazaki’s Gake No Ue No Ponyo / Ponyo on the
Cliff (Japan) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata (Japan).
In the Silk Road section, Majidi’s Avaze Gonjeshk-ha /The
Song of the Sparrows was a far superior film than the national
award winner Pazar on a similar subject.
Amos Gitai’s One Day You’ll Understand had a special
screening. Youssef Chahine was remembered with Al Massir/
Destiny. Kevin Spacey and Michael York gave master classes to the
enthusiastic students. It was interesting to note that Turkish
acting students
repeatedly asked Spacey how to reach Hollywood. His repeated
response was to find ways for Hollywood to reach them.
The two festivals and the Eurasia Film Market, jointly organized
by TURSAK (Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture)
and Antalya Culture and Art Foundation (AKSAV) that operate on an
enviable budget of six million are totally red carpet affairs
that
also allow for new comers to rub shoulders with celebrities. The
most attractive aspect of the festival for the filmmakers, apart
from its excellent location by the Mediterranean is the generous
prizes, around $175.000 for the best Turkish film and $75.000 for
the Best Film in the Eurasia Film Festival section.
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