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Living, learning, suffering for their passion: the 26 boys living at the sports academy in the Turkish province of Amasya will endure a lot to realise their wrestling dream. This documentary’s observational camera remains unobtrusive while still allowing us to experience an everyday life at close range – somewhere between camaraderie and competition.Read More »
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The original meaning of the word “piano” is “quiet” or “soft,” so when Kemal’s uncle Kerim admonishes him by saying Piano Piano Kid, he’s encouraging him to go through life softly. Uncle Kerim hopes to improve the family fortunes by using his numismatic scholarship to make a great deal on old coins. The boy lives in his family’s boarding house, surrounded by interesting and eccentric, but kindhearted people. His father is thoroughly addicted to gambling, and aside from rents paid by their tenants, the family makes most of its money through the efforts of Kemal’s mother in her acting jobs. Though his parents often argue, it is also clear that they love one another. This sweet family drama is set in Istanbul in the 1940s, and won a “Best Director” award in the 1991 Istanbul Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie GuideRead More »
Hasan is a truck driver who has been in jail for years. After his release, he finds out that his childhood friend Yavuz and his ex-lover Sabahat is now married. Yavuz is chased by some outlaws because of his unpaid loan. Hasan takes Sabahat and her daughter away, with the outlaws chasing them.Read More »
A dwarf and a transvestite, both are excluded from the society and doomed to exist at night. Their lives overlap in a strange encounter and this becomes the start of their friendship.Read More »
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Coşkun has been in love with the famous star Derya Altınay since his childhood. So much so that the fictional melodrama film heroines, who have opposite characters, have infiltrated the young man’s life. Coşkun has the opportunity to meet Derya; he pens an imaginary love story with her in mind. This script is eventually made into a film, and Derya plays the lead role, but the resulting film is far from his expectations.Read More »
This was produced, directed, and written by Çetin Inanç, the protege of Yilmaz Atadeniz (who gave world the Kilink films.) Inanc went on to produce a whole ton of Turkish films, both craptacularly awesome superhero fair like this, and more modern stuff that includes violent action films.Read More »
Two Russian siblings living in Istanbul, Turkey, who work in the diamond fencing business, scheme to steal the newly discovered legendary diamond White Fire, but their rivals have other plans in mind.Read More »
Mehmet and his friends are prisoners and escape from a prison bus, when they have an accident. They stop a van, kill its driver and take Zeynep, who is the driver’s fiancée, as a hostage. They also contact Zeynep’s family and ask for ransom. They hide in a chalet, but the police is after them.Read More »
Set in Istanbul, the film opens with a surprisingly candid scene of Baldwin leisurely awakening in his bedroom. Sedat Pakay, a Turkish filmmaker who studied with Walker Evans, is known for his photographic portraits of famous artists and writers, Baldwin among them. Here in Istanbul, Baldwin seems relatively relaxed, walking among crowds in a public park or on the city’s streets. His focus is personal, even intimate: “The life I live is very different from what people imagine. I love a few men. I love a few women. Love comes in many strange packages; it never comes to you as you think it will. I think the trick is to say yes to life.” He speaks of how difficult it is concentrate and to write in the United States and says that “American men are paranoiac on the subject of homosexuality.” The film offers us a self-reflective James Baldwin, one who fearlessly examines his most private thoughts and feelings.Read More »