Yasasin! Istanbul Spotlighted In Festival’s City To City Programme
A panel session entitled “Istanbul – A Conversation†will feature several guests, including Richard Florida, author of The Great Reset and Who’s Your City? director, Martin Prosperity Institute, University of Toronto and founder, Creative Class Group; Reha Erdem, director of My Only Sunshine;Pelin Esmer, director of 10 to 11; and Seren Yuce, director of The Majority. This panel will be open to the public and will take place on Thursday, September 16 at 7 p.m. at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall. Admission is free.
CITY TO CITY – FEATURES
10 to 11
Pelin Esmer, Turkey/France/Germany
North American Premiere
An elderly man clashes with his neighbours as they try to remove him – and his elaborate collections of ephemera — from his apartment.
40
Emre Sahin, Turkey
International Premiere
Capturing the dazzling intensity of Istanbul’s 12 million souls, Sahin’s groundbreaking feature crisscrosses the lives of a petty crook, an ambitious nurse and an African migrant as they seek money, luck or just a way out.
Block-C
Zeki Demirkubuz, Turkey Canadian Premiere
Zeki Demirkubuz’s career-launching debut feature dissects the melancholy and repression inherent in bourgeois life in dreary apartment blocks.
Dark Cloud Theron Patterson, Turkey
North American Premiere
A black comedy in the style of a lucid dream, Dark Cloud looks at a middle-aged man who can’t move on from the death of his wife, and the teenaged son who needs him to wake up.
Distant Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey
Distant maps Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s signature exploration of existential heartache onto the wintry shores of Istanbul.
Hair Tayfun Pirselimoglu, Turkey
North American Premiere
An ailing Istanbul wig-maker becomes obsessed with a woman who enters his shop one day.
The Majority Seren Yuce, Turkey
North American Premiere
A young middle-class man rebels against his father’s brutish authority and seeks a rough romance with a woman of ethnic minority. Yuce’s moral tale draws from the example of today’s Turkish youth and the timeless shadow of fathers over sons.
My Only Sunshine Reha Erdem, Turkey/Greece/Bulgaria
Toronto Premiere
In this potent, widescreen portrait of an Istanbul wild child, Hayat lives in a shack beside the Bosphorus sea with her criminal father and wheezing grandfather. Life is harsh, but Hayat watches and learns.
September 12 Ozlem Sulak, Turkey/Germany
North American Premiere
In this meditative and monumental examination of the legacy of Turkey’s 1980 military coup, individual narrations of the tumultuous event are juxtaposed with quotidian routines, 30 years on.
Somersault in a Coffin Dervis Zaim, Turkey
A thief with bizarre compulsions – and possibly good reasons – tries to get by in this essential Istanbul film.
CITY TO CITY – SHORTS
ascents in february Yoel Meranda, Turkey
World Premiere
An abstract, impish spot of light leads the camera onto Istanbul’s streets.
not be or… Yoel Meranda, Turkey
World Premiere
This whiplash montage of Istanbul’s urban imagery conveys a pure sense of speed and disorientation.
On Thin Ice Burcak Kaygun, Turkey
Canadian Premiere
A painterly composition explores movement and sound in the abstract, as skaters on a winter ice rink swirl round and round.
rauscht Yoel Meranda, Turkey
International Premiere
A politician’s televised speech is utterly transformed into stunning abstraction.
Science Lab Eytan Ipeker, Turkey
International Premiere
This short is a visual compendium of experimental techniques, all uncannily mined from footage of the filmmaker’s piano keys.
straitscaping Yoel Meranda, Turkey
World Premiere
Yoel Meranda completely transforms brief footage of a ferry trip across the Bosphorus.
Waves Belmin Soylemez, Turkey
North American Premiere
This striking experimental documentary focuses on the boys and young men who jump into the Bosphorus to escape the city and the heat.
Tickets to screenings for this programme will be available for individual purchase as well as through the City to City Package, which includes all 17 screenings for $157, or $100 for students and seniors. Ticket packages for the Festival are now available for purchase by cash, debit or Visa†. Purchase online at tiff.net/thefestival, by phone at 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM (Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.) or in person at the TIFF Box Office at 2 Carlton Street, West Mezzanine (Monday to Friday: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.)
The 35th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 9 to 19, 2010.