The directorial debut of top Turkish actor Onur Saylak has been awarded the top prize at this year’s East End Film Festival. Daha (‘More’) focuses on a quiet and sullen teenager in a coastal town in Turkey whose life is corrupted by his father’s people-smuggling business. Adapted from Hakan Günday’s award-winning novel, the film is […]
There have been many harrowing scenes from the Syrian conflict, but perhaps one of the most affecting concerns the Syrian city of Kobane. Lying a kilometre away from the Turkish village of Maheser, both are home to predominantly Kurdish residents who have been separated by a century old border that emerged after the collapse of […]
Between 2000 and 2007 eight Turks were murdered in Germany, but the media and authorities preferred to present their cases along ethnic stereotypes, painting the victims as “kebab shop owners” caught up underworld crime and their likely killers as Turkish or Kurdish mafia. A chance police discovery of the actual killers in 2011 only came […]
A young filmmaker sets out to walk in the footsteps of Yılmaz Güney, the legendary Turkish-Kurdish director, actor and activist. Güney’s films are described as “the essence of life” by Austrian auteur Michael Haneke. Born in Adana, southern Turkey, in 1937, Güney made a name championing Turkey’s most marginal citizens on and off the […]
Katja’s life falls apart in the blink of an eye when two neo-Nazis kill her husband and 6-year-old son in a bomb attack. Her quest for justice soon pushes her to the edge as the two suspects stand trial for murder. The Golden Globe Best Foreign Language winner In The Fade also won Diane Kruger […]
Released last year to critical acclaim, Turkish actor Onur Saylak’s directorial debut Daha (More) puts the spotlight on the smuggling of refugees from the war-torn Middle East into economically ravaged Greece. The story is an impressive screen adaptation of Hakan Günday’s award-winning thriller of the same name, told from the point of view of a […]
Turkey is this year’s special country focus at the East End Film Festival, which started on Thursday. Award-winning filmmaker Tolga Karaçelik is behind the selection of five Turkish films that is being screened during the 11-day festival. Karaçelik won last year’s East End Film Festival (EEFF) Best Feature Award with his second feature film Sarmaşık […]
This year’s East End Film Festival includes a Turkish strand programmed by award-winning director Tolga Karaçelik, but it’s not all about film. In keeping with their 2016 Turkish theme, those creatively diverse EEFF peeps are also staging a fantastic photography exhibition of Istanbul at sunrise. Opening tomorrow at Spitalfields Market, this exhibition showcases a selection […]
