Tag: Turkish cinema

Film
Zeki Demirkubuz’s ‘Hayat’ wins Best Film at Turkiye-Germany Film Festival 2024

The 28th edition of the Turkiye-Germany Film Festival has just concluded, with this year’s big prize going to Zeki Demirkubuz’s film Hayat [Life], which won Best Feature Film. Demirkubuz, who wrote, produced and directed the film, also won the Grand Jury Prize. His film Hayat is a hard-hitting drama set in contemporary Turkiye that centres […]

Film
London talk on ‘The Coming of Cinema to Istanbul’ sells out!

Tickets to a talk by film historian Professor Nezih Erdoğan about when moving pictures first came to Istanbul have all been snapped up! The talk, which is being organised in collaboration with the Yunus Emre Institute London, will take place at Birkbeck Cinema in central London on Thursday, 26 January. Professor Erdoğan, who is a […]

Film
Film review: plants replace women in Biz Susunca (Without Them), a powerful short film about our patriarchal world

A dystopian patriarchal world, where in the absence of women, plants are the substitutes for men to fully control. Each man owns an empty pot called a ‘void’, which they must fill with a plant purchased from the “Board of District Void and Matchmaking Administration” at some point and take care of it’s living conditions. […]

Film
Film review: Nosema – a compelling documentary about a family from one of Turkiye’s last Chaldean Catholic villages

A nostalgic glimpse at Şimuni and Hurmüz Diril’s last reunion with their family in their home village of Meer (Kovankaya), one of the only remaining Chaldean Catholic villages in Türkiye today. Director Etna Özbek films the family as they prepare for the winter season, stocking supplies and wrapping up the fine honeycombs to share out […]

Features
Turkish cinema’s action legend Cüneyt Arkın laid to rest

The Turkish nation is grieving the loss of acting legend Cüneyt Arkın. Thousands attended his funeral in Istanbul on Thursday, 30 June. Arkın emerged in the golden age of Turkish cinema, in a period known as ‘Yeşilçam’, playing in around 300 films and television series, including Babaların Babası (1975) and historic drama series Kara Murat that […]

Festivals
Yeşilçam and Cyprus on film: a trip down memory lane at the Beyoğlu Cultural Festival

Cyprus is featuring on the programme of a major cultural festival in Istanbul. Four films set in Cyprus and produced by legendary Turkish studios Yeşilçam are being screened as part of the Beyoğlu Kültür Yolu Festivali. The Beyoğlu Kültür Yolu Festival started on Saturday, 30 October, and runs for two weeks. The multi-cultural festival encompasses […]