Turkish Film Festival At Emory University

Program

Friday, 29 March 2002, 8:00 pm, Emory White Hall 207

"VIZONTELE" with English subtitles, DVD

Friday, 5 April 2002, 8:00 pm, Emory White Hall 206

"ELEPHANTS AND GRASS" with English subtitles, DVD

Friday, 12 April 2002, 8:00 pm, Emory White Hall 206

"THE REPUBLIC" with English subtitles, VHS

Friday, 19 April 2002, 8:00 pm, Emory White Hall 206

"BALAILAKA" with English subtitles, VHS

Friday, 26 April 2002, 8:00 pm, Emory White Hall 206

"THE SINGER" with English subtitles, VHS

Sponsors

Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Emory University

TACA-GA Arts Council

For more information

TACA-GA Arts Council

VIZONTELE

COMEDY/DRAMA, 2001

Friday, 29 March 2002, 8:00 pm

Emory White Hall 207

English subtitles, DVD

Director: Yilmaz Erdogan

Scenario: Yilmaz Erdogan

Music: Kardes Turkuler

Actors: Yilmaz Erdogan, Demet Akbag, Altan Erkekli, Cem Yilmaz

http://www.vizontele.com/eng/giris02.html

Summary:

This film depicts the coming of television to a small town of Hakkari in Southeastern Turkey. Based on the director Erdogan's childhood experiences in the 1970s, the film offers an honest down-to-earth satirical commentary on the the transformations brought about by the intervention of this technology into the life of this closed society.  The cinematic depiction stays true to the introvert nature of this society, except for referencing to the 1974 military intervention in North Cyprus, which takes the stories back 4 more years than the real arrival of television to Hakkari.  Shot in another eastern Anatolian city, Van, Erdogan's stories of family and community is a 'must see'!

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ELEPHANTS AND GRASS

DRAMA, 2000

Friday, 5 April 2002, 8:00 pm

Emory White Hall 206

English subtitles, DVD

Director: Dervis Zaim

Scenario: Dervis Zaim

Music: Serdar Ateser

Actors: Haluk Bilginer, Ali Surmeli, Sanem Celik, Bulent Kayabas, Taner Barlas, Ugur Polat

http://www.fillervecimen.com/giris.html

Summary:
This 10-time national film award winning film is about corruption in high levels. 'When elephants romp, the grass gets destroyed' is an old Turkish proverb that gives the film its name. The story is based on the Susurluk scandal of 1996. The intertwined stories of a corrupt politician, a corrupt intelligence officer, a hit-man, a mafia leader, and a marathon runner (and his brother, a veteran of war in southeastern Turkey) 'should be viewed as a film noir in the spirit of a docudrama,' the director suggests, not as a strict political commentary. The events have been inspired by the Susurluk scandal; however, Dervis Zaim says, 'I did not intend to sort out the crimes or criminals in that political scandal. I wished my viewers to choose from various tracks of stories I wanted to tell the one they wanted to dwell on.'  While presenting 5 characters and their stories which, all together, offer a panoramic view of various kinds of power relations in the 1980s, the marathon runner and her erasers seem to have a special place on the panorama!

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THE REPUBLIC

DOCUDRAMA, 1998

Friday, 12 April 2002, 8:00 pm

Emory White Hall 206

English subtitles, VHS

Director: Ziya Ozkan

Scenario: Turgut Ozakman

Music: Muammer Sun

Actors: Rutkay Aziz, Savas Dincel, Hulya Aksular, Yesim Alinc

Summary:

'History is a turn to look at the past from today's perspective, which is an approach to foresee tomorrow,' says Ziya Oztan, the director of 'the Republic,' a depiction of the first decade of the Republic of Turkey (1922-1933). Prepared for the 75th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey, the film is the first cinematic representation of the key figures who built the modern Turkish nation-state, including Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his wife Latife hanim.

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THE BALAILAKA

DRAMA, 2000

Friday, 19 April 2002, 8:00 pm

Emory White Hall 206

English subtitles, VHS

Director: Ali Ozgenturk

Scenario: Isil Ozgenturk

Actors: Yekaterina Rednikova, Ercan Yazgan, Nadezha Gorelova, Necdet Yakin, Atilay Uluisik

Summary:

This is a story of three brothers who meet after many years to honor their father's dying wish. The three Turkish brothers travel on a dillapidated bus leaving Russia with a destination to Istanbul. On the way, several Russian women join them in their quest of a better life. With these different characters, the bus trip becomes a journey of life with their unanswered questions, hopes, desires, and loves.

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THE SINGER

DRAMA, 2000

Friday, 26 April 2002, 8:00 pm,

Emory White Hall 206

English subtitles, VHS

Director: Ersin Pertan

Scenario: Ersin Pertan

Music: Kamran Ince

Actors: Yesim Salkim, Berhan Simsek, Nurseli Idiz, Faik Ergin, Kazim Aksar

Summary:
This movie takes us back to Turkey of the 50s where cultural values are in a flux of change during the first years of a multi-party democracy with a liberal economic orientation. This is the story of a singer and disappointments of life which leads to her contemplating death as a salvation.  The singer falls from stardom and has to join a small company on a tour of the provinces of Anatolia. During the tour, she catches the eye of a rich man while she herself falls for an engineer that is sought after by the rich man's mistress. The story unfolds as a complex love triangle.

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