Show Must Go On; Vancouver Turkish Film Festival Returns Online!

The 7th Vancouver Turkish Film Festival, running December 16 to 21 and co-presented with the Turkish Canadian Society, SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, and Northwest Film Forum, will be screened on an online platform due to the pandemic.   Although we all miss socializing in movie theaters, we will benefit from the safety of the online film festival and enjoy watching award-winning Turkish movies in our cozy homes while drinking tea or Turkish coffee.   VTFF has partnered with America’s non-profit film and art platform Northwest Film Forum and online broadcasting platform Eventive to ensure the best possible user experience.   The festival director Eylem Sonmez says: “As in the past, the festival will provide a window into contemporary Turkish cinema and culture. Taking place exclusively online and available across Canada for four days, the festival will be showcasing four internationally acclaimed, award-winning feature films and ten shorts and also online Q/A sessions with the filmmakers such as Ece Dizdar, Eylem Kaftan, Kıvanç Sezer and Serra Yılmaz.”   Here is the info about the four feature films;   In, Not Knowing Selma and Sinan are frustrated with each other after years of marriage. One day their water polo player son Umut who has been blamed for being gay among his teammates disappears. As they search for their son, they come to realize that they have been lost themselves. Not Knowing won the “Best Film Award” in the 31st Ankara International Film Festival and won many awards at the Antalya Golden Orange and Adana Golden Boll Film Festivals.   La Belle Indifférence has been designed as the second chapter of the housing trilogy after the first chapter, “My Father’s Wings.” This trilogy speaks about the three essential pods of the real estate sector: worker, consumer, and builder. After the very tragic story of the construction worker Ibrahim we now focus on the life of a good-looking couple who buys a condo from the very same building but in a different narrative style. Hard times begin when Onur is sacked from his job and can’t pay the mortgage. This trilogy reveals how the real estate sector affects people’s lives dramatically from a different section of society, which is the Turkish economy’s driving force in the last ten years. La Belle Indifférence premiered in 54th Karlovy Vary Main Competition. Alican Yücesoy, who plays Onur, won the “Best Actor Award” at the 33rd Herceg Novi – Montenegro Film Festival. In, Hive Ayse returns to her hometown in northeastern Turkey to nurse her gravely ill mother. Before she dies, Ayse’s mother leaves Ayse, her much loved beehives to manage. Bees are the insects that Ayse is most afraid of in life. Hive was the opening film of the 8th Chelsea Film Festival in New York and left the festival with six awards. Directed by Eylem Kaftan, the film won the Grand Prix award, the Best Film Award, and Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Picture, Best Lead Actress, and Best Supporting Actor awards. The movie also competed at Germany’s 54th Hof International Film Festival, 17th Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (HKAFF), and will vie 30th Norway’s Films From the South Festival (FFSF) and 18th Bangladesh’s Dhaka Film Festival. Love, Spells and All That is a story of two women who had a love affair in their youth. They come together years later and question their beliefs in love and metaphysics. In Turkey, in a time of rising homophobia, once again, we see that love unites people, whereas society tears them apart. Directed by Ümit Ünal, “Love, Spells and All That” became the prominent film of the 39th Istanbul Film Festival and was honored with the “Best Film” award by SIYAD (Turkish Film Critics Association) The Assistant Director Nural Sumbultepe acted as the pre-jury for the top ten shorts at the Seattle Turkish Film Festival and VTFF is happy to showcase this selection. Vancouver audience will choose the best short film and the winner will receive the Vancouver Audience Award.