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DC – Turkish Film Festival! – 4/11-4/14

The first Washington DC Turkish Film Festival will be held in Landmark E Street Cinema, on April 11-14 2016. They have selected a wide variety of movies reflect the richness of the contemporary Turkish cinema that celebrated centennial anniversary in 2015. From internationally acclaimed “Ivy” and “Sivas” to popular comedies we hope that the festival will attract both fans of Turkish movies and first timers in Washington DC.

 

E Street Cinema

555 11th St NW, Washington, DC 20004

PARKING: Three hours of reduced rate parking ($11.00) is available at the adjacent garage (entrance on 11th Street between “E” & “F” Streets) when you validate your parking ticket at the box office. Validation is honored when you enter after 5:00 PM Monday through Friday and anytime on weekends and holidays. Parkers who exceed the 3 hour limit or enter before 5:00 PM on weekdays will be charged the garage’s posted flat rate, now $24.00.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: 100% metro accessible from the Blue, Green, Orange, Red and Yellow lines at the Metro Center and/or Gallery Place/Chinatown metro stops!

 

Featured Films:

Ivy (Sarma??k)
April 11 7 PM

An agency boat is taking three new crew members to a bulkcarrier named MV Sarmasik (IVY). The ship is sailing to her loading port in Egypt to carry goods to Angola. As she is sailing south, the shipowner, who was not able to pay salaries to these crew members for quite some time, goes bankrupt. The ship reaches the Egyptian port. The captain and everyone else on board learns that there is a lien on the ship and they are not allowed to get on land nor call the port. The ship is taken to the anchorage area. Officals tell the captain that as sea safety regulations there is a minimum number of crew members that have to stay on the ship. Others can leave. Altogether five seamen volunteer to stay on the ship. They are the ones that need to be away from their home, they are the ones who need the money most amongst the crew. They don’t know how long they are going to stay.

IVY is the story of these six men staying on that ship for a hundred and twenty days. During this period, these men suffer hunger and thirst. They face isolation, day by day paranoia amongst them grows. They argue, divide into groups, transition from wanting to align with the captain to forming an opposition against him… and the ship will turn into a hunting ground. Who will be the winner at the end of this struggle?

O.V. – English subtitles

Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes

Genre: Drama

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Bask?n

April 12 7 PM

It’s an easy night on patrol for Arda, Remzi and the rest of their police unit: a bit of cards, a bit of football, a bit of barbecue. They could never know what to expect when summoned out to support another group of cops at a remote building. And by the time they realize what they’re facing it will be far, far too late.

Evrenol proves himself a master of mood and tone with BASKIN, meticulously crafting a sort of baroque puzzle box sure to provoke a visceral physical response in even the most jaded. While too many young hands are content to shock in the name of horror without ever reaching for true fear, Evrenol goes a step beyond. BASKIN is a film to dread, a film that slips deep into the psyche and uncovers the topography of hidden nightmares.

Less a film to be deconstructed and talked about than it is a film to be experienced – though there’s certainly plenty to deconstruct – BASKIN more than delivers on the promise of Evrenol’s short film work, bringing the young Turk to screens seemingly fully-formed as a new auteur of the horror world. Todd Brown

O.V. – English subtitles

Running time: 103 minutes

Genre: Horror

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Sivas

April 12 5 PM

Set in a bleak Anatolian village in Eastern Turkey, Sivas features the story of an eleven year old boy (Aslan) and a weathered fighting dog (Sivas) who develop a strong relationship after Aslan finds Sivas wounded in a ditch, left to die. Meanwhile, a school play of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves dominates the background as Aslan is disappointed in losing the role of the prince to Osman, his rival-in-love and son of the village head.

 

While Osman gets ahead in the two boys’ race to win the hand of Ayse, the “princess” of the village, Aslan tries to impress her with his new-found friend. And Sivas, having found a new lease on life, wins one fight after another, strengthening Aslan’s hand against Osman. However, as Sivas’s success at the fighting ground attracts more attention by the village head, the roles subtly change and Aslan finds himself in an unexpected crash-course into adulthood, leaving the princess behind.

O.V. – English subtitles

Running time: 95 minutes

Genre: Drama

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Limonata (Lemonade)

April 12 9 PM

Suat is an old truck driver who lives in Macedonia. He is on his death bed and has a dying wish from his son Sakip. He wants Sakip to find and bring him his other son whom he had years ago in Istanbul from a woman he, not legally, but religiously married. His yearns to see this other son, whom he left when just a baby, one last time and get his blessing before passing away. Sakip, upon learning he has a brother, sets off from Macedonia to Istanbul in his father’s old car. All the information he has is that his brother’s name is Selim and an old address his father gave him. The two brothers fail to hit it off from the first moment. Sakip tells Selim about their father’s last wish, but Selim refuses to accept the situation. He is not interested in going to Macedonia. However Sakip is determined to convince and take him to their father at once. Seeing that he cannot convince Selim, one night, Sakip kidnaps a drunken Selim, puts him in the car and they hit the road..

 

Turkey’s prolific television and cinema star Ali Atay makes his directorial debut with LIMONATA, a charming road comedy depicting the story of two half-brothers on a reluctant journey from Turkey to Macedonia to their fathers’ death bed. Previously unbeknownst to one another, this tumultous adventure will test their patience and force them to question their allegiances.

O.V. -Turkish with English Subtitles

Running time: 110 minutes

Genre: Comedy

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A Unique Life (Nadide Hayat)

April 13 7 PM

The latest film from Ça?an Irmak, one of Turkey’s most beloved and popular filmmakers, tells the comedic story of Nadide, who is searching for hapiness after the death of her husband. Now over 50, Nadide once chose marriage over college and a career, and struggles to keep her family together. After reading an article in the paper, Nadide enrolls in college and finds herself in a journey setting sail to a new start at life with a group of young and mysterious captains. Join Nadide as she jumps into the deep!

O.V. -Turkish with English Subtitles

Running time: 117 minutes

Genre: Comedy

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Snow Pirates (Kar Korsanlar?)

April 13 9 PM

It is 1981… Turkey is at the dawn of its hardest winter… In Kars, a remote city located on Turkey’s Eastern border and the site of dynamic trade, ethnicities and even empires, the people’s need for coal is as acute as their need for freedom. That winter, the value of coal equals almost the same as diamonds.

Yet, hardly available with money, it remains within the reach of a few state institutions and privileged individuals. Three children, Serhat, Gürbüz and ?bo, whose treasury is made up only of their sleds and dreams are about to start a journey in pursuit of coal. Its blackness contrasting the white of the snow, through their travels they will discover the power of solidarity.

It is this pursuit of coal, rather than rest, which marks their school vacation, because, resources are scarce. In a search of some pieces of coal to put into the furnace, the heros’ find intelligence and strength within this struggle and inspiration to look where no one has looked before. An innocent adventure for heating will turn into a landmark journey where they come face-to-face with the realities and responsibilities that coming-of-age brings.

O.V. – English subtitles

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Genre: Drama

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Cold of Kalandar (Kalandar So?u?u)

April 13 5 PM

Mehmet is a man living with his family in a mountain village near the Black Sea. He earns his life breeding a few animals, while looking for a mineral reserve on the mountains but his pursuit is seen as useless by his family. Destroyed by his search for a mineral reserve, his hope is renewed with the news of a competition.

Mehmet will attend the bull fight held in Artvin, so he devotes his time to training the bull. But Mehmet returns from Artvin completely lost, once again. This simple story pictures the naive portrait of a touching life, and struggle and the relationship between nature, animal and human.
A documentarian must capture a single moment in a miraculous event that occurs in the course of everyday life after patiently pursuing his or her subject for an extended period. And this film proves that its director, Mustafa Kara, is endowed with this special ability. In Kara’s second dramatic feature, there is no distinction between truth and fiction. The protagonists, a family living in a natural setting far from modern civilization, are portrayed with palpable realism. But the inclusion of heartwarming exchanges, cow-training scenes, and fantastic elements prevents the film from being overly realistic. This magnificent paean to humans and nature is an allegory of enduring hope in harsh conditions.

O.V. -Turkish with English Subtitles

Running time: 139 minutes

Genre: Drama

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125 Years Memory (Ertu?rul 1890)

April 14 7 PM

In 1890, Dr. Tamura’s kindness in caring for his patients is winning him the trust of Kashino, a poor village on the island of Kii-Oshima in Wakayama Prefecture (now part of the municipality of Kushimoto). Assisting him is Haru, who with the shock of losing her fiancé to drowning, has been left mute. In September of that year the Ottoman frigate Ertu?rul, on its way home after paying a courtesy visit to the Emperor of Japan, is driven aground in a typhoon and wrecked in the Pacific Ocean off Cape Kashino. Hearing the alarm bell that warns of a vessel in distress, the villagers rush to the shore, to be confronted there with the grisly spectacle of vast numbers of dead and dying. They rescue who they can, while Tamura and Haru go to work treating the injured. Mustafa, the 2nd Engineering Officer, has stopped breathing, but Haru pushes desperately on his chest and he comes around. The next morning, there are 69 survivors from a crew of 618. Feeling guilty that he has been spared when so many others have not, Mustafa blows up over any number of trifles. Tamura, as the only person in the village who speaks English, bears the brunt of his anger, and eventually shows him how the villagers are carefully cleaning and polishing the personal items they have salvaged from the wreck so that Mustafa can take them back to the families of the crew. Mustafa is deeply moved by the kindness the Japanese show him.

In 1985, during the Iran-Iraq war, a Turkish embassy official named Murat encounters Harumi, a teacher at a Japanese school, during a bombing raid in Tehran. Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader, declares that in 48 hours his air force will shoot down any aircraft encountered over Iranian air space. Japanese Ambassador Nomura requests rescue flights from Japan, but is told that a quick response is not possible. Meanwhile rescue flights from other nations are arriving, leaving only the Japanese stranded. Kimura, an automotive engineer posted to Tehran, has given up trying to get himself and his family out. Harumi, though, wants to save her students, and prevails upon Nomura to ask the Turkish ambassador to arrange a flight. Ozal, the Turkish Prime Minister, agrees, but by now the Tehran airport is full of not only Japanese but Turks trying to find a flight home. Kimura and the other Japanese have all but given up hope of getting onto a flight when Murat begins to speak about the kindness Japanese villagers once showed to Turkish sailors shipwrecked very far from their homes…

 

Director of the film Mitsutoshi Tanaka and leading actor Kenan Ege will attend the screening and have a Q&A session after the film.

O.V. – English subtitles

Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes

Genre: Drama

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

 

Questions?  Call: 202-783-9494 or E-mail: contact@turkishfilmfest.com