TURKISH FILM DAYS - 2

Set in a bleak Anatolian village in Eastern Turkey, Sivas features the story of eleven-year-old Aslan and Sivas, a weathered fighting dog, 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 at losing the role of the prince to Osman, his rival-in-love and son of the head of the village. While Osman gets ahead in the 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 in the arena attracts more attention by the village head, the roles subtly change and Aslan finds himself hurled headlong into adulthood, leaving the princess behind.

Fifty-five-year-old Bashri works as a guard in a train station in the middle of nowhere, in the Turkish countryside. Eighteen years ago, after his arrest for dissident action, his only son disappeared. Ever since, his father’s sole preoccupation is learning what became of him, finding what remains from his body and properly burying him. Ali Aidin’s camera follows this man on his lonesome trip through the mystical landscape of Anatolia and on his inner journey, in a film that confidently builds a sharp view of the world and an admirable character study; a melancholy portrait not only of our hero, but also of a country’s recent history. With Erzen Kesal, well-known from his contribution to Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s films, in the leading role, the film is gradually transformed, from a minimalist drama, into a framework for the viewer’s emotional response: a remarkable debut which introduces a brave new talent.

The film is set in a sprawling old hotel in a small provincial town, which a quiet young man named Zebercet has inherited from his parents. A woman comes to the hotel one night and leaves the next day, saying she will return in a week's time. Zebercet begins to wait with the greatest impatience. When she doesn't come back, he starts falling to pieces in a most preoccupying way, revealing a psychopathic personality below his melancholy, reserved exterior.

The village of Tepecik during the sixties. Recep and Mehmet are two young friends working as apprentices in a nearby town. Recep works for a watermelon vendor and Mehmet for a domineering barber, but they are obsessed with becoming film directors and escaping their small-town lives. After discovering that the small local theatre regularly discards worn-out film, the boys have begun collecting and, with a makeshift film projector, screening these films each night in an abandoned shed. Their fellow villagers disapprove and believe that they should be spending their time on more useful things, nevertheless, they are undaunted...

When three forty-something siblings in Istanbul receive a call one night that their aging mother has disappeared from her home at the western Black Sea coast of Turkey, the three set out to find her, momentarily setting aside their problems. As the siblings come together, the tensions between them quickly become apparent, like Pandora’s box spilling open. They come to realize that they know very little about each other and are forced to reflect on their own shortcomings.