Film Sections 2020

Our Only Home (Turkey), Bayram Küçük, 20’00”

The documentary covers the life experiences of Afro Turks, social difficulties, exclusion and racial discrimination. It presents the society’s perspective, daily experiences and memories. Afro Turks are bothered by the use of insulting language and disturbed by people gazing and sneering. They are one of the minority group in Turkey, ignored, underrepresented, silent, and living as if never existed. It is estimated to have a population of 5 to 10 thousands of Afro Turks, there is nothing inherited from Africa other than their skin colour.

Behind The Glasses (Iran), Ramtin Firoozian, 2’59”

A skyscraper windshield wiper encounters a strange occurrence on a dull work day and dissatisfied with repetitive work every day.

Bullmastiff (Ukrania), Anastasiia Bukovska, 25’00”

Mitya is a war veteran who is trying to return to normal. He accidentally meets the lost bullmastiff called Roy. Relationships are complicated at first, but in the end, it is Roy who helps Mitya cope with her difficult past.

Büyülü Fener Bekçileri (Turkey), Ferhat Zengin, Bahadır Kapır, 20’00”

Yesilçam is the name of passionate loves, lovers, hopes, dreams, warm friendships, unity, and togetherness. Yeşilçam is the name of the screenwriters who spend their lives writing, the directors who live between the light and the dark, the stars who shine a light on the lives of whom they touch and the films that live in the back streets of Beyoğlu, where we sometimes cry, sometimes laugh. In Yeşilçam, there are people whose names we do not know, whose faces we cannot remember, or even some we do not know at all. They are the Hidden Heroes of our cinema who awaken the white curtain with the light of the magic lantern in their dream castles, the veteran film machinists who have given years to Turkish cinema between the four walls.

Çay Var İçersen (Turkey), Cihan Emre Zengin, 18’42”

A woman, whose past is full of domestic violence and losses, holds on to life with her favorite drink, tea. It is the story of a strong and hard-working woman known to everyone in Kadıköy. She blends her past pains to the tea she brews.

Gaza Footbullet (Palestine), Iyad Alasttal, 36’09”

As part of the organization of sporting, cultural and solidarity meetings between a team of amputee footballers from Gaza and the French amputee football team, the project coordinator, filmmaker-director followed with his camera the Palestinian footballers in Gaza before their departure, and during their stay in France.

Kar Tanesi (Turkey), Şeref Akçay, 14’30”

Mehmet lives in the village with his father. A suddenly visiting guest cause him to make a new friend.

Majid'den Sevgilerle (Turkey), Yiğit Armutoğlu, 7’20”

As a refugee boy Majid ties his kite on the tree at the coast before going to the island on the boat. Two boys  find the kite and notice the Arabic text on the kite.

Maradona's Legs (Palestine, Germany), Firas Khoury, 23’00”

During the 1990 World Cup, two young Palestinian boys are looking for “Maradona’s legs”; the last missing sticker that they need in order to complete their world cup album and win a free Atari.

Merkeb-i Mesai (Turkey), Hasan Erdoğmuş, 18’18”

Due to the narrow streets, garbage trucks cannot enter the area called “Old Mardin” within Mardin’s Artuklu district’s borders. To overcome this problem, the municipality bought donkeys as permanent workers. While the employees working in the city’s cleaning jobs are contracted, the donkeys working in the same position are on a permanent basis. During this work, a strong emotional bond has been formed day by day between the cleaning workers and the donkeys. The unique feelings created as a result of this bond are at the highest level in the retirement ceremony of donkeys who have worked for many years. The film is about this connection between cleaning workers and donkeys and the garbage collection taking place in the streets of Old Mardin for years.

Meryem Ana (Turkey), Mustafa Gürbüz, 8’46”

Mother Mariam is the last Christian in the village where Muslims and Christians have been living together for many years. One day, she died, and Muslim villagers dissented on how they will going to bury the Mother Mariam’s corpse.

Nuovo Cinema Para-Virus (Italy), Daniele Pignatelli, 5’32”

During the lockdown, the Cinema sends a video-letter to humankind: the theaters are closed, sets are locked and the Cinema can no longer create new dreams.

Replacement (Iran), Mojtaba Tahal, Jalal Mahdavi, 15’33”

Samira is a thirteen or fourteen year old girl who lives alone with her mother. Her mother, who is a nurse for a mentally and physically disabled boy, asks Samira to do something dangerous and strange to earn more for their lives and future, but in the meantime, Samira makes another decision.

Return (Uzbekistan), Rustam Khalikov, 12’42”

While patrolling the area of natural reserves, the game warden – Sergei, together with his dog, named “Duke” encounter illegal poachers. During the arrest there is a shooting, and as a result, the dog and one of the violators are shot dead. The court acquits the game warden and passes a sentence upon the second poacher.
Some time later, the delivery man brings groceries to Sergei’s home, with a gas cylinder inside it. Not aware of this fact, later in the evening Sergei hears a familiar sound of dog’s whining and barking behind the door. When a man opens the door he recognizes his dead dog, which barks at him and spins around him, trying to take him away from the house. The gas bottle explodes, and Sergei saved from death, searches for his dog, but it is nowhere to be found.

Anuş (Turkey), Deniz Telek, 17’00”

Anush, a little girl, goes to borrow a wedding dress from a distant relative for her brother’s wedding. Leyla, a teacher, comes home as a second intruder. Leyla has just been appointed to the village school. She learns that the village school had been abandoned many years ago and that there is no children in the school age. On the other hand, Anush could not learn to write although he could read because her teacher resigned and left the village. Transportation between villages takes place once a day. Anush and Leyla are forced to spend the night in the same house. Will the two passengers get what they want despite the long road?

Boars (Afghanistan), Gholam Rez Jafai, 15’00”

The sheik of a village in Afghanistan marries a woman whose ex-husband has died in an accident in Iran many years ago. The first husband, however, returns after a few years and according to the laws of some Islamic sects, the woman must return to the first husband, and she will be forbidden to the second husband even if the first husband dies.

Circo De La Vida (Greece), Maria Lafi, 17’00”

Old Man missing…Reward offered for information…

Close Your Eyes And Look At Me (Italy), Andrea Castoldi, 5’00”

Giulia learned to live with eyes closed, reading the words from the back. The unsaid, the part kept behind.

Colpa Del Mare(Italy), Igor Di Giampaolo, Giuseppe D'Angella, 20’00”

One morning dozens of drug packs appeared on Pescara’s shore, spit out from the sea during the night. The competent authorities tried to clarify, there were investigations, arrests; several boys were involved. Investigating Marco, a guy found dead after a party, Colpa del mare reconstructs a chain of human bonds within a small province reality. Someone is guilty, but it is hard to set just one fault.

Deja Vu (Canada), Atefeh Khademolreza, 11’30”

When an immigrant Kurdish family sets out to pack their belongings and return to their homeland, they  find themselves trapped in a nightmarish circle of events.

Direk Aşk (Turkey), Ertuğ Tüfekçioğlu, 11’00”

An unhappy woman falls in love in the least expected moment. 

Dry Sea (Belgium), Bart Bossaert, Yves Bex, 11’00”

A fisherman is left alone on the shore of a dried out sea. He is stuck in the past until a sandstorm overtakes him and redefines the meaning of his existence.

Qulpik ( Turkey), Abdullah Çeper, 13’00”

Asya works in a clothing store and takes care of her mother and her little brother. She needs a new coat in the cold weather of the winter. However, she can’t put enough money together.

Gabriel (Iran), Yousef Kargar, 20’00”

Gabriel is a middle-aged man who lives with his son. His wife has been lost for some time. All the people are suspicious about her. One day news comes to him and he has to choose one: expediency or conscience?!

Moon Drops (Israel), Yoram Ever-Hadani, 16’00”

A factory worker assembles an enigmatic machine that produces liquid drops from the moonlight.

Paydos (Turkey), Öykü Orhan, 18’09”

Zeliha, is a poor laborer who works in a steel soucepan factory. While she is attempting to find new job, she also searchs for solution in order to prevent children noticing this situation. A solution created by her, shows deadlock condition as a result of poverty.

Rebel (Canada), Pier-Philippe Chevigny, 15’00”

Alex, a six-year-old boy from Quebec, is oblivious to the thousands of refugees entering Canada illegally to  avoid deportation. Yet when his father takes him along to a vigilante patrol in the woods to hunt out trespassing  migrants, something inside him tells him to rebel.  

Sticker (Macedonia), Georgi M. Unkovski, 18’45”

After an unsuccessful attempt to renew his car registration, Dejan falls in a bureaucratic trap that tests his determination to be a responsible father.

The Assistant (Czech Republic), Ondřej Provazník, 12’00”

Anna is going for an executive assistant’s job at a thriving firm. Her first task is getting past the other candidates. Her second is persuading the firm’s director that she’s the one for the position. A banal interview between a job candidate and prospective boss turns into an uneven duel and manipulative game.

The Fosterless (Iran), Sahar Jafarizad, 7’46”

Vahid is a teenage boy whose father died of a coronavirus outbreak and his mother, who is suffering from an acute mental illness, has become more severe. His mother went to the factory which his husband has been working, to get the quota announced by the company. He faces the thefts of the company’s security guard and demands his right.

Yağmur Olup Şehre Düşüyorum (Turkey), Kasım Ördek, 15’00”

Sait lives in Diyarbakır with his family. His daughter Hacer gets dumped by her fiancee, Isa. Sait, who doesn’t accept this situation, begins to look for Isa, who is also his old apprentice. After a while, Sait faces some facts.

Holy Boom (Greece), Maria Lafi, 99’00”

HOLY BOOM” is a drama feature film with multiple storylines, taking place in a multicultural area of Athens during orthodox Easter. The lives of four strangers, who live in the same neighborhood, change dramatically when, on Palm Sunday, the neighborhood’s postbox is blasted just for laughs by Filipino teenager Ige. Documents of vital importance to all of them have been destroyed: Lena and Manou’s LSD stickers, a letter to Thalia from her abandoned child, and Adia’s birth certificate.

The consequences are relentless: Lena and Manou are chased by the drug dealer who wants his money back. Adia, an illegal immigrant, is now alone with her newborn child, forbidden to even identify the corpse of her husband, who has just died in a car accident. Ige tries in vain to be accepted by the local community and Thalia, who is watching everyone in the neighborhood, has lost her only chance of finding happiness.

See Factory Sarajevo Mon Amour (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, France), Maša Šarović, Sharon Engelhart, Teodora Ana Mihai, Dušan Kasalica, Urška Djukić, Gabriel Tzafka, Neven Samardžić, Carolina Marcowicz, Eleonora Veninova, Yona Rozenkier, 60’00”

13 countries, 10 directors, 5 short films, 1 feature.

When the Persimmons Grew (Azerbaijan), Hilal Baydarov, 119’00”

Immobile in a home where the sands of time fall to the rhythm of rural Azerbaijani sounds, a mother waits for her son. When he arrives, their conversations circle around existential questions and news from afar, troubling and cryptic. Unrest cloaks the world outside. Mother and son grow closer, silence melts into words, and life springs between them. The son leaves, and winter settles into the forever-outdated house in which temporalities blurs and past and present beat to the rhythm of the same clock.