Adana welcomes veteran Turkish stars

ADANA - Anadolu Agency

Turkish actresses (L to R) Filiz Akın, Fatma Girik, Hülya Koçyiğit and Türkan Şoray come together in Adana for the opening ceremony of the 20th Golden Boll International Film Festival. DHA photo

The 20th edition of the Golden Boll International Film Festival, organized by the Adana Metropolitan Municipality, opened on the night of Sept. 16 with a ceremony held at the Merkez Amphitheater. Among the attendants of the opening ceremony were veteran actresses Türkan Şoray, Hülya Koçyiğit, Fatma Girik and Filiz Akın, who together are known as the “four-leafed clover of Turkish cinema.”

In the ceremony, the four actresses were accompanied to the ceremony venue by renowned Turkish actors. Şoray was accompanied by Halit Ergenç, while Girik was accompanied by Sinan Tuzcu, Akın by Yiğit Özşener and Koçyiğit by Yetkin Dikinciler.

Adana deputy mayor Zihni Aldırmaz said that he congratulated everyone who protected the values of the Golden Boll, adding that the municipality attached great importance to cinema. He said that next year they would organize a festival suitable for the 100th anniversary of cinema. “Golden is a festival that competes with itself. We also reached 90 venues with our traveling cinema event that we have organized for two years.”

Aldırmaz also said that the four veteran names of Turkish cinema, Şoray, Koçyiğit, Girik and Akın, hardly came together and they had a magnificent opening night thanks to them.

Speaking about the Adana Cinema Museum, Aldırmaz said they had established a museum next to the Adana Cinema Museum in order to preserve the memoir of “Hababam Sınıfı,” the funniest nostalgic film series of Turkish cinema. He said that this year the festival would present 15 films in 450 screenings.
The festival’s opening ceremony was presented by actor Levent Özdilek and the competition films and jury members were announced. Later on singer Göksel gave a concert, performing film songs.

Four-leafed clover

Following the concert, Özdilek called for Şoray, Girik, Koçyiğit and Akın one by one. Girik said that she won the Golden Boll Award in the first edition of the Golden Boll Film Festival, adding that her cavalier Tuzcu would have hard times but she believed that he would be successful.

Taking the stage, Akın said that they had a passionate communication with viewers in the past, adding, “You have been still with me since then and still acclaim me. I thank you very much.”

‘Long live Turkish cinema’

Koçyiğit began her speech saying, “Long live Turkish cinema,” and said that she were very excited for all competition films in the festival. She said that it was a very special day, adding, “Sharing the same stage with big artists, who served Turkish cinema for more than 50 years, is a big honor for me.”

Şoray said that the Golden Boll Festival made great contributions to Turkish cinema and films drew great interest thanks to it. She also said that she had stayed in Adana and its surroundings to make films. Following the speeches, Aldırmaz presented a plaque to the actresses.

Twelve Turkish films have been selected to compete in the National Feature Film Competition of the 20th Adana International Golden Boll Film Festival. The films include director Mustafa Kemal Uzun’s “Çanakkale Yolun Sonu” (Çanakkale End of the Road), Atıl İnanç’s “Daire” (Circle), Alphan Eşeli’s “Eve Dönüş Sarıkamış 1915” (The Long Way Home), Aslı Özge’s “Hayat Boyu” (Lifelong), Reha Erdem’s “Jin” and Mustafa Fazıl Coşkun’s “Yozgat Blues.” The 12 films were chosen out of a pool of 47 titles that were originally submitted to the committee. The results of the competition will be announced at the closing ceremony of the festival on Sept. 22. The winner of the competition will win 350,000 Turkish Liras.

The head of the National Feature Film Contest in the festival is Berlin Film Festival European Market Director Beki Probst, while other members include director Pelin Esmer, producer Türker Korkmaz, director of photography Özgür Eken, actress Melisa Sözen, actor Yiğit Özşener and musician Cengiz Onural.