Mountain Films come to screen in Istanbul

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The largest nature film event in Turkey, the 7th Mountain Films Festival kicks off today in Istanbul. The festival will also move to Ankara in the end of March and İzmir in April.

The seventh edition of the three-province Mountain Films Festival kicks off today with an opening in Istanbul that will include the gala for the movie “Rampa - Karda Uçmak” (Flying on the Snow).

The Istanbul leg of the festival will be held at the Institute Français in Taksim, Aynalıgeçit in Galatasaray, and the Pusula Art Gallery in Harbiye.

The aim of the festival is to host all kinds of adventure and nature movies, as well as documentaries, and to make people more familiar with nature and support nature sports, Mountains Culture Association and Festival President Murat Yılmaz told Anatolia news agency.

“We are running the largest nature event in the country,” he said, adding that the festival this year would feature many exclusive events, exhibitions, panels, discussions and competitions. There will be also cultural activities during the festival, he added.

People are not in touch with nature when they live in urban environments, according to Yılmaz.

“Because society loses its values in urban environments, people also lose their own personality,” he said, adding that this also resulted in illness, stress and fatigue. “People stop thinking about life, stop questioning, and also lose their awareness of life.”

This is a problem that everyone experiences in their daily lives, he said, but added that in nature, people could understand how to solve every kind of problem they face during their normal routine.
The festival runs from March 7 to 11 in Istanbul, March 29 to 31 in Ankara and April 12 to 14 in İzmir.