Turkish film ‘Ghosts’ bags two awards at Casablanca festival

ISTANBUL

Written and directed by Azra Deniz Okyay, “Hayaletler” (Ghosts) returned with the “Best Director” and “Best Actress” awards from the Casablanca Independent Film Festival, which ended on Feb. 2.

The film was shown as one of the top 10 non-U.S. releases by the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) last week. It was included in the list along with the latest films of directors such as Christian Petzold, François Ozon, Gianfranco Rosi, Michel Franco and Sarah Gavron.

Nalan Kuruçim, Dilayda Güneş, Beril Kayar and Emrah Özdemir played the leading roles in the film “Ghosts,” which tells the stories of four different characters that take place in a day during a nationwide power cut.

Okyay was selected as the “Best Director” at the festival, while Güneş won the “Best Actress” award. French director, screenwriter and producer Manuel Sanchez was the jury president of the festival, which took place online between Jan. 27 and 31.

The film won the “Young FIPRESCI Jury Award” at the 36th Warsaw Film Festival last year. It also won a 5,000 euros ($5,917) critics’ Grand Prize at the 77th Venice Film Festival and five awards at the 57th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.

In December 2020, the London-based independent film magazine Middle East Eye praised “Ghosts,” saying, “Rarely has Istanbul been portrayed so vividly, carefully and accurately in Turkish cinema.”