Turkish film wins in Belgrade festival

ISTANBUL

Ercan Kesal’s film “Nasipse Adayız” (You Know Him), which made its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival, has received the “Best First Film Award” at the Belgrade International Film Festival.

The Turkey-Serbia co-production can now be watched on Netflix.

Kesal, who could not attend the award ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic, shared his feelings and thoughts with the participants in a video, saying that Serbia has a special place in his life, that the first book his father gave to him to read was Ivo Andric’s “The Bridge on the Drina” and that when he went to Serbia upon the invitation of Emir Kusturica years later, he was given the same book by Kustirica as a gift.

The film, which features a young doctor’s candidacy for mayor of Istanbul’s central district of Beyoğlu, stars Kesal along with Selin Yeninci, İnanç Konukçu and Muttalip Müjdeci, Nazan Kesal and Valeriu Andriuta.

Produced by Ay Yapım, Poyraz Film, Thalia Production and Living Pictures, the film was supported by the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry’s General Directorate of Cinema and the Serbian Film Fund.