‘Festival on Wheels’ films tour Turkey

ISTANBUL

The traveling “Festival on Wheels” cinema tour, organized by the Ankara Cinema Association, is set to hit the road on Dec. 1 for a two-week trip through Turkey.

This year’s instalment of the 23-year-old festival kicks off in Ankara and then passes through the Black Sea provinces of Sinop and Kastamonu.

The Contemporary Arts Center and Goethe Institut in Ankara will welcome film aficionados from Dec. 1 to 7. Next stop is Sinop, from Dec. 8 to 11, where the Telvin Arts Academy will host the festival. And finally Kastamonu, from Dec. 12 and 14, where the festival enjoys the support of the Kastamonu University Film Club.

This 23rd edition of the festival promises cinephiles a rich and rewarding program. The World Cinema section, one of the festival’s staples, is likely to woo audiences from all three cities, for it includes a selection of films never before screened in Turkey.

The section mainly consists of films that have received special mention at festivals around the world during the past year, combining work from countries as diverse as Iran, China, Mexico and the Palestinian Authority. Another of the festival’s long-standing sections is dedicated to Turkish cinema. This year’s edition, Turkey 2017, not only presents new local productions that have won critical acclaim on the national and international festival circuit, but also a number of workshops and Q&A sessions with the cast and crew of participating films.

As every year, Short Film and Children’s Film screenings will be free of charge, with this year’s Children’s Films section putting the spotlight on work from Canada.

Elsewhere in the festival program, actor and screenwriter Ercan Kesal will present a collection of films under the title “Justice and Conscience.”

Italian comedy

In a link-up with the Italian festival Il Cinema Ritrovato, festival coordinator Guy Borlée will introduce audiences to three examples of Italian comedy under the theme of “Comedy Italian Style.”

In this year’s Special Screenings section, Elif Röngen-Kaynakçı, a curator of silent film at Amsterdam’s Eye Film Museum, will give film aficionados the chance to watch two unusual films with live music accompaniment. The section is entitled “Silent Divas: Timeless and Rebellious.”

Another section that has earned a perennial slot at the Festival on Wheels in recent years is one that introduces festivalgoers to contemporary artists. This year the festival will welcome Guy Ben Ner of Israel as its guest artist.