Filmekimi welcomes award-winning movies

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

This year the 11th Filmekimi will host 39 movies. Among them South Korean director Kim Ki-duk’s shocking drama ‘Pieta’ which won the Golden Lion for best film at the 69th Venice Film Festival, is the highligth of the program.

In its 11th year, Filmekimi is bringing a wide selection of award-winning films and the latest works by master filmmakers to not only Istanbul, but also several other Turkish cities.

This year 39 films that have been screened and honored at prestigious festivals around the world will be shown at the 11th edition of Filmekimi. The program is being held by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) with the sponsorship of Vodafone FreeZone. Filmekimi is presenting its rich and colorful content to cinephiles from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7 at three Istanbul movie theaters – Atlas, Beyoğlu and Nişantaşı Citylife (City’s).

This year Filmekimi is reaching beyond Istanbul and bringing the best and the most recent examples of movies to eight different cities in Turkey. A special selection, including some films shown at the 31st Istanbul Film Festival in April, as well as a selection from the 11th Filmekimi program, will be presented in Bursa, İzmir, Ankara, Erzurum, Diyarbakır and Gaziantep this year. Also, there will be free screenings in Van and Batman. Last year the project showed films in five cities in addition to Istanbul.

Award-winning films

This year Filmekimi will present the best examples of award-winning movies from around the world, including works by Michael Haneke and Ken Loach.

South Korean director Kim Ki-duk’s shocking drama “Pieta” won the Golden Lion for best film at the 69th Venice Film Festival. The movie focuses on a cruel man who collects money from debtors one way or the other. Without any family or loved ones to worry about, he has no fear or hesitation when it comes to carrying out his evil deeds. One day, a woman appears in front of him, apologizing for throwing him away and insisting that she is his mother. At first, he doesn’t believe her, having no memories of a mother. But as his attachment to her grows, he discovers her gruesome yet sad secret.

The 2012 Cannes Palme d’Or 2012 FIPRESCI Grand Prize winner, Haneke’s “Love,” will be another highlight of the Filmekimi program. Bringing the director his second Palm d’Or at Cannes three years after “The White Ribbon,” the moving tale of covers the most difficult moments of life. Georges and Anne are in their 80s. They are cultivated retired music teachers, deeply connected. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple’s bond of love is severely tested, and now they are preparing for death. Announced as Austria’s Oscar submission, Haneke’s shattering drama is fittingly tender though relentless, realistic and heartbreaking.

In “The Angel Share,” which won the 2012 Cannes Jury Prize, Loach once again collaborated with his long-time screenwriter Paul Laverty. The film follows a group of young Glasgow criminals who are given community service, escaping a prison sentence by the skin of their teeth.

The winner of the 2012 Edinburgh Best Performance in a British Feature Film, James Marsh’s “Shadow Dancer” is also making its mark on the film program. The movie focuses on a widow, mother and terrorist. The latest from the director of “The King” and the Oscar-winning “Man on Wire” is a brilliant psychological thriller that avoids ideological traps.

The latest films from master filmmakers

Legendary filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Me and You” will be shown in the master filmmakers part of Filmekimi. The spirit of new wave is revived in grand master Bertolucci’s long-awaited latest work that came nine years after “The Dreamers.” The film follows 14-year-old Lorenzo, who hates school, has weird thoughts about the end of the world and has difficult relations with his parents. One day he sneaks to their basement in order to retreat, thinking of a chance to be in isolation for a week, but to his surprise, his twenty-something half sister Olivia shows up, needing a place to stay. She is beautiful, moody, drug-addicted and weirder than Lorenzo. In that week, Lorenzo and Olivia become more than friends, siblings and allies against a world of unhappiness.

Fatih Akın’s new feature “Polluting Paradise,” a project which premiered at a special screening at Cannes, is set in his hometown – Çamburnu, a small mountain village on the eastern shore of the Black Sea where he shot the final scenes for “The Edge of Heaven.” The idyllic environment there is threatened by a decision made 10 years ago to build a garbage landfill directly above the village, despite protests by the mayor and the villagers. When Akın learned of the impending environmental disaster, he decided to take action in the best way he knew: Over a period of more than five years, he documented the small village’s struggle against the authorities.

The official communication sponsor of İKSV since May 2010, Vodafone undertook the sponsorship of this year’s Filmekimi with its Vodafone Freezone brand. Gökhan Öğüt, chief of the consumer business office, said, “We see culture and the arts as an indispensible part of sustainable development in Turkey considering that growth does not only come from commercial investments.”