Frankfurt Film Fest begins with photo exhibit

FRANKFURT - Anatolia News Agency

The festival committee head, Hüseyin Sıtkı poses in the opening of the exhibit. AA photo

The 12th Frankfurt Film Festival, a platform for Turkish films in Germany’s financial capital, has kicked off with a photography exhibition that captures life throughout Anatolia.

“There are total of 44 photographs in our exhibition. But for this project, we took a total of 20,000 photographs. The project took two years,” artist Osman Ürper said at a recent press conference.

The show, “Anatolia’s Colors – Birth, Marriage and Death,” tell the story of 374 villages in Anatolia.

The festival held its gala opening Nov. 11 with the participation of a wide range of Turkish cinema stars, including Emel Sayın, Ayşen Gruda, Halit Akçatepe, Ali Sunal, Demet Akbağ, Aytaç Arman, İzzet Günay, Tolga Çevik and Selçuk Yöntem. At the gala Müjde Ar and Aytaç Arman have received honorary awards.

“In order to provide a platform for Turkish movies, we started this festival 12 years ago,” festival committee head Hüseyin Sıtkı said at the press conference.

A total of 30 films will be screened at this year’s festival, which runs until Nov. 18, as well as special events like a music night featuring scores from Turkish films that is being held tonight.

The festival will also feature films from German and other European producers in addition to Turkish films.

People meet at the platform to share their experiences, Sıtkı said. “This also leads people to increase cultural dialogue.”

The festival draws up to 5,000 people each year, Sıtkı said.

This year the festival will unveil two new projects, with actor Mustafa Üstündağ organizing an acting workshop on cinema and acting.