Golden Boll celebrates 100th year of cinema

ADANA

GİTTİLER: ŞAİR VE MEÇHUL. The 21st Adana Golden Boll Film Festival will present a selection of Turkish and foreign movies until Sept 21. Some films will make their Turkey premiere.

The 21st Golden Boll Film Festival opened on Sept. 15 in the southern province of Adana. Until Sept. 21, 205 films will be screened in 10 movie theaters with 515 sessions.

The festival will see a selection of hotly anticipated films being screened for the first time in Turkey after their world premieres at Cannes. This selection includes the Dardenne Brothers’ “Two Days, One Night,” Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Leviathan,” Jean-Luc Godard’s “Goodbye to Language,” David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars,” Alice Rohrwacher’s “The Wonders,” Mike Leigh’s “Mr. Turner,” Ken Loach’s “Jimmy’s Hall,” Asia Argento’s “Misunderstood” and Paolo Virzi’s “Human Capital.” All screenings are free of charge.

This year, the main theme of the festival is the “100th Year of Turkish Cinema.” The festival jury will evaluate nine films among 45 for the Golden Boll Award in the National Feature Film category. Seven of the films are debuts for their directors and eight will make their premiere in Turkey. Famous director Reha Erdem will head the jury of the National Feature Film Competition at this year’s event. Also, the relationship between Turkish cinema and literature will be a theme for discussion at the festival.

One of the speakers lined up for the sessions is writer Ahmet Ümit. In his talk on “Turkish Cinema’s Relationship with Crime Fiction,” Ümit will analyze the connection between Turkish cinema and crime fiction from past to present.

Also, author and screenwriter Osman Şahin will share with the audience his thoughts and views on the theme of literature as an inspiration for film. Meanwhile, writer Hakan Günday will turn his attention to the contemporary scene and address the relationship between new Turkish cinema and new Turkish literature.

In another session titled “Adana’s Place in Turkish Cinema”, journalist, writer and producer Nebil Özgentürk will talk about Çukurova, its writers and the contribution their work has made to cinema.
Orhan Kemal, the well-known man of letters from Adana, will also be commemorated at the festival on the 100th anniversary year of his birth. The festival will present a selection of films adapted from the author’s work. There will also be a parallel exhibition of film posters and stills from Kemal’s screen adaptations.

National film competition

Twelve films will be evaluated by the festival jury, headed by Erdem, to win the Golden Boll Award in the National Feature Film category.

Seven of the films will be from new directors’ first films and eight will make their premiere in Turkey within the scope of the festival. The winning film, which will be announced Sept. 20, will win an award of 350,000 Turkish Liras. The films to compete for

the award are as follows: Derviş Zaim’s “Balık,” Mahur Özmen’s “Beni Sen Anlat,” Nisan Dağ and Esra Saydam’s “Deniz Seviyesi,” Halil Özer’s “Firak,” Kenan Korkmaz ‘s “Gittiler: Şair ve Meçhul,” Ertan Velimatti Alagöz’s “İçimdeki Balık,” Murat Düzgünoğlu’s “Neden  Tarkovski Olamıyorum?” Görkem Şarkan’s “Nergis Hanım,” Ozan Açıktan’s “Silsile,” Nesimi Yetik’s “Toz Ruhu,” Onur Aydın’s “Yağmur - Kıyamet Çiçeği” and  Evren Erdem’s “Yola Çıkmak.”