Tales of Tails on screen at Pera

ISTANBUL

Pera Film’s new program “Tales of Tails: Dogs on Screen” brings together stories of dogs from all around the world as part of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Istanbul Research Institute’s exhibition “The Four-Legged Municipality: Street Dogs of Istanbul” between Feb. 10 and 28. 

“Tales of Tails: Dogs on Screen” explores how cinema reserves a heart-warming celebration of genres and captivating stories of man’s best friend: dogs. 

The program captures emotions of humans and dogs alike; the collected films come in a variety of visual narratives from drama, comedy, horror, animation, documentaries to the avant-garde. 

Kornél Mundruczo’s “White God,” which won the A Certain Regard award at Cannes, tells the story of Lili, 13, who ran away from home to search for her dog in the streets of Budapest, while Kelly Reichardt’s film “Wendy and Lucy” traces the series of unfortunate events that befell a young woman desperately looking for her dog. 

“Bonbon Dog,” a film by the Argentine director Carlos Sorin, is about the story of an ordinary man and an extraordinary dog that changed his life.

In his new film, “Wiener-Dog,” Todd Solondz portrays American society through a wiener-dog, and receives help from a cast of Indie stars. Another film with an outstanding cast is Cesc Gay’s “Truman,” led by Ricardo Darin and Javier Camara. The film received five Goya awards including the Best Film and is noted for its romantic comedy style. 

“Best in Show,” directed by Christopher Guest, focuses on a national beauty and talent show for dogs held in Philadelphia. 

Adapted from a memoir by BBC editor and author J.R. Ackerley, “My Dog Tulip” is an animation about their friendship of 15 years as narrated by actor Christopher Plummer. 

“A Family Movie,” by Olmo Omerzu, tells the story of unpleasant surprises Irena, Igor, their two kids and dog suffer at the hand of nature. Jérôme Boivin’s cult thriller “Baxter” and the avant-garde film “Heart of a Dog” by Laurie Anderson, telling her unconditional love for her dog Lolabelle, are also unlike any typical dog movie.