Turkey’s Oscar entry ‘Ayla’

ISTANBUL

Turkish director Can Ulkay’s feature film “Ayla” will be Turkey’s Oscar entry for next year’s Oscars. 

According to information made by the Artistic Events Commission (SEK), a selective committee of 17 persons, including the Culture and Tourism Ministry officials and cinema professionals, evaluated 13 films and selected “Ayla” for the 90th Academy Awards to be held on March 4, 2018. 

Çetin Tekindor, İsmail Hacıoğlu and Lee Kyung-Jin are starring in the film, which features the story of Sergeant Süleyman, who finds a five-year-old girl in 1950 in the Korean War. 

The girl has no parents and he names her Ayla. Within a short time, Süleyman and Ayla become like father and daughter. But in the end of the 15-month process, the team should return to Turkey. Süleyman cannot bear abandoning Ayla, and does everything within his power to take her with him. After repeated failure, he is forced to give Ayla to an orphanage, but doesn’t give up on the hope of one day reuniting with her.

Turkish-German director Fatih Akın will represent Germany in the 90th Academy Awards with his film “Aus dem Nichts” (In the Fade).

The film has been selected by German Films, which represents German cinema in the international field. It tells the story of a German woman, who loses her Kurdish husband and son during a neo-Nazi attack.