Turkish film makers go to Yerevan fest

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

This photo shows Turkish director Fatih Akın (R) holding a speech at Yerevan.

The International Golden Apricot Film Festival will celebrate its ninth anniversary in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. The festival has supported Turkish-Armenian film projects for the last four years and hosted internationally known Turkish directors such as Fatih Akın and Semih Kaplanoğlu. This year’s festival will be held between July 8 and 15. One day before the festival the traditional blessing of the new apricot harvest will be held in Yerevan churches. The International Golden Apricot artistic director, Susanna Harutyunyan recently spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News. Harutyunyan said this year a guest of honor would be Spanish film director Victor Erice. Harutyunyan said they would show films by five Turkish and five Armenian directors in the festival’s Turkey-Armenia Cinema Platform section.

This year director Özcan Alper, who is well known for his film “Sonbahar” (Autumn), and documentarist Enis Rıza will be guests of honor from Turkey at the festival. Harutyunyan said the festival would invite and host Turkish journalists for the first time this year. During the festival, 150 films will be shown and they will have a special program of Turkish films. Harutyunyan said Armenian viewers had an interest in Turkish films and added: “Directors are always welcome to present their films to the audience and directors from Turkey attract quite a lot of attention from the Armenian public. A good example was ‘Once Upon a Time in Anatolia’ last year.” Harutyunyan said they were collaborating with the International Istanbul Film Festival and the nongovernmental organization Anadolu Kültür (Anatolian Culture) from Turkey.