FNE at Istanbul FF 2010: Meetings on the Bridge Presents New Film Projects

By Anna Franklin                                                                 
 
ISTANBUL: Turkish films have had a string of successes at international festival recently and the 14 new feature film projects in development presented at this year's edition of the Meetings on the Bridge in Istanbul attracted an unusually high level of international interest.

An international jury of film professionals selected two films to receive cash prizes.  Voice of My Father, a new project by directors Orhan Eskikoy and Zeynel Dogan and to be producer by Perisan Film, received a cash prize of 10 000 USD from the Turkish Ministry of Culture plus post production from Melodika valued at 25 000 TL. The project will be produced by Nadir Operli and Ozgur Dogan.  Operli who has also worked as a journalist for FNE is a cofounder of Bulut Film in Istanbul and his film Summer Book was successful on the festival circuit in 2008.  He also coproduced the successful feature documentary On the Way to School directed by Orhan Eskikoy.  The film is scheduled shoot later this year and has a budget of 945 000 TL.   
Voice of My Father looks at the Kurdish issue in Turkey through the eyes of a village family where most of the men have left Turkey.  The mother, Base, cannot read so her husband has kept in touch by sending audio tapes which she and her son listen to over and over.

Also Emre Yeksan and Emrah Serbes also won a cash prize of 10 000 USD for their project Terrorist Upstairs from the French Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC).  The film budgeted at 600 000 TL is slated to start shooting in spring of 2011.  The film is about Nurettin whose brother was killed during his military service in Eastern Turkey and how he plots revenge against the terrorists. The film will be a directing debut for Yeksan who studied at the Sorbonne and worked in Paris in film and TV production before working as a producer for such well known Turkish directors as Semih Kaplanoglu and Huseyin Karakey.

But the projects taking home cash prizes were not the only ones attracting attention at the event.  German producer Karl Baumgartner who heads Pandora Filmproduktions (www.pandorafilm.com) is already on board for director/scriptwriter Nuray Sahin's 1.8m TL project The Silver Gate.  Sahin who makes her home in Berlin will make her feature directorial debut with the project but she already has numerous credits to her name for projects as a scriptwriter and short film director in Germany.  The film is about a family in the Eastern Anatolian village of Dersim where Sahin grew up and she says she drew on both childhood memories and her knowledge of local fairy tales for the script.

Another project that already has a foreign producer on board and will be much anticipated is Asli Ozge's Asphyxia, Atemnot which is slated to shoot in September of this year.  Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner who head the Berlin based Razor Film Produktions will produce the 1.6m TL film.  Ozge's Men on the Bridge was hugely successful on the international festival circuit last year screening in Locarno, Toronto, Sarajevo and other festivals.
Her latest project is about a middle class Istanbul family whose long suppressed problems come to the surface after an accident.

Another hot project is Civilian written and directed by Levent Cetin and slated to shoot in October this year.  A feature debut for Cetin the 146 000 Euro project is to be produced by one of Turkey's hottest directors Huseyin Karabey.  The film is about a young man who returns home to Istanbul after his military service and shows the trauma of post-military service.

FNE at Istanbul FF 2010: Bridges Europe - Turkey

By Anna Franklin

ISTANBUL: Bridges Europe - Turkey is a new initiative of European Film Promotion (EFP) and Istanbul International Film Festival that was launched this year to bring introduce 10 new European and 12 new Turkish up-and-coming directors to the Istanbul public as well as industry professionals.
The goal was to facilitate distribution foreign distribution of the films and European distributors were invited to special industry screenings at Istanbul's spectacular new museum of modern art as well as meetings with local Turkish colleagues.

The event was meant to compliment the Meetings on the Bridge programme which ran simultaneously and which is now in its fifth year.   Founded by Istanbul FF helmer Azize Tan the new project was supported by EU MEDIA International and is intended to be an annual event.

Speaking to FNE Tan said: "There has been a great increase in interest in Turkish film internationally in the last few years and because of this a lot of the young Turkish directors wanted to coproduce.  But I could see that they needed help.  This was the reason I established the Meetings on the Bridge."

Tan is now in her fourth year as festival director and one of the biggest changes at the festival has been to increase the number of Turkish productions on display. This year there are almost 50 Turkish films screening including more documentaries.

 "The festival has become much more open to Turkish directors," said Tan.In 2011 Bridges Europe - Turkey and Meetings on the Bridge are planned to be folded into a single event according to Tan.
 
Renate Rose, Managing Director of EFP speaking exclusive to FNE said: "Our first year of partnership with the International Istanbul Film Festival was a good start to get to know each other. With our new initiative Bridges Europe - Turkey EFP was able to present - in cooperation with the festival - 10 European films and 12 Turkish films in a special programme to audience and industry during the festival.Full cinemas and vibrant Q&As following the screenings showed a huge interest by local audiences. The workshop on International Casting, organized in the frame work of Bridges Europe - Turkey were almost overcrowded and showed the enormous interest by young Turkish actors to work on an international European level. EFP is very much looking forward to improve and continue the successful start of this new partnership in the year 2011."

Bridges Europe - Turkey 2010