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İstanbul Hatırası / Crossing the Bridge-The Sound of Istanbul
2005, 92 minutes
35 mm, color
Turkish with English subtitles
Directed by Fatih Akın
Screenplay by Fatih Akın
Cinematography by Hervé Dieu
Edited by Andrew Bird
Music by Alexander Hacke, Baba Zula, Orient Expressions, Duman, Replikas,
Erkin Koray, Ceza, Istanbul Style Breakers, Mercan Dede, Selim Sesler,
Brenna MacCrimmon, Siyasiyabend, Aynur,
Orhan Gencebay, Müzeyyen Senar, Sezen Aksu
Produced by Fatih Akın, Klaus Maeck, Andreas Thiel, Sandra Harzer-Kux,
Christian Kux
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İstanbul Hatırası / Crossing the Bridge-The Sound of
Istanbul
2005, 92 minutes
35 mm, color
Turkish with English subtitles
Alexander Hacke, a member of the German avantgarde band Einstürzende
Neubauten for more than twnety years, first came into contact with
Istanbul and its music while producing the score for the movie Head-on (Duvara
Karşı). A lover of experimenting with sound, Hacke roams the streets of
Istanbul with his mobile recording studio and "magic mike" to capture
the musical diversity of Istanbul. His voyage leads to the discovery of
a broad spectrum ranging from modern electronic, rock and hip-hop right
down to classical "arabesque". As he wanders through this seductive
world, Hacke collects impressions and tracks by artists such as
neo-psychedelic band Baba Zula, fusion DJs Orient Expressions, rock
groups Duman and Replikas, maverick rocker Erkin Koray, Ceza (Turkeys
answer to Public Enemy), breakdance performers Istanbul Style Breakers,
digital dervish Mercan Dede, renowned clarinetist Selim Sesler, Canadian
folk singer Brenna MacCrimmon, street performers Siyasiyabend, Kurdish
singer Aynur, Orhan Gencebay (the "Elvis of arabesque"), and legendary
divas Müzeyyen Senar and Sezen Aksu. Hackes home base is the venerable
Büyük Londra Oteli (Grand Hotel de Londres) in Istanbuls district of
Beyoğlu. From here he wanders through an alien, contradictory, lively,
and seductive world, collecting impressions and tracks, drifting along
in the unstoppable stream of this mega city of myriad facets. Fatih Akın
accompanies him with his camera and shoots a portrait of Istanbul where
music suffuses every part of the city, and is dearly loved by all of its
inhabitants.
From Fatih Özgüven
Fatih Akıns Crossing the Bridge can best be described as a music fans
stroll through Istanbul. The film brings together all kinds musicians
and music-making in a collage-like docudrama; street musicians,
avant-garde groups, rappers, legendary singers and classics. What
emerges is not only a sense of the vibrancy and diversity of todays
Turkish music scene but also a sort of cultural patchwork. Music in
Turkey today more than any art form reflects the countrys conflicting
desires, aspirations and many moods. Akıns alter ego in the film,
Alexander Haacke from the German group Einstürzende Neubauten goes
around in the city collecting sights and sounds trying to make sense of
it all. The same goes for Fatih Akın, a Turkish- German director, who is
full of fascination and wonder when it comes to not only Turkish music
but almost everything Turkish. In Crossing the Bridge he brings together
music and images with an energy that is his forte and reflects on the
Turkish scene once again.
Festivals and Awards
2005 Cannes International Film Festival (France): Official Selection out
of Competition
Fatih Akın
Fatih Akın was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. He began
studying Visual Communications at Hamburg College of Fine Arts in 1994.
In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, You're The One!
(Sensin!), which received the Audience Award at the International Short
Film Festival Hamburg. His second short film, Weed (Getürkt), received
several national and international awards. His first full-length feature
film, Short Sharp Shock (Kısa ve Acısız) won the Bronze Leopard at the
Locarno International Film Festival, and the Bavarian Film Award for
Best Young Director in 1998. Short Sharp Shock was followed by the road
movie In July (Temmuzda), and the emigration drama Solino. His latest
feature, Head-On (Duvara Karşı), won top honors at the Berlin
International Film Festival, marking the first time in eighteen years
that a German entry has taken home the Golden Bear for Best Film. Last
year, his latest documentary, Crossing the Bridge-The Sound of Istanbul
(İstanbul Hatırası), was presented at the Cannes Film Festival out of
competition.
Filmography
1995 Sensin! (kısa) / Du bists es! / Youre The One! (short)
1997 Getürkt / Weed (short)
1998 Kısa ve Acısız / Kurz und Schmerzlos / Short Sharp Shock
2000 Denk ich an Deutschland - Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren / I
Think About Germany - We Forgot to Go Back (documentary)
2000 Temmuzda / Im Juli / In July
2002 Solino
2004 Visions of Europe (segment)
2004 Duvara Karşı / Gegen die Wand / Head-On
2005 Crossing the Bridge-The Sound of Istanbul (documentary) / İstanbul
Hatırası (belgesel)
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Politiki Kouzina / A Touch of Spice
2003, 108 minutes
35mm, color; English Greek and Turkish with English subtitles
Directed by Tassos Boulmetis
Screenplay by Tassos Boulmetis
Cinematography by Takis Zervoulakos
Edited by Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Music by Evanthia Reboutsika
Produced by Harry Antonopoulos, Robert Kirby, Lily Papadopoulos,
Dionyssis Samiotis, Artemis Skouloudi
Featuring Georges Corraface, Ieroklis Michaelidis, Renia Louizidou,
Stelios Mainas, Tamer Karadağlı , Başak Köklükaya, Tassos Bandis
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Politiki Kouzina / A Touch of Spice
2003, 108 minutes
35mm, color; English Greek and Turkish with English subtitles
A Touch of Spice (Bir Tutam Baharat) is a story about a young Greek boy,
Fanis, growing up in his grandfathers spice shop in Istanbul. His
grandfather, an expert on the philosophy of cooking, teaches Fanis that,
as food requires spices to be tasteful, life also needs to be spiced up
a little bit to be enjoyable and worthwhile. While Fanis discovers the
secrets of cooking, he falls in love with a girl who adds his life a
touch of spice. When he is forced to move to Greece with his family, he
loses touch with the girl and keeps little contact with his grandfather.
Fanis grows up to become an excellent cook and uses his cooking skills
to spice up the lives of those around him. However, his life loses its
taste. 35 years later, he leaves Athens and travels back to his
birthplace of Istanbul to reunite with his grandfather and his first
love; to search for the spice that hes been longing for.
Festivals and Awards
2003 Thessaloniki Film Festival (Greece): Audience Award (Tassos
Boulmetis), Best Cinematography (Takis Zervoulakos), Best Director (Tassos
Boulmetis), Best Editing (Yorgos Mavropsaridis), Best Fiction Film (Tassos
Boulmetis), Best Music (Evanthia Reboutsika), Best Screenplay (Tassos
Boulmetis), Best Set Design (Olga Leontiadou), Best Sound (Dimitris
Athanassopoulos), Greek Union of Film and Television Technicians Award (Tassos
Boulmetis)
Tassos Boulmetis
Tassos Boulmetis was born in Istanbul in 1957. He moved to Greece in
1964. He studied Physics in the University of Athens and Film
Production. Later on, he studied Direction in the University of
California (UCLA) with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. During
his studies in California, he also worked as an assistant. When he moved
back to Greece, he started his career as a director/producer of TV shows
in national television channels. He was the co-producer and scriptwriter
of the short film The Dream Factory, which acquired 8 awards in Greece
and the Golden Award of Fantastic Movies in Houston Festival. Since
1988, he's been directing TV spots, and has specialized in Special
Effects and Processing of Electronic Images.
Filmography
1990 Viotechnia Oniron / The Dream Factory (short)
2003 Bir Tutam Baharat / Politiki Kouzina / A Touch of Spice
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Anlat İstanbul / Istanbul Tales
2005, 100 minutes
35 mm, color; Turkish with English subtitles
Directed by Ümit Ünal, Kudret Sabancı, Selim Demirdelen, Yücel Yolcu and
Ömür Atay
Screenplay by Ümit Ünal
Cinematography by Mehmet Aksın
Edited by Niko
Music by Gökhan Kırdar
Produced by Erol Avcı
Featuring Altan Erkekli, Azra Akın, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Çetin Tekindor,
DJ Bülent, Erdem Akakçe, Erkan Can, Fikret Kuşkan, Güven Kıraç, İdil
Üner, İsmail Hacıoğlu, Mehmet Günsür, Nejat İşler, Nurgül Yeşilçay,
Serkan Ercan, Özgü Namal, Şevket Çoruh, Yelda Reynaud, Vahide Gördüm
Festivals and Awards
2006 Ankara International Film Festival (Turkey): Mahmut Tali Öngören
Special Award, Best
Actress (İdil Üner)
2006 Bangkok Film Festival (Thailand): Special Jury Award
2005 Istanbul International Film Festival (Turkey): National
Competition, Best Film and Best
Actress (Yelda Reynaud)
2005 Mediterranean Film Festival (Italy): Jury Award for Artistic
_Expression (Original Idea)
2005 Adana Golden Cocoon Film Festival (Turkey): Best Film, Best
Editing, Best Art Director, Best Studio, Best Cinematography
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Anlat İstanbul / Istanbul Tales
2005, 100 minutes
35 mm, color; Turkish with English subtitles
"Deftly interweaving five contempo vignettes with fairy tale flavors,
slick criss-crosser Istanbul Tales is both a compulsively watchable
entertainment as well as an atmospheric love letter to one of the
world's most beautiful cities... Though the directors basically worked
on individual stories, there's so much overlap between them -- on both
dramatic and editing levels -- and the styles are so undifferentiated
that the finished film looks like the work of a single helmer. Unal, who
labored over the script for several years, says he finally invited
others to share direction simply to give the movie a sustained sense of
energy.
Aging clarinetist Hilmi (Altan Erkekli) has a much younger wife, Senay (Ozgu
Namal), who has a lover, photo shop owner Rifki (Mehmet Gunsur).
However, before its resolution, another tale starts, which runs like a
backbone through the movie's fabric: the shooting in a restaurant of
underworld king Ihsan (Cetin Tekindor) by an unseen assassin. The hit
was planned by Ihsan's right-hand man, Ramazan (Nejat Isler), and
power-hungry wife, Hurrem (Vahide Gordum), who now orders Ramazan to
dispose of her stepdaughter, Idil (Azra Akin). This doesn't go as
planned, and incidents en route set up refs that are clarified as the
other yarns unspool. Also in the mix: love at first sight between a
female transsexual, Banu (Yelda Reynaud), and a younger guy, Fiko (Ismail
Hacioglu); Banu's friendship with Mimi (Guven Kirac), a sweet old
transvestite; a Kurdish peasant from the provinces, Musa (Selim Akgul),
who gets a job at the eatery where Ihsan will be shot, and meanwhile
stumbles across a beautiful but loony princess, Saliha (former Miss
Turkey, Nurgul Yesilcay).
Criss-crossers set during a limited timeframe have been an established
genre, especially in European cinema, for some time. But Unal's complex
script, which continually surprises with its cleverness without
sacrificing character development to plot mechanisms, makes the format
shine anew. Casting is terrific at every level, with a bevy of local
names, and the fairytale parallels are never pushed too hard. A final
seg, centered on a German Turk, Melek (striking Idil Uner), and her
mysterious young daughter (Ece Hakim), neatly wraps up the whole
package.
Tech credits are tip-top, and pacing has plenty of forward momentum
without being rushed. Unal's previous feature, 9 (2002), Turkey's
first DV-to-35mm feature, also featured an interlocking story structure,
but Tales reps a big step into the commercial arena.
Stories aren't individually credited to directors, and no title captions
appear on screen. Film won the film award at the Istanbul fest's
national competition, plus an actress prize for Reynaud for her perf as
the transsexual. " (Derek Elley, Variety, April 26, 2005)
From Atilla Dorsay
Tales That Suit a Fairy-Tale City Very Well: Istanbul Tales (Anlat
İstanbul)
Ten years after The Bandit (Eşkiya) I have this urge to start with the
same sentence: I like this film so much that I cannot find the right
words to tell about it. Should I start by using a cliche such as
Against the enchanting decor of Istanbul, five interwoven stories take
place within a single night. Or should I leave the word to director
Ümit Ünal? The rich and the poor, the beautiful and the ugly, the
criminals and the innocent, the marginals, the power brokers-Istanbulites
of all kinds and ages-turn into fairy tale characters against the
backdrop of a panoramic Istanbul that embraces the City from Beyoğlu to
Aksaray, from the Bosphorus to the underground... Racing into the night
to ease the pain caused by his young and adulterous wife, The Pied
Piper, leads all the other heroes and heroines with his clarinet (a
Felliniesque scene). Snow White can save herself from the evil
stepmother (who had Snow Whites father killed) with the help of the
eighth dwarf. Cinderella takes a midnight train to run away from the
bowels of the City hoping to start anew. The Sleeping Beauty wakes up
amongst family pictures in a run-down mansion and encounters the ghost
of her grandfather disguised as a poor Kurd. Little Red Riding Hood,
flies away to a new life after getting rid of the bad wolf. Criss-crossing
the modern interprerations of these fairy tales, Ümit Ünals script
deserved to receive the Best Script Award for this year... It is not
easy to tell about a film that is this good. Please go and see it for
yourselves.
Ümit Ünal
Born in Tire in 1965, Ümit Ünal completed his education in the Cinema-TV
division of the Fine Arts Department at Dokuz Eylül University in İzmir,
and won various awards in national competitions for the 3 short films he
made while in school. Afterwards, he worked as an assistant director,
and also wrote the screenplays for numerous films such as Teyzem (My
Aunt), Hayallerim Aşkım ve Sen (My Dreams, My Love, and You), Milyarder
(The Billionaire), Arkadaşım Şeytan (Devil, My Friend), Piano Piano
Bacaksız (Softly, Softly Little One), and Amerikalı (The American), to
name a few. He has written two novels, Aşkın Alfabesi (The Alphabet of
Love) and Kuyruk (The Tail), and a short story titled Amerikan Güzeli
(American Beauty). In 2002, he completed Dokuz (Nine), which became
Turkeys first DV-to-35mm feature film.
Filmography
2001 Dokuz / Nine
2005 Anlat İstanbul / Istanbul Tales
Kudret Sabancı
Kudret Sabancı graduated from the Cinema division of the Fine Arts
Department at Dokuz Eylül University. In 1990, he won awards for the
short film Mutfakta Biri Mi Var? (Is Someone in the Kitchen?), and the
documentary Daylak (The Camel) at the Oberhausen Film Festival and the
Adana Golden Cocoon Film Festival. He finished work on his first
full-length feature film with Lalelide Bir Azize (A Saint in Laleli),
which he directed in 1998. He has also directed television series such
as Zerda and Aliye.
Filmography
1991 Batan Güneşin Hikayesi 2 / The Story of the Setting Sun 2
1999 Lalelide Bir Azize / A Saint in Laleli
2002 Zerda (TV series)
2004 Aliye (TV Series)
2005 Anlat İstanbul / Istanbul Tales
Selim Demirdelen
Selim Demirdelen graduated from the department of Economics at Istanbul
University and received his masters degree in Cinema and Television
from Bilgi University. Along with the short films Hasret (The Longing)
and Çevre (The Circle), he has directed the numerous commercials.
Filmography
2005 Anlat İstanbul / Istanbul Tales
Yücel Yolcu
Yücel Yolcu directed the film Kırık Zar (Broken Bones) in 2000, and won
the Best Film and Best Director awards for it at the Bozcaada Film
Festival. He has made music videos and commercials in Turkey and in
Germany.
Filmography
2005 Anlat İstanbul / Istanbul Tales
Ömür Atay
Ömür Atay graduated from the Cinema division of the Fine Arts department
at Dokuz Eylül University. He directed the short films Gözlerinden
Geçtim and Necropolis in 1994 and 1997, respectively, and won the
first-place award at the İFSAK Short Film Competition. He has directed
the series Ruhsar, Aşk Meydan Savaşı, and Bir İstanbul Masalı for
television.
Filmography
1997 Necropolis
2002 Aşk Meydan Savaşı (TV series)
2005 Anlat İstanbul / Istanbul Tales
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Organize İşler / Organized Jobs
2005, 106 minutes
35 mm, color; Turkish with English subtitles
Directed by Yılmaz Erdoğan
Screenplay by Yılmaz Erdoğan
Cinematography by Uğur İçbak
Edited by Mustafa Presheva
Music by Ozan Çolakoğlu
Produced by Necati Akpınar
Featuring Yılmaz Erdoğan, Tolga Çevik, Demet Akbağ, Altan Erkekli, Özgü
Namal, Başak Köklükaya, Erdal Tosun, Tuncer Salman, Öner Erkan, Ebru
Akel, Berfin Erdoğan, Cem Yılmaz, Salih Kalyon, Cezmi Baskın, Berrak
Tüzünataç
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Organize İşler / Organized Jobs
2005, 106 minutes
35 mm, color; Turkish with English subtitles
In his latest film, Yılmaz Erdoğan sets his stage amongst magnificent,
cutting edge shots of Istanbul, the capital of complicated dealings,
where the culpable and the innocent mingle in the streets.
In the inevitable grand scheme of organized crime, there are always
winners and losers; one should be careful about accepting help when the
trusted faces are clouded in mist. Now lost within the workings of that
great churning machine of darkness is Superman, a suicidal comic who
gets inescapably entangled in this hellish web.
Taking on the lead role as well as the writing and directing credits,
Yılmaz Erdoğan brings lives from the fringes to the screen with the help
of a talented supporting cast.
Yılmaz Erdoğan
Born in Hakkari in 1967, Yılmaz Erdoğan , he cut his education in civil
engineering at Istanbul Technical University short to follow his passion
for theater. After working at Ferhan Şensoys Nöbetçi Tiyatrosu he took
on the task of chief writer at Levent Kırcas long-running television
sketch show, Olacak O Kadar. Erdoğan took his theatrical work to the
next level when he opened the Beşiktaş Cultural Center (BKM) with his
business partner Necati Akpınar. It was at BKM that he wrote Bir Demet
Tiyatro, a television show in which he shared the lead with Demet Akbağ.
Mükremin Abi, the character he created for the series, introduced him
to viewers of all generations. Since then, Yılmaz Erdoğan has written
and acted in various plays and musicals, which reached enormous
popularity, including his one man show, Cebimdeki Kelimeler. The
multi-talented Erdoğan has also recorded a poetry album called, Kayıp
Kentin Yakışıklısı, which includes seventeen poems accompanied by
traditional ethnic melodies from Turkey as composed by Metin Kalender,
Nizamettin Ariç and Ali Aykaç. In 2001, Yılmaz Erdoğan translated his
success and popularity in theater and television into an equally
impressive achievement in film with Vizontele, which he wrote, directed
and acted in. The sequel, Vizontele Tuuba was shot in 2004, where he
also took on the title of producer. His latest film, Organize İşler
(Organized Jobs), garnered great attention and has verified Yılmaz
Erdoğans position as one of the most prolific and impressive talents in
Turkey.
Filmography
2001 Vizontele
2004 Vizontele Tuuba
2005 Organize İşler / Organized Jobs
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