Istanbul Echoes (2019)

James Baldwin: From Another Place

In Istanbul, American writer James Baldwin muses about race, the American fascination with sexuality, insights into his interrupted writing decade in the country, the generosity of the Turks, and how being in another country, in another place, forces one to re-examine well-established attitudes about modern society.

The Last Apostle: Journies in the Holy Land

Dr. Mark Fairchild, world-renowned archaeologist, traces the hidden years of Saint Paul's life in the mountainous Turkish countryside of Rough Cilicia.

Stray

Experience the bustle of Istanbul street life through the eyes of three stray dogs – Zeytin, Nazar and Kartal.

The Emperor's Lost Harbour

In the heart of a metropolitan city of 15 million people and among the construction of a new billion-dollar transportation network, an archaeological sensation has been discovered: the ancient harbour of Theodosious, lost from the history books for over 1000 years.

Afganistanbul

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Der Orient - Wiege des Christentums

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A Bridge at the Edge of the World

Year 1969 - in Turkey. 60s youth were living the most excited days. There was a great effort to make a bridge in Istanbul, on the Bosphorus. Meanwhile, on the eastern border of Turkey, in a Kurdish city between the borders of Iran and Iraq that is left to its destiny, in Hakkari, Zap River was taking lives since there were no passage on it.

Queen's Illusion

In an era of political repression and growing social conservatism in Turkey, the Istanbul drag scene thrives.

The Documentary of küçük İskender - One Night Stand

A mini documentary about küçük İskender and his views on poetry.

Super Cities: Istanbul

Evidence of Istanbul's glorious past is still seen in the ancient architecture of this bustling city. The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia is thousands of years old, and is a marvel of construction. There are ancient palaces to explore, including Topkapi, which housed rulers during the Ottoman Empire. For the traveler interested in an extensive shopping experience, the Grand Bazaar features 4,000 shops in which to browse, haggle, and perhaps buy. Super Cities: Istanbul provides a guide to Turkey's important cultural and business center.

Midnight Express

Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".

Istanbul Give Me Your Hand

Kemal and Cebbar, who dream of going to Istanbul, sell their shops in Adana. Kemal comes to Istanbul to get the shop money. Here she meets A Decel and there is a rapprochement between them. Meanwhile, he finds out that Cebbar has to come to get the money. Arriving in Istanbul the next day, Cebbar admits that the money is not for the shop, but because he is an informant. Kemal, who understands that they are in trouble, will try to get out of this situation while taking care of Aysel on the one hand.

Before / After

Jérémy meets Baptiste. Their shared baldness takes them to Istanbul, where clinics claim to reverse the course of time. Amid shifting winds and silent unrest, they search for meaning in a city not their own. Day by day, a fragile bond forms, in the hope of change.

Steam: The Turkish Bath

Francesco and Marta run a husband-and-wife design company in Rome. When Francesco's aunt dies in Istanbul he travels there to sort out the hamam Turkish steam bath that she left him. He finds a love and warmth in his relatives' Istanbul home that is missing from his life in Italy.

The Embroidered Dress

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Love Likes Coincidences

Year 1977, a September morning in Ankara... Yilmaz tries to rush his pregnant wife Neriman to the hospital and he crushes into Omer's car. This accident causes Omer's pregnant wife Inci, who was in the back seat, to have a pre-term labor. The babies are born on the same day. They see each other for the first time... This accident is the threshold of the coincidences that bring Ozgur and Deniz together.

Ghosts

In Istanbul, on the verge of a country-wide power surge, four characters come across in a neighborhood undergoing the process of gentrification for the “New Turkey”: a mother whose son is in prison, a young female dancer, a feminist artist, and a cunning middle man. Their stories intertwine during a drug deal, offering a roaring tale of the contemporary generation.

Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece

After the death of Captain Thémistocle Paparanic, Captain Haddock's old friend, he inherits a ship called the Golden Fleece. Once Tintin and the captain arrive in Istanbul, where the ship is anchored, they meet Mr. Karabine, a businessman who stubbornly insists on buying it even though it is in a dilapidated state.

Blurred Lines

Janik and Samuel are best friends and enjoy the end of high school. Their worlds are different: Janik has parents who always do everything right, while Samuel comes from a broken home. Samuel wants order, Janik wants chaos. A thoughtless moment puts the close bond between the two friends in jeopardy. As they set off on their long-planned trip to Istanbul, the boys are looking to save their friendship, enjoy their freedom and try out a new life.

Elbow

Hazal is 17 and lives in Berlin. Her biggest wish: to be given a chance. For her 18th birthday she wants to escape the everyday grind and party with her friends. But an incident changes everything. Hazal is forced to flee.

Escape from Raqqa

Paris, spring 2015. Faustine travels to Syria with her little son to join ISIS; but, once in Raqqa, she soon realizes the hell she is gotten herself into. Her husband Sylvain quickly understands that the French government is powerless to help him, so he plans with some friends a high-risk extraction operation to get his family back.

L'Immortelle

A melancholy man meets a stunning, mysterious woman while he is traveling, and discovers she may or may not be involved in a prostitution ring. She disappears after their relationship lasts a few days, and though he searches for her, those around him pretend not to know who he is speaking of.

Three Thousand Years of Longing

A solitary scholar discovers an ancient bottle while on a trip to Istanbul and unleashes a djinn who offers her three wishes. Filled with reluctance, she is unable to come up with one, so the djinn tries to inspire her with his stories.

There's Still Room in Hell

American Dexter travels to Turkey on behalf of a US client in order to put an end to the drug gang leader Ismail. Dexter brings the beautiful blonde Janet as an erotic bait. Ismail shows great interest in Janet, but Dexter suspects he has been double crossed by his American client.

The Secret of Stamboul

A man travels to Istanbul to try and prevent a revolution.

My Prostitute Love

Halil goes to a bar with his friends and meets Sabiha, a prostitute, and they fall in love. Two lovers want to escape their past and live together. However, Sabiha knows little about Halil's life, and she has to face some facts.

Hezarfen

Hezarfen is a historical Turkish character. The story takes place in 1632 in Istanbul, where he will attempt the first flight of the human being.

10 to 11

Mithat passionately collects newspapers in his Istanbul flat. The other tenants ridicule him and he lives a lonely life. As the building is to be renovated, Mithat develops a friendship with concierge Ali, another loner, who helps him save his collection. They involuntarily change each other’s fate.

Faking It: Ted Bundy

Theodore R. Bundy conducted a reign of terror throughout the 1970s. Experts analyse courtroom and interrogation footage to reveal how he was able to stay one step ahead of the law.

Brotherhood

Jabir, Usama and Uzeir are three young brothers in a Sunni family of shepherds. Since childhood, their father Ibrahim has rigidly trained them in the principles of the Quran and has filled their minds with stories of the Bosnian War.

Squish!

Squish! is a meditation on the self through lurid and liquid forms; filtered through both old and foreseeable technology informed by Thai animation history and contemporary culture, and a constant process of constructing and deforming new selves to simulate ‘movements’. By extrapolating and redefining the terms of ‘movement’, be it through psychological, physical or political understandings, the work interweaves the medium of animation with a state of depression.

Happiness Is a Journey

A glimpse into the real lives of warehouse workers on the desolate streets of Austin, Texas, in this dual-screen documentary.

Hotel Royal

'In the course of my cleaning duties, I examined the belongings of each guest of the hotel and observed through the details, lives that will remain unknown', says the temporary Chambermaid in a large seaside hotel, which, unable to communicate, lives through a rigid methodology of analysis of the exterior and a ritualised quotidian. Until the uncontrollable comes to disrupts this dynamic. Hotel Royal is fragmented and incomplete mosaic of contemporary societies. It could be dubbed a film about the horrors of the soul, about voyeurs or simply about misfits.

Pant Hoot

A genocide survivor transcends overwhelming odds to become a master chimpanzee linguist

How Do You Measure a Year?

For 17 years, filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt filmed his daughter Ella on her birthday in the same spot, asking her the same questions. In just 29 minutes, we watch her grow from a toddler to a young woman with all the beautiful and sometimes awkward stages in between. Each phase is captured fleetingly but makes an indelible mark. Her responses to her father’s questions are just a backdrop for a deeper story of parental love, acceptance, and ultimately, independence.

Erasmo 80

The 80th birthday of Erasmo Carlos, pioneer of Brazilian rock, in never-before-seen images: the Tijuca gang, Jovem Guarda, international success, Roberto Carlos and his influence on behavior.

From the Planet of the Humans

A border inspection at Ventimiglia, between Italy and France, turns into a fantastical fairy tale narrated by a chorus of frogs, wherein a scientist experiments with rejuvenation techniques using monkey testicles. Dr. Voronoff was a real person, and was world-famous in the 1920s. His villa stands on the border where migrants try to cross. But it is as if they do not exist.

Around Rocha’s Table

'A Távola de Rocha' enables us to enter Paulo Rocha’s universe, to gather memories and find, within his personal and professional relationships, a key to decipher some of the unknown symbols and allusions contained in his films.

The Viking Sagas

Dr Janina Ramirez travels across glaciers and through the lava fields of Iceland to find out about one of the most compelling of the great Viking stories - the Laxdaela Saga. This hour-long film explores how the unique literary achievements of the Saga writers were possible at a time of such immense cultural, political and religious upheaval.

Portrait of Kaye

Restricted by her lifelong agoraphobia, Kaye has spent most of her life within the four walls of her parents’ house. Finding relief from her fears in the faces and lives of old film stars, she pastes their images alongside those of her deceased family on the walls of her house, creating a kaleidoscopic collage that mixes personal history with Hollywood fantasy. Told first-hand via freewheeling monologues, Portrait of Kaye is a bittersweet portrait of a woman forming her own unique identity while navigating the conflicting influences of her mother’s bawdy humour and her father’s anxieties. Now 74 and recently widowed, her infatuation with a younger neighbour gives her an opportunity to explore personal and sexual freedoms that have always been hidden away. Shot over two years, former next-door neighbour and music video director Ben Reed has assembled a unique and touching meditation on family, film and the meaning of freedom.

Memory

After her parents’ divorce, six-year-old Vladlena moves from Crimea to Grozny, not yet aware of the changes that lie ahead. When war breaks out in Chechnya, it deeply affects her city and family. Years later, filmmaker Sandu reflects on her childhood in this poetic, autobiographical hybrid film, exploring how cycles of violence shape children—and how healing and change are possible.

Planet Without Apes

Humans hunt for baby apes. But things are not always done properly when chimpanzees and orangutans are acquired for zoos or shows. And even the endangered bonobos are no exception.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt struggled to overcome an unhappy childhood, betrayal in her marriage, a controlling mother-in-law, and gripping depressions — all the while staying true to her passion for social justice. This biography includes rare home movies, contemporary footage, and reflections from Eleanor’s closest surviving relatives, as well as biographers Blanche Wiesen Cook, Allida Black, and Geoffrey C. Ward, bringing to vibrant life one of the century’s most influential women.

Spice Girls: The Live One

This was the last concert of the Spice Girls together as a group at Earls Court. 14th December 1999 - Christmas in Spiceworld.

J.B. Lenoir at Home

J. B. Lenoir (1929 - 1967) was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, active in the Chicago blues scene in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1965 the Swedish/American couple Rönnog and Steve Seaberg visited J.B. at his home on the South Side of Chicago and recorded 30 minutes of music and conversation. Parts of the film was used in "Soul of a Man" (2003).

Night and Fog

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.