Director: Eytan İpeker

Burning Days

With the mayoral election approaching, the newly-appointed state prosecutor of a small Turkish town suffering from a water supply crisis gradually descends into trouble after a young local woman is raped.

The Pageant

Every year since 2011, a unique beauty contest has been taking place in Haifa. The contestants are female survivors of the Holocaust. In the midst of this flashy spectacle, their personal traumas remain as deep as ever. There are many things about this contest that are controversial: it is organized by the right Zionist organization, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, and the dubious contest itself rises the public indignation of various speakers, including other survivors.

Saroyanland

Saroyanland is a docu-drama focusing on the journey of famous writer William Saroyan to the birthplace of his Armenian family Bitlis, in Turkey in 1964. While retaking the same road, the film aims to understand Saroyan's unique attitude to belonging, witnessing the self-discovery of a man who followed the traces of his Armenian ancestors.

Wine Dark Sea

This film narrates the profound changes brought about by global warming in the Mediterranean, the sea described as "Wine Dark Sea" by Homer, and its surroundings. Due to global warming, the air, the sea, and the way of life in the Mediterranean are rapidly changing. Simultaneously, individuals from all walks of society and numerous organizations are working to minimize the adverse effects of global warming in the region. However, will all these efforts prove sufficient? Wine Dark Sea leaves the audience pondering this question: will we live in the shadow of the once-beautiful dream of the Mediterranean, unable to find solutions to environmental issues? Or will we create a new story together?

Hold Still

Hold Still follows two timelines. The first takes place in the present, from 2018, when shooting began, to 2022, when the Dargeçit case ended in acquittal. The second one dates back to October 29, 1995, when eight people disappeared in custody in the Dargeçit district of Mardin, and to 2013, 2014 and 2016, when the bones and clothes of the disappeared people were found in different wells in the region.

Otherwise in Istanbul

Otherwise in Istanbul is a performative documentary about dancer-choreographer Mihran Tomasyan; through a portrait of Tomasyan, the film also chronicles life in Istanbul in recent history through his personal archive.

The Avalanche

For her new film, Öğrenci returns to her father’s hometown, Müküs, within the mountainous region in southern Van. On Turkey’s border with Iran, this former capital of the Urartian civilization, and the Armenian Vaspuragan dynasty, today has a dense urban population of mainly Kurdish speaking communities. The town enjoyed a multilingual education and heritage in Armenian, Kurdish, Farsi, and Arabic until 1915. Aşît is inspired by Stefan Zweig’s final novella The Royal Game (Schachnovelle, 1941)—a psychological thriller in which chess becomes a survival mechanism in the face of fascism.