TEN BEST TURKISH FILMS

A Journey to Turkey

At the European Coordination of Film Festivals annual conference in Brussels last year I met Wilhelm Faber of the Berlin Film Festival. When he found out I was Turkish, he said that as a student in Paris he’d seen a film that changed his life. It was after watching Sürü (The Herd), a film written by Yılmaz Güney and directed by Zeki Ökten, that he decided to work in cinema. And 20 years later he was working at the Berlin Film Festival. There are some films that have the power to change an individual, a city or even a country.

The 10 Best Turkish Films were determined in a poll carried out by the Ankara Cinema Association. They will have their first world screening at the 39th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The project has been a collaborative effort and in this respect I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Eva Zaoralova and Julietta Zacharova . I also wish to thank Erkan Mumcu, the Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, Dr. Abdurrahman Çelik, General Director of the Copyright and Cinema Department of the Ministery of Culture and Tourism,...click to read all...