Vercihan Ziflioglu - Hurriyet Daily News
One of the greatest directors in Turkish cinema, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, as well as the young award-winning director Özcan Alper, are going to Yerevan for the Golden Apricot Film Festival that will start Sunday and continue until July 17
Yerevan’s International Golden Apricot Film Festival will again welcome some of the most prominent directors in contemporary Turkish cinema when it kicks off its eighth edition Sunday in the Armenian capital.
Following appearances by award-winning Turkish directors Fatih Akın and Semih Kaplanoğlu last year, the festival is preparing to host Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who recently won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for “Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da” (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), and Özcan Alper, who is best known for his film “Sonbahar” (Autumn).
The Golden Apricots, which will last until July 17 and feature other well-known movie makers such as Wim Wenders and Atom Egoyan, will also feature a special screening event for Turkish films.
Apricots will be blessed
The festival will start Sunday with the blessing of apricots at a church in Yerevan.
The theme of this year’s festival is the “Crossroads of Cultures and Civilizations,” festival art director Susanna Harutyunyan recently told the Hürriyet Daily News in an email interview. “The title may well serve as our impassioned mantra for building cultural bridges and fostering dialogue.”
Harutyunyan said the festival would feature more than 160 films.
Armenians interested in Turkey
Last year, 40 films from Turkish cinema attracted great interest from Armenian audiences, Harutyunyan said.
“Among these, some of the most popular films were ‘Waiting for the Clouds’ by Yeşim Ustaoğlu, ‘Climates’ by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, ‘My Marlon and Brando’ by Hüseyin Karabey, ‘Hidden Faces’ by Handan İpekçi, ‘Autumn’ by Özcan Alper, ‘Kosmos’ by Reha Erdem, and others,” she said. “Generally, the interest toward Turkish films was great. Politically, there always arises divergence of thought among people, which is simply inevitable. But culturally, Armenians are interested in what is going on in Turkey and want to deal with Turkish people.”
Harutyunyan said they had been carrying out joint projects with Turkish nongovernmental organization Anadolu Kültür since 2008 and added that they also had connections with the International Istanbul Film Festival and the International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
“In this way, a bridge has been established between Turkish and Armenian directors. As the Golden Apricot International Film Festival has been ambitious in becoming an influential film festival in the region, it has begun productive cooperation with already-established and long-standing festivals in the region, such as the International Istanbul Film Festival and Golden Orange International Antalya Film Festival,” Harutyunyan said.
A festival for regional filmmakers
“Yerevan’s Golden Apricot Festival has become a premier destination for regional filmmakers. We welcome films representing diverse ethnic groups, religions, and nations that depict the human experience; the everyday life of people, [both] ordinary and extraordinary, as well as their troubles and their joys, as they try to find meaning in a changing world, and as they struggle to redefine themselves in a world that recognizes fewer and fewer boundaries,” she said.
Problems solved with Malatya festival
Harutyunyan also noted the problems that occurred between Turkey and Armenia last year due to the Golden Apricot Film Festival.
A decision to organize a film festival in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya was made. This festival was also named the International Golden Apricot Film Festival. This caused a 24-hour crisis and it ended when the Malatya mayor took a step backward as the name of the festival was changed to the Malatya International Film Festival.”
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