Idil Biret: The Portrait of a Child Prodigy

A new production center, maybe set in an undetermined future. What is being produced here? We shall find out by following the given traces. Two pairs of hands trying to untangle themselves. A human sheep virtually cut into pieces. A warm welcome to the authors and actors of their lives. Stories being told, their narrators dissected. When the gates open, those leaving Labour Power Plant have been made fit for the demands of the labour market. The next production cycle begins… People with their own wills, interests, and desires are being equipped with the different physiological, cognitive, psychological, and social core competencies to transform them into human resources. Meanwhile, the management is introducing new methods to enrich the products with the innovative features of ‘self-evaluation’, ‘self-optimisation’, and, most importantly, ‘self-fulfilment’. A series of interventions are performed, leading to an assembly that may appear strange at first sight.

Istanbul, today. The city has become one big machine that pulls people apart. Through the streets of the city echo the voices of young male and female workers. The harsh reality of an uncertain economic phase is felt in each segment of what is left of the Turkish society class structure. A Kurdish girl stands up against her family rules and tradition. The last young member of a diminished clan remembers the past ruefully. A child worker is forced to support his family since he is the only one who earns some money. A young unemployed male sells himself to tourists in front of the Blue Mosque. His body is the last working tool he is left with. Torn between the West and the East, Istanbul becomes the city symbol of a world that can neither go back nor (yet…) step forward.

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

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.

The same route after three and a half centuries... A creative documentary following the footsteps of the Ottoman-Armenian intellectual and traveler Eremya Celebi Komurciyan into the cosmopolitan Istanbul of the 17th century. Long before the invention of cinema, Komurciyan situates himself as a subject who observes the city of Istanbul as if he had a camera in hand. Borrowing Komurciyan’s timeless cine-eye, we delve into contemporary Istanbul to capture what is “inaccessible to the human eye” through the remnants of his route.

At the beginning of the 1960s, İlhan and Güngör Mimaroğlu moved from İstanbul to New York to start a new life. With a keen interest in avant-garde music, İlhan Mimaroğlu went on to become a leading composer of the nascent field of electronic music with his work at Columbia University, while Güngör Mimaroğlu would show an exemplary political stance at the forefront of the peace protests that took the 1960s by storm. "Mimaroğlu" is the story of a unique pair of spirits that have complemented each other in many ways.

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.

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.

Loosely inspired by Stefan Zweig’s novella, in which playing chess is depicted as a means of surviving fascism, The Avalanche recounts the events of the Armenian genocide, still contested by the Turkish state. Pinar Öğrenci uses archives and present-day footage of the region to uncover the traumas left by the Armenian people on their landscape and their memories.

A woman walks into an antique shop to give away a teddy bear...

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.

It's a quiet morning and a middle-aged woman is lying on the bed, watching her sleeping husband's back.

A collection of 8mm film reels from İlhan Mimaroğlu’s archive—once tucked away in whisky boxes—has found new life through art. Curated by director Serdar Kökçeoğlu and producer Dilek Aydın, the project brings together visual artists and musicians to reimagine these long-lost images. Over thirty artists transformed the footage into fifteen distinct audiovisual pieces, blending experimental soundscapes with contemporary video art. The project concludes with a special highlight: the first-ever screening of Mimaroğlu’s silent short film about a street jazz festival, accompanied by Erdem Helvacıoğlu’s dark jazz score.

Watching the dramatic changes in Istanbul’s urban texture, our eyes are drawn to two young men. Ferhat, an unappointed teacher from Mardin (a city on the Türkiye-Syria border,) and his cousin Emrah, an aspiring teacher, work as bricklayers in construction sites, just like their grandfathers and fathers had been doing for decades. They are obliged to this job until a better option becomes available. Overwhelmed with concerns over their future and the tough working conditions, they both dream of a different life, hoping to break the vicious cycle of construction work. From workers’ dormitories to protests and occupation of construction sites, we get glimpses of their lives, hearing stories of struggle, resistance and solidarity, against the backdrop of a city in transformation.

A silent abstract video inspired by the music of Jean Sibelius and the the mythical implications of The Nile River.

Filiz, a young, working mother, struggles with postpartum depression. Seeking moments of escape, she sets out to buy ‘a car of her own.’ Along the way, Filiz meets Şule, and her search for a car turns into an unexpected bond, offering both women a chance at solidarity.