Erden Kıral

Five short films by five directors based on themes of love and tolerance, each independent of the other. Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Efes Pilsen. The collection includes five short films: Ömer Kavur's "The Meeting," İrfan Tözüm's "Monte Cristo," Yusuf Kurçenli's "Because I Love Her," Erden Kıral's "Moon Stories," and Zeki Ökten's "Always the Same."

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Mavi Sürgün is a fictionalized account of one period of the life of a Turkish journalist who was condemned to exile for an article he wrote in 1925. He turned his punishment into a reward by creating a little paradise in what is today the holiday resort, Bodrum. In fact he is considered by some to be the first ecologist. The film concentrates on this latter aspect of his character and through flashbacks portrays the inner turmoil of a man who is trying to come to terms with his past. The slow pace is somewhat of a drawback, the flashbacks are often confusing and the protagonist is not always very convincing. But the photography of the country side is exceptional Kenan Ormanlar and the short appearance by a very theatrical Hanna Schygulla of Fassbinder fame adds a little spice to the drama.

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During the year of the repressive military regime, a Turkish writer gets disillusioned by the loss of a dear friend and retires to his hometown on a remote island where he feels safe from the political turmoil. There he escapes to the world of memories, having imaginary conversations with his dead friend. However, the news of a new murder alerts him to the dangers lying ahead. Shot in Turkey following the years of military regime, Av Zamani carries autobiographical elements as the director Erden Kiral also had to flee the repressive regime of his country to be an exile in Germany. The weakness of the film is that the director is not able to take enough distance from the events to give the story a more universal appeal. Av Zamani was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival 1988.

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Based on a well-known Turkish novel, Dilan narrates the story of a peasant woman who decides to avenge the murder of her lover. In a remote village in Southeastern Turkey, two men are in love with beautiful Dilan: the rich Paso and the poor but brave Mirkan. When Dilan chooses Mirkan, Paso has the youth killed by one of his men. Dilan marries Paso, but she murders him on their wedding night and runs away to the mountains. A tragic love story as well as a realistic portrait of the existence of the rural people of Anatolia, Dilan was shown at several international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice and Berlin.

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Zelihan and Necmettin, a young couple, live in a small village in the service of an agha. They share their poor "one-eye" room with the agha's ox. In this environment of poverty and loneliness, the agha's brother is determined to seduce Zelihan, whom he has set his eyes on.

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An urban Turkish teacher is transferred for political reasons to a backward Kurdish village in the mountains near the Iranian border. He is welcomed with distrust, but during that harsh year the mutual cultural misunderstandings fade away.

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The tragic story of three farm worker who migrates from their village to the cotton land Çukurova.

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Based on real events, this story traces a young district governor’s moral awakening as he confronts a powerful landowner in rural Adana. What begins as a routine bureaucratic act soon turns into a struggle to shield villagers from exploitation, greed, and the threat of malaria.

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