• LA COMMUNE (PARIS, 1871) STARTS! One of the Festival’s most anticipated films, La Commune (Paris, 1871) lasts 345 minutes and reenacts history. The film will be shown in Pera in three installments at 11.00, 13.30, and 16.00. The screening will be attended by the son of the film’s director Peter Watkins, its editor and casting director Patrick Watkins.

• FROM THE KIRGHIZ CINEMA Kirghiz director Aktan Arym Kubat draws a funny and touching portrait of small-town politics in a rapidly globalizing world in his film The Light Thief. The film can be seen at 13.30 in Fitaş 4. There will be a talk with Kubat following the screening of the film.

• ESPECIALLY FOR CHILDREN A special screening with simultaneous dubbing of The Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams, which is shown under the Kids’ Menu, will take place at 13.30 in Nişantaşı City’s. The screening will be attended by Sinem Sakaoğlu, one of the film’s directors.

• “THE MOST GRIPPING GERMAN FILM OF THE YEAR” “The most gripping German film of the year” according to Programmkino, Picco sheds light on the everyday life of youth prison inmates in Germany. Philip Koch will attend the screening of the film at 16.00 in Atlas.

• AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL DEBUT Ghent-born Turkish director Kadir Balcı’s feature debut film Turquaze can be seen at 19.00 in Atlas with the participation of the director. The film, which tells the story of a Turkish family that comes to Ghent, Belgium, and socializing with the city’s locals, starts a life of its own, has autobiographical elements.

• ITALIAN-STYLE KEN LOACH Our Life, which had brought the “Best Actor” Award at Cannes for Elio Germano, can be seen at 19.00 in Fitaş 4. Described by Screen magazine as an “Italian-style Ken Loach film,” the film tells the story of a working-class family. Director Daniele Luchetti will attend the film’s screening.

• LUCAS WARS Glorified by some, severely criticized by others, director George Lucas is without a doubt one of the most debated directors of the movie history. The People Vs. George Lucas stands as the unequaled documentary that studies the conflicting relationship spread over 30 years between Lucas and his fans. The Star Wars fan club members are expected to make an appearance at the screening, which will take place at 21.30 in Fitaş 1. It will also be attended by director Alexandre o. Philippe.

• A TESTIMONY NOT TO BE MISSED Consisting of interviews and testimonials of the Holocaust, the masterpiece Shoah will be screened in its 450-minute-long original version. Director Claude Lanzmann will introduce his film in the screening of the film’s first installment at 21.30 in Beyoğlu Movie Theater.

• LITERATURE TAKES IT TO THE ROAD The documentary of the cultural project “European Literature goes to Turkey – Turkish Literature goes to Europe,” which was carried in eight European countries and 24 cities throughout Turkey, On the Road will be screened at 19.00 in Pera. The writers that partook in the project will also be attending the screening. A talk will be held at 20.00 following the screening, with the participation of writer Mario Levi, translator and writer Murat Uyurkulak, writer Ayşe Kulin, Claudia Dollinger, one of those responsible for the traveling library in the film, film’s producer Sabine Küper Büsch, and director Thomas Büsch. The talk will be moderated by Memet Ali Alabora.

TOMORROW AT THE FESTIVAL

• COMPETITIONS KICK OFF The screening of films that participate in the Festival’s National and International competitions will start. The exciting race for Golden Tulips will begin with the arrival of jury members in Istanbul.

• FROM FICTION TO FILM The film adaptation of Orhan Kemal’s 72nd Ward, which takes as its subject the lives of prison inmates in 1940s, full of misery and pain, is part of the National Competition line-up. It will be screened at 13.30 in Atlas. Following the screening, there will be a colloquy with director Murat Saraçoğlu.

• TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT ISRAEL A mirror held to the Israeli society and politics, and, at the same time, a semi-documentary about television broadcasting and cinema, Revolution 101 can be seen at 13.30 in Fitaş 1. Director Doron Tsabari will attend the screening.

• FOR MUSICAL LOVERS Directed by actor/director John Turturro, Passion is part documentary, part musical that studies the relationship between classical and popular music through Neapolitan songs. Its screening will take place at 13.30 in Fitaş 4, with the participation of actor Peppe Servillo.

• AN EXTRAORDINARY AUTOBIOGRAPHY Considered as one of the pioneers of New Queer Cinema, in his debut Massillon, American video artist William E. Jones recounts his own story without using any actors, but by combining his own voice with beautiful images. Exhibited in many contemporary art institutions, this extraordinary autobiography can be seen at 13.30 in Pera. Jones will answer questions after the screening.

• UNTITLED TALK Massillon's director William E. Jones, La Commune (Paris, 1871)’s editor, casting director, and floor manager Patrick Watkins, and Istanbul Biennial Director Bige Örer will attend the talk Untitled (Film), which carries the same name as the section resulting from the collaboration between the Istanbul Biennial and Istanbul Film Festival. The talk will take place at 16.30 in IKSV Salon.

• SHOAH THROUGH ITS DIRECTOR’S EYES Claude Lanzmann, who is attending the Festival for the screening of Shoah's 450-minute long original version, will share the film’s production process, how it is received 25 years after its first screening, how Holocaust is viewed today, and his opinion on the concept of forgetting. The talk will take place at 14.00 in IKSV Salon.

• MY JOY IS FAR FAR AWAY In his debut fiction feature, famed Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa takes us on a journey that plays with the conventions of narrative cinema while drawing a grim portrait of life in contemporary Russia. My Joy will be screened in 16.00 at Fitaş 4 with the participation of the director.

• WHEN FOOTBALL GETS INVOLVED IN THE CRIME WORLD The documentary that examines the intersection of sports, crime, and politics via two Colombians that are a world apart personality-wise, The Two Escobars can be seen at 16.00 in Fitaş 1. Michael Zimbalist, one of the film’s directors, will attend the screening.

• ALEVIS’ HIDDEN LIVES Carrying the segregation that the Alevi society has suffered to the big screen, Hidden Lives can be seen at 16.00 in Beyoğlu. Director A. Haluk Ünal will attend the screening.

• HIS LATEST FILM WITH ZAİM Just like Waiting for Heaven, in which he elaborates the art of miniature, and Dot, in which he explores calligraphy, Derviş Zaim also undertook the production of the trilogy’s final film, Shadows and Faces, in which he deals with the art of shadow play. The film’s screening will take place at 19.00 in Atlas and Zaim will answer questions from the audience after the screening.

• INCEST AND A VIOLENT LOVE STORY Parallelly handling a broken family and Greece, Homeland is based on real events. It follows this family through three generations and three political periods; it tells the story of incest and a violent love story. Director Syllas Tzoumerkas will attend the screening at 19.00 in Fitaş 4.

• IRANIAN REVOLUTION AFTER 30 YEARS Iranian-born director Rafi Pitts’s latest film Hunter questions the Iranian Revolution 30 years after its start through Ali, who finds familial bliss after being released from jail. Pitts will attend the screening at 19.00 in Beyoğlu Movie Theater.

• ONE NIGHT, ALL OF A SUDDEN… The Movie is an action-thriller that recounts how the fate of two housemates, who have settled for their routine lives and do not question their pasts, changes all of a sudden when one night an unexpected guest arrives. The film can be seen at 21.30 in Beyoğlu with the participation of Kerem Topuz.

• “TALKING NOT ABOUT HEROS BUT ABOUT ORDINARY PEOPLE” The first screening of one of the Festival’s most anticipated films, La Commune (Paris, 1871), which lasts 345 minutes, took place in Pera. In the documentary, director Peter Watkins attempts to reenact the story of the Paris Commune, which stands as the first example of the working class trying to take over the government. The director’s son Patrick Watkins attended the screening of the film, which was the first collaboration between the father and the son, who was involved in various aspects of the film, from research to editing. Introduced by one of the Festival’s founders, Vecdi Sayar, who also asked Watkins questions prior to the screening, Watkins said, “It is a historical film but it does not have the same style as other historical films as we are used to. It talks not about heroes but about ordinary people. The people who created the Paris Commune… The real heroes…” Watkins said his father always questioned the objectivity of the media and that this was also what he was doing here. “Today, the whole media follows the Hollywood style. It is an attitude that is not objective, that takes people to one point with its editing and music, and that causes illusions. My father always stood against this,” he said.

• "IF I SHOT THIS FILM TODAY, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT” One of Kirghiz cinema’s leading directors, Aktan Arym Kubat was in Istanbul for the screening of his latest film The Light Thief. Following the screening at Fitaş Movie Theater, Kubat said there was an active democratic process in his country and that, although this process did not go as they wanted, they had hoped some things will change. Asked what would have changed if the story that takes place after the toppling of Akayev was instead written after the toppling of Bakiyev, Kubat said, “There have been two recent revolutions. The film was made after the first one. It was finished last year in March and its premiere took place in Cannes. Right at that moment, the second revolution took place in the beginning of April. While making the film, we all wanted the second revolution to take place and people had expectations from artists. If I were to shoot this film now, it would certainly be different because the situation is improving. Still, this is a process at work and we do not know what will happen next.”

• KIDS LOVED THIS MOVIE Incorporating stop-motion animation and real actors, The Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams was screened in Nişantaşı City’s with the participation of Sinem Sakaoğlu, one of the film’s directors. The film was made due to the popularity of The Sandman, one of the most popular animated characters in Germany. Sakaoğlu, who attended the screening with the puppet of sheep Nepomuk, said she was very happy to have watched the film in Turkey with Turkish dubbing. The director said the DVD or the book based on the film was not yet available in Turkey.

• "EUROPE’S MOST BARBARIC CORRECTION FACILITIES ARE IN GERMANY" Festivalgoers showed great interest in Picco, one of the most hard-to-digest films in the Festival line-up. Philip Koch’s first film, which is based on real events, is a striking production that sheds light to the daily life on the everyday life of youth prison inmates in Germany. Attending the screening in Atlas Movie Theater, Koch recounted how he decided to make his film: “I have never been to prison. Therefore, I cannot say I started from my own experiences. But there have been news on repeated tortures in youth prisons. The most striking one that bothered me the most was an event in 2006. This subject is still a taboo in Germany. There have been documentaries on some television channels but these were only on prisons. No one talks about youth prisons.”

• "LOOK AT FAMILY TO UNDERSTAND ITALY" Italian director Daniele Luchetti's Our Life, which brought its leading actor Elio Germano “Best Actor” Award in Cannes, was screened in Fitaş Movie Theater. Answering questions by the audience, Luchetti said each Italian family was a microcosm and that much can be learned about Italy by studying the family structure. He added that his film had nothing to do with comedy or politics and was simply a film that told the story of a working-class family.

• SHOAH WITH CLAUDE LANZMANN Consisting of interviews and testimonials of the Holocaust, the 600-minute long unforgettable masterpiece Shoah was screened in Beyoğlu Movie Theater, attended by the film’s director Claude Lanzmann. The director said that they celebrated the 25th year anniversary of the film in New York a couple of days ago and that the film was released in a number of additional theaters in the United States. He added that he was happy to have his film shown in Turkey with Turkish subtitles. Lanzmann said his was a film, where no corpses were displayed. “Shoah is a film about the murder of six million Jews by Germans during the Second World War. This was a perfect crime. While Jews were exterminated, so were the traces of this crime. I specifically say this because today, there are people that claim no such genocide took place and there are even those that say they have evidence to prove their point. However, the real evidence is that there are no bodies. This is why it is a perfect crime.”

• CULPRIT GEORGE LUCAS, PLEASE STAND The People vs. George Lucas is a documentary that studies the conflicting relationship spread over 30 years between Lucas and his fans. The film’s director Alexandre O. Philippe and its producer Robert Muratore attended the screening in Fitaş. Asked if George Lucas had seen the film, Philippe replied, "As he is not in the theater, he did not watch it." He said, "It is a right to want to have access to the original Star Wars, one of cinema history’s landmarks. It sounds funny when Lucas's company announces it cannot find money to restore the films. Of course, Lucas has the right to reedit or change his films as he likes. However, there is an ethical question here: Can its creators have the right to interfere with an artwork that has been embraced by the public? Does that artwork belong to George Lucas or to the public? This is the fundamental question in the film."

• LITERATURE TAKES IT TO THE ROAD The documentary of the cultural project “European Literature goes to Turkey – Turkish Literature goes to Europe,” which was carried in eight European countries and 24 cities throughout Turkey, On the Road was screened in Pera. The writers that partook in the project attending the screening. Following the screening, a talk, moderated by Memet Ali Alabora was held with the participation of leading Turkish writers Mario Levi, Murat Uyurkulak, and Ayşe Kulin, as well as Claudia Dollinger, one of those responsible for the traveling library in the film, film’s producer Sabine Küper Büsch, and director Thomas Büsch.

IFF PRESS RELEASE