Istanbul 2008

Abstract

27th ISTANBUL INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Ask festival director Azize Tan why she was using every opportunity available to celebrate the current revival of Turkish cinema at the 27th Istanbul International Film Festival (5-20 April 2008), and she would tick off any number of reasons. Last year, for instance, Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, served on the international jury at Cannes. Further, the Palm for Best Screenplay was awarded to Turkey-born, Germany-based Fatih Akin's Auf der anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven), a German-Turkish co-production. Also, before this year's IIFF even began, the city was alive with the rumour that Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Uç maymun (Three Monkeys) was likely headed for the Cannes competition - as, indeed, it was. Finally, at the close of the Istanbul festival, the international jury headed by German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus awarded the Golden Tulip to Semih Kaplanolu's Yumurta (Egg), a Turkish-Greek...