Drama and documentary selections top Adana festival 
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bitiş--> ADANA - As the Golden Boll International Film
Festival continues apace in the southern city of Adana, the best
films in each section are coming to the forefront. One of the most
anxiously awaited films among the National Feature Films
Competition is ’On the Way to School.’ An animated film was also
among the most liked films in the festival.
The traditional "Love Parade" wound its way through Adana on
Wednesday, allowing famed names of Turkish cinema and honored
directors to salute the citizens of the host city for the Golden
Boll (Altın Koza) International Film Festival.
A convoy of nearly 15 cars filled with celebrities started touring
around the city, led by a band, at 6 p.m. and drew great interest
from the people of Adana. As the festival continues full speed
ahead with its film screenings and side events, the most well
regarded films in each section are gaining prominence.
One of the most anxiously awaited films among the National Feature
Films Competition is "İki Dil Bir Bavul" (On the Way to School), in
which a teacher starts working in a faraway village in
Turkey.
The film depicts the life of a teacher, alone in a village as an
authority of the state, and also alone in his interaction with his
students. Orhan Eskiköy wrote the screenplay for the film and
co-directed it with Özgür Doğan. Kurdish children portray most of
the students in the movie, which may well be a true story of
today’s situation in Turkey.
In the World Cinema category, one film drew particular admiration
from film critics as well as the Adana audience: Directed, edited
and produced by Canadian Petr Lom, "Letters to the President" is an
observation of the regime of Iranian president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
The only foreigner given such access, filmmaker Lom was allowed to
travel on several of the president’s populist trips to the
countryside, and his movie shows a very different Ahmadinejad than
the one portrayed by the international media: less the dangerous
leader and more the ordinary, but charismatic, politician.
During Lom’s trips, the president received many letters Ğ the
government claims 10 million Ğ from poor Iranians asking for help.
The filmmaker uses these letters as its narrative thread, and as a
device to provide a glimpse into a country that is largely closed
to outsiders. While it finds no evidence for the government’s claim
that its charity solves the problems described in most of letters,
the film does show that these promises kindle the desperate hopes
of the poor.
"Letters to the President" was screened Wednesday for the first
time in Turkey with the participation of the director, who was
roundly applauded after the film.
Animation by young Turkish filmmaker
Also among the most liked films screened during the
festival was an animation that drew the interest of many people.
Although the movie’s name, "Gemeinschaft," sounds German, it was
made by a young Turkish filmmaker, Adana local Özlem Akın. Born in
the city in 1986, Akın grew up in İzmir and
graduated from the film and television department of Istanbul’s Bilgi University in 2008. She made her first film
in 2006 and has made seven movies since then while continuing her
education at the animation department of Film School Zlin in the
Czech Republic, considered one of the best schools in this field.
"Gemeinschaft" is Akın’s latest animated work and one well worth
seeing.
The festival continues with many premieres and screenings of
internationally awarded films. On Friday, the head of the National
Feature Films Competition jury, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, will participate
in a question-and-answer program at the Metropol Municipality
Theater. The famous director will be joined by Ebru Ceylan, who
worked as an actor, art director and script writer on his films;
Mehmet Eryılmaz, who acted in his 2006 film "İklimler" (The
Climates); Ercan Kesal, one of the script writers and actors in "Üç
Maymun" (Three Monkeys); and Hatice Aslan, another actor in "Üç
Maymun."