Award-Winning Turkish Films Hit The Road For Festival On Wheels

A selection of multiple award-winning recent features by Turkish directors, including Erol Mintaş's “Annemin Şarkısı” (Song of My Mother) and Tayfun Pirselimoğlu's “Ben O Değilim” (I Am Not Him), will be offered to cinephiles in three Turkish cities at this year's Festival on Wheels, which unrolls its 20th edition this weekend in Ankara.

Running from Nov. 28 through Dec. 8 in Ankara, Eskişehir and Sinop, the traveling festival's “Turkey 2014” section offers six films in total.

Mintaş's 2014 Heart of Sarajevo award-winning debut “Song of My Mother,” which also won multiple honors at the Antalya Altın Portakal (Golden Orange) International Film Festival, will be presented by its leading actor, Feyyaz Duman, in the film's Ankara gala, while Mintaş will attend the Sinop screening.

Veteran director Derviş Zaim will be at the film's Ankara gala to present his latest effort, “Balık” (Fish), which won the best screenplay award at this year's Adana Altın Koza (Golden Boll) International Film Festival.

Pirselimoğlu, who won the best screenplay prize at last year's Rome Film Festival for “I Am Not Him,” will be joined by his film's leading actor, Ercan Kesal, at the Ankara and Sinop screenings of the drama.

Filmmaker Murat Düzgünoğlu will attend in all three galas for his sophomore effort “Neden Tarkovski Olamıyorum?” (Why Can't I be Tarkovsky?), the tragicomic story of a 35-year-old director who makes a living by adapting Anatolian folk songs into cheap movies, in Ankara, Eskişehir and Sinop.

“Toz Ruhu” (Spirit of Dust), the debut feature by Nesimi Yetik, who won three awards including best film at this year's Adana Film Festival, will also be shown in the Turkey 2014 section, and Yetik and the film's scriptwriter-producer Betül Esener will attend all three gala screenings in three cities.

“Sivas,” the Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize-winning debut by Kaan Müjdeci, is also on the bill.

The Ankara galas will be held at the Kızılay Büyülü Fener Cinema and all the films in the selection will be shown with English subtitles.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)