Turkish Films at TIFF

18 September, 2009 (11:00) | Characters, Favorites, Films, Photographers, Yilmaz, The Little Boy of Istanbul, istanbul

For the last three years I have had the pleasure of attending the Toronto International Film Festival and managed to be able to watch some wonderful films that may or may not have made it to the public cinemas. Of course, I am always excited to watch Turkish films, especially tales from Istanbul, but sometimes the tickets have sold out quickly and I have missed them. One such film that I missed was Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Three Monkeys” from last year’s line up. I tried everything to get movie tickets to see this film, but I was out of luck. Other times, I have only been able to get tickets to movies I had never wanted to see in the first place and I end up scoring a hit, discovering a wonderful gem. Last year’s “Pandora’s Box” by director Yeşim Ustaoğlu was one such film.

This year, fortunately I was able to get my tickets in time before they sold out. I especially love to see films from Turkey at the film festival because of my fondness for the country and the city of Istanbul. Then I am able to speak about them here on my blog. Playing at the film festival this year were two new Turkish films by some very talented, young Turkish film directors, Asli Özge and Ismail Necmi.

Turkish Films - Should I Really Do It?

The first film I saw was Ismail Necmi’s “Should I really do it?” This is the story of Petra (Petra Woschniak), a woman who once lived a wild, colorful life as a fashion stylist in the city of Istanbul. Her life in Istanbul is exciting, glamorous, alcohol and drug induced. She had a wild life with the fashionistas in the nightclubs of Istanbul. But she is forced to leave this life for a while.

Her twin sister is dying of cancer in Germany and Petra returns to Germany to care of her. After her sister dies, Petra decides to stay in Germany and “takes over” her sister’s quiet life in the country home, caring for her sister’s two dogs. Her life is quiet in comparison to her life in Istanbul. Framing this story, Petra is seeing a therapist, Herold, who wears an S&M black latex head mask and a variety of blond wigs throughout the movie.

Petra’s sessions with Herold are accompanied by the drinking of wine and a little bit of coke. Herold is trying to get Petra to “open up while he himself remains hidden behind the mask.

“Should I Really Do it?” has some lovely photographic sequences and cinematic images, no doubt stemming from Necmi’s career as a photographer. I was a little disappointed with the movie because I wasn’t expecting a film that appeared more German than Turkish and more artistic drifting between the two worlds of reality and fantasy. I wanted to see more of Istanbul than the film gave. Perhaps I was hoping more for stories of Istanbul than a plot that takes place more in Germany. This is Necmi’s first feature film.

This is, however, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and one must expect both regular films and art films. Perhaps I should have read up about the film before surprising myself.

My next posting will be about the other Turkish film I saw at the Toronto Film Festival, Asli Özge’s “Men on the Bridge”. Stay tuned.

Photograph courtesy of ifistanbul.com

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