<\/p>\n
Press release, October 11th 2017<\/p>\n
19 Short and Feature-Length Films \/\/ Two German Premieres \/\/ Supporting Program Featuring Music, Art and Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n This year, exground filmfest has chosen to devote its annual country focus to the extraordinarily interesting cinematic and cultural scene in Turkey. The Focus program features a total of ten feature-length fiction and documentary films, two of which will be celebrating their German premieres at exground: STONE (TA\u015e)<\/strong> by Orhan Eskik\u00f6y and YOL \u2013 THE FULL VERSION<\/strong> by Y\u0131lmaz G\u00fcney\/\u015eerif G\u00f6ren. In addition, nine short films will also be shown in a separate program and as supporting films. Two further Turkish productions can also be found outside of the Focus program, in the International Short Film Competition. Finally, exground intends to trace the cultural and political developments taking place in the country in the scope of a diverse supporting program, featuring an informational event presented by amnesty international, a panel discussion, a video art exhibition and a concert and opening party brimming with beats from the Orient.<\/p>\n Andrea Wink of the festival\u2019s organizational team on the selection of the country focus: \u201cThe lively discussions our audience has had with the filmmakers we\u2019ve invited in the past have proven that there is a great interest in Turkish culture, but also in the difficult political conditions and their impact on the everyday lives of creative artists. We owe a special thanks to Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, without whose support we would not have been able to realise this country focus on Turkey.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Highlights in Focus Film Program: Between Laughter and Contemplation<\/strong><\/p>\n Featuring a variety of genres, the films of the country focus reflect social and political realities and shed light on conflicts both past and present.<\/p>\n \u201cThe short and feature-length films we\u2019ve chosen illuminate the diverse forms of direct, subtle and subversive political expression present in contemporary Turkish cinema and invite viewers to engage in an open investigation of conceptions of nationality, culture, gender and memory,\u201d<\/em> explains Amos Borchert, curator of the Focus program. \u201cIn the process, these works, many of which are the result of international co-productions, demonstrate that culture \u2013 and particularly cinematic art \u2013 cannot be subsumed by national borders.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The selected films, containing plenty of absurdity and black humour but not lacking in quiet and contemplative moments either, feature protagonists engaged in struggle, among other things for sexual self-determination and against repression at the hands of society, family and the state.<\/p>\n In Ceylan \u00d6zg\u00fcn \u00d6z\u00e7elik\u2019s INFLAME<\/strong> (KAYGI), young Hasret is confronted with increasing manipulation and censorship at the large news network where she works. After subsequently losing her job, she withdraws further and further into isolation within her own four walls, where her doubt is transformed into delusions of persecution and finally paranoia. The director celebrated the world premiere of this highly relevant work at this year\u2019s edition of the Berlinale (Panorama Special) and will be on hand in Wiesbaden to present her film personally.<\/p>\n A further highlight in the Focus program is the German premiere of the restored version of YOL \u2013 THE FULL VERSION<\/strong>. The screenplay for the film, the most internationally successful Turkish-Kurdish production ever, was written in prison by Y\u0131lmaz Gu\u0308ney. The harsh portrait of Turkey after the military coup of 1980 received the Palme d\u2019Or at Cannes in 1982, although it was shown in an uncompleted version. In 2017 the fully restored completed version fully reflecting G\u00fcney\u2019s wishes celebrated a new world premiere on the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur. Producer Donat Keusch is scheduled to attend the German premiere in Wiesbaden.<\/p>\n Emre Yeksan, the director of the exground opening film THE GULF<\/strong> (K\u00d6RFEZ), will also make a personal appearance at the festival. In this Turkish-German-Greek co-production, a foul stench floats into the city of Izmir from the gulf, turning the aimless life of a young man on its head.<\/p>\n The life of Emine, the protagonist in Zeki Demirkubuz\u2019s most recent drama EMBER<\/strong> (KOR), is also turned upside down when her husband Cemal is imprisoned in Romania. Emine is left to fend for herself alone in Istanbul burdened by debt and a sick son. Ziya, her husband\u2019s former boss, offers his assistance; when Cemal is finally allowed to return to Turkey months later he notices the tentative affair between the two and resolves to go back to work for Ziya. Old master Zeki Demirkubuz will present his film in person at exground filmfest.<\/p>\n Mehmet Can Merto\u011flu tackles a serious topic with an absurd comic touch in his film ALB\u00dcM<\/strong>: A childless couple will do whatever it takes to be able to adopt a baby, so much so that they create a fake prenatal photo album full of staged memories. Director Merto\u011flu will be attending the German premiere of this subtle social parable in Wiesbaden.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Focus on Turkey in Supporting Program: Freedom of Speech, Video Art and Anatolian Psych-Pop<\/strong><\/p>\n exground filmfest will bear witness to the complex political changes occurring in Turkey in the scope of an informational event presented by amnesty international<\/strong> on the subject of \u201cFreedom of Speech in Turkey\u201d as well as a panel discussion<\/strong> with filmmakers and festival organizers.<\/p>\n The exground opening party<\/strong> at Kulturzentrum Schlachthof for its part promises plenty of relaxation and high spirits: DJ Mesut Kumanova from Frankfurt am Main and the Oriental Tropical Team will be taking revellers on a trip around the globe, bringing together Balkan funk, Oriental beats and Latin-American rhythms. And for the conclusion of the festival, the young Hamburg-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Derya Yildirim<\/strong> will also be playing an exciting mix of Anatolian psych-pop at Schlachthof with the international line-up of the band Grup \u015eim\u015fek<\/strong>, featuring refreshingly original reworkings of Turkish cult classics.<\/p>\n Two video installations at Naussauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden<\/strong> pose questions about the relationship between science fiction and Utopian wishful thinking. While on the one hand K\u00f6ken Ergun<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cI Soldier\u201d observes the omnipresent entanglement of nationalistic politics with near voyeuristic camera work, in \u201cThe Kitty AI: Artificial Intelligence for Governance\u201d Pinar Yolda<\/strong>\u2019s ultimate governor Kitty AI cares for its citizens on a very personal level.<\/p>\n Fiction Features<\/strong><\/span> EMBER [KOR]<\/strong> GRAIN<\/strong> STONE [TA\u015e]<\/strong> INFLAME [KAYGI]<\/strong> CLAIR OBSCUR [TEREDD\u00dcT]<\/strong> ALB\u00dcM<\/strong> YOL \u2013 THE FULL VERSION<\/strong> Documentary Films DIL LEYLA<\/strong> Short Film Program Focus Turkey<\/strong><\/span> IT RAINS SLOWLY<\/strong> by Saeed Nejati, Turkey\/Iran 2016 Turkish Short Films in the International Short Film Competition<\/strong><\/span> Supporting Films<\/strong><\/span> Informational event presented by amnesty international<\/strong><\/span> Panel Discussion<\/strong><\/span> Party & Concert<\/strong><\/span> Concert with Derya Y\u0131ld\u0131r\u0131m & Grup \u015eim\u015fek<\/strong><\/span> Video Art Exhibition<\/strong><\/span> The complete festival program will be available online from late October 2017 at www.exground.com<\/a>. 19 Short and Feature-Length Films \/\/ Two German Premieres \/\/ Supporting Program Featuring Music, Art and Discussion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.10.6","language":"en","enabled_languages":["de","en"],"languages":{"de":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1190,"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/1190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exground.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFocus Turkey @ exground filmfest<\/h2>\n
Film Program<\/h3>\n
\nTHE GULF [K\u00d6RFEZ]<\/strong> (opening film)
\nDirector: Emre Yeksan
\nTurkey\/Germany\/Greece 2017, 110 min., OV w\/ English & German subs
\nNov. 17th at 7 pm at Caligari FilmB\u00fchne, Wiesbaden
\nNov. 21st at 7:30 pm at Pupille, Frankfurt am Main<\/p>\n
\nDirector: Zeki Demirkubuz
\nTurkey\/Germany 2016, 113 min., OV w\/ English & German subs
\nNov. 18th at 5:30 pm at Murnau-Filmtheater, Wiesbaden<\/p>\n
\nDirector: Semih Kaplano\u011flu
\nTurkey\/Germany\/France\/Sweden\/Qatar 2017, 127 min., OV in English w\/ German subs
\nNov. 19th at 7:30 pm at Caligari FilmB\u00fchne, Wiesbaden<\/p>\n
\nDirector: Orhan Eskik\u00f6y
\nTurkey 2017, 96 min., OV w\/ English & German subs
\nNov. 20th at 5:30 pm at Murnau-Filmtheater, Wiesbaden
\nGerman premiere<\/p>\n
\nDirector: Ceylan \u00d6zg\u00fcn \u00d6z\u00e7elik
\nTurkey 2017, 94 min., OV w\/ English & German subs
\nNov. 23rd at 8 pm at Murnau-Filmtheater, Wiesbaden
\nNov. 29th at 8 pm at Orfeos Erben, Frankfurt am Main<\/p>\n
\nDirector: Ye\u015fim Ustao\u011flu
\nTurkey\/France\/Germany\/Poland 2016, 105 min., OV w\/ English & German subs
\nNov. 24th at 8 pm at Murnau-Filmtheater, Wiesbaden
\nTheatrical release: December 7th 2017<\/p>\n
\nDirector: Mehmet Can Merto\u011flu
\nTurkey 2016, 104 min., OV w\/ English & German subs
\nNov. 25th at 8 pm at Caligari FilmB\u00fchne, Wiesbaden
\nNov. 26th at 5:30 pm at programmkino rex, Darmstadt<\/p>\n
\nA film by Y\u0131lmaz G\u00fcney; director: \u015eerif G\u00f6ren
\nTurkey\/Switzerland 1982\/2017, 112 min., OV in Turkish w\/ subtitles
\nNov. 26th at noon at Caligari FilmB\u00fchne, Wiesbaden
\nGerman premiere<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>MR GAY SYRIA<\/strong>
\nDirector: Ay\u015fe Toprak
\nTurkey\/France\/Germany 2017, 87 min., OV w\/ English & German subs
\nNov. 20th at 8 pm at Murnau-Filmtheater, Wiesbaden
\nNov. 21st at 10 pm at Pupille, Frankfurt am Main<\/p>\n
\nDirector: Asl\u0131 \u00d6szarslan
\nGermany 2016, 71 min., OV w\/ English & German subs
\nNov. 25th at 6 pm at Murnau-Filmtheater, Wiesbaden<\/p>\n
\nNov. 23rd at 5:30 pm at Murnau-Filmtheater, Wiesbaden
\nNov. 26th at 8 pm at programmkino rex, Darmstadt
\nTotal running time: 82 min.<\/p>\n
\nDANCER ON THE SNOW [KARDA DANS]<\/strong> by Esra Saydam, Turkey 2017, world premiere
\nAYHAN AND ME [AYHAN VE BEN] <\/strong> by Belit Sa\u011f, Turkey\/Holland 2016
\nBABA & SON \u2013 IM HAMAM <\/strong> by Deniz Zagli, Germany 2016
\nROUND THE WORLD [DEVR\u0130ALEM] <\/strong> by Dilek Ayd\u0131n, Turkey 2016, international premiere
\nSEVINCE <\/strong> by S\u00fcheyla Schwenk, Germany 2016<\/p>\n
\nASPHALT<\/strong> by S\u00fcleyman Demirel, Turkey 2016, international premiere
\nSULUKULE<\/strong> MON AMOUR by Azra Deniz Okyay, Turkey 2016<\/p>\n
\nSupporting film for INFLAME: GUERNICA<\/strong> by Ezgi Pamir, German premiere
\nSupporting film for CLAIR OBSCUR: STRETCH<\/strong> by \u00c7a\u011f\u0131l Harmandar
\nSupporting film for DIL LEYLA: SEPT. \u2013 OCT. 2015, CIZRE<\/strong> by Belit Sa\u011f<\/p>\nSupporting Program<\/h3>\n
\n\u201cFreedom of Speech in Turkey\u201d
\nNov. 23rd at 7:30 pm in the foyer of Murnau-Filmtheater<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCondemned to Being Political? Facets and Possibilities of Contemporary Turkish Cinema\u201d
\nFeaturing directors from the Focus program in discussion with festival organizers
\nNov. 25th at 4 pm in the foyer of Murnau-Filmtheater<\/p>\n
\nThe exground party with DJ Mesut Kumanova & the Oriental Tropical Team
\nNov. 17th from 11 pm at Kesselhaus, Kulturzentrum Schlachthof Wiesbaden
\nhttp:\/\/www.schlachthof-wiesbaden.de\/programmdetails\/items\/die-exground-party.html<\/p>\n
\nNov. 26th at 4 pm at Kesselhaus, Kulturzentrum Schlachthof Wiesbaden
\nhttp:\/\/www.schlachthof-wiesbaden.de\/programmdetails\/items\/derya-yildirim-grup-simsek.html<\/p>\n
\nTHE DESIRE CALLED UTOPIA AND OTHER SCIENCE FICTIONS<\/strong>
\nwith K\u00f6ken Ergun (I Soldier) and Pinar Yolda (The Kitty AI: Artificial Intelligence for Governance)
\nNovember 4th to December 17th, Tues 2-8 pm\/Mon-Fr 2-6 pm\/Sat&Sun 11 am \u20136 pm, at Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden<\/p>\n
\nexground filmfest would like to thank all of its supporters and sponsors<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"