Istanbul Film Festival is underway

I just had a chance to listen to an excellent broadcast of the BBC radio series "On Screen," which looks at the world of international cinema. The broadcast had a well-produced segment on the Istanbul Film Festival, which also examined the increased attention to Turkish cinema both in Turkey and internationally. The segment featured an interview with Turkish film director/producer Mustafa Altioklar, best known for his film "Istanbul Beneath My Wings." The report by Dorian Jones also focused on "Takva," the latest Turkish film to win worldwide acclaim. "Takva," directed by Ozer Kiziltan, deals with a Muslim who questions his relationship with god. The film stars three of Turkey's most accomplished actors, Erkan Can ("Vizontele"), Guven Kiric (Fatih Akin's "Head-On") and Feridun Koc, who also appears in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Climates," another Turkish film that has captured critical acclaim overseas. There are 31 Turkish films at the festival. The opening film of the festival was the latest offering from Turkey's first openly gay film director Ferzan Ozpetek, who has-perhaps for obvious reasons- chosen to work mostly out of Italy. I once dubbed Ozpetek to be the "Turkish Pedro Almodovar," and anyone who has seen his startling films would probably understand why. Jones' report also talked how the Turkish film industry was making a domestic comeback. During the 1970s, when stars like Cuneyt Arkin (The Turkish Chuck Norris) and beloved comic actor Kemal Sunal, who died unexpectedly several years ago, reigned over the Turkish box office the inudustry saw to the production of some 300-plus films of the year. The era also saw the emergence of Turkey's most regarded filmmaker Yilmaz Guney, who remains a politically controversial 23 years after his rather early death. Guney ironically got his start in the same bravado action films which made Arkin, also one of Turkey's most politically conservative actors, a star. In fact, in at least one instance, they appeared in the same film together!

To hear the latest episode of "On Screen," which also includes a remarkable interview with Indian director Mira Nair, who discussed her latest film "The Namesake," you can go to the following link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/on-screen.shtml