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    Turkish Delight – Festival On Wheels 2010 in Artvin

    By Martin Blaney | December 31, 2010

    Ron had always spoken warmly of Turkey’s Festival on Wheels – he had visited Bursa and Kars in 2005 and 2006, respectively (cf. reports in KINO – German Film of February and November 2006) – and so I gladly accepted the invitation from festival director Başak Emre and general secretary Dr. Ahmet Boyacioğlu to attend the 16th edition of the festival’s international section held in the eastern Turkish town of Artvin from December 10-16 to keep up a tradition.

    Organised as in previous years by the Ankara Cinema Association, this year’s edition had spent a week (December 3-9) in Ankara before moving to Artvin and then travelling on for a final stage at the Black Sea town of Ordu from December 16-19.

    The festival programme marked the 30th anniversary of Turkey’s 12th September military coup by showing films examining the impact of military coups in Turkey as well as Portugal, Chile, Brazil, Greece and Argentina in the sidebar entitled “Lives Into Line!”. Audiences were treated to screenings of such films as Costa Gavras’ Missing, Brazilian Cao Hamburger’s The Year My Parents Went On Vacation, and Portuguese documentary filmmaker Susana de Sousa Dias’ 48 about the 48 years of dictatorship  in Portugal from 1926 to 1974.

    The Goethe Institut in Ankara had provided the venue for special events linked to different parts of the festival. Özlem Sulak, director of the documentary September 12 (which had shown at Locarno last summer) and Sirn Süreyya Önder, co-director of the award-winning 2006 film The International about the 1980 military coup and its aftermath joined others for a discussion about the coup d’etat, cinema and memory, while Austrian documentary filmmaker Astrid Heubrandtner joined other panellists to talk about her film Mein Haus stand in Sulukule (My House Stood In Sulukule) about a luxury property development in Istanbul threatening a 600-year old gypsy quarter with eviction.

    Travelling to Artvin was an adventure in itself: I first flew from Berlin to Istanbul for an overnight stay before then catching a Turkish Airlines flight to the Georgian port of Batumi and then passing back into Turkey to the nearby town of Hopa for a two-hour journey through the mountains to the little town of Artvin (population: 25,000).

    An International Jury consisting of filmmakers Marion Hänsel (Black Ocean) and Dervis Zaim (Shadows and Faces), Directors’ Fortnight selector Gaelle Vidalie and Norwegian film critic Nils Vermund Gjerstad had a strong lineup of nine titles to see for this year’s International Golden Bull Film Competition.

    They included Hungarian Agnes Kocsis’ Pál Adrienn (Adrienn Pál), Belgian filmmaker Olivier Masset-Depasse’s second feature Illégal, the Peruvian brother directors Daniel and Diego Vega’s debut Octubre (October), and Estonian Veiko Ounpuu’s Sundance 2010 title Püha Tonu Kiusamine (The Temptation of St. Tony) as well as two local films: Seren Yüce’s feature debut Coğunluk (Majority), which had premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, and Tayfun Pirselimoğlu’s Saç (Hair),  which had been shown in competition at the Locarno Film Festival last August.

    Masset-Depasse’s film – which is Belgium’s Oscar entry this year – picked up the Golden Bull and a purse of € 10,000, while the Silver Bull – worth € 5,000 – went to Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai’s Cannes 2010 competition title Chongqing Blues.

    Meanwhile, a Special Jury Prize was given to Pirselimoglu’s Hair, and  the Turkish film critics’ association jury awarded its prize to Szabolcs Hajdu’s dark fairytale Bibliotheque Pascal which had screened in the Berlinale’s Forum this year.

    Admission to the screenings was free for the local inhabitants who enthusiastically grasped the opportunity to see such an eclectic selection of world cinema.

    But Festival On Wheels isn’t just about showing films: a programme of fringe events included workshops on production with Leyla Özalp, film analysis with FIPRESCI deputy chairman Alin Tasciyan and acting with actress Derya Alabora from Pandora’s Box. And the local children couldn’t get enough of the workshops about stop motion animation with Dutch animators Niek Castricum and Cindy Beck!

    Moreover, the festival guests from abroad and some of their Turkish colleagues were given a unique opportunity to see some of the stunning mountain scenery and sites of historical interest in the Artvin region. Excursions were organized to the remote Karagöl Lake – with a fine lunch of fresh trout and salad before a blazing fire – and a visit to the little village of Velikoy where film critic Senay Aydemir’s uncle offered us typical Turkish hospitality with glasses of freshly brewed tea (Senay was born nearby and pointed out one of the few flat areas of land in these high Alpine meadows – the yayla – where he had been able to play football as a boy!). Another day saw us negotiating steep mountain roads to reach the medieval church of Dolishane and then make a stopover at the Hell’s Canyon near to the town of Ardanuc. The jury also had a couple of hours’ respite from its screening obligations when a boat trip was organized through the Coruh gorge near Artvin.

    And in the evenings we were treated to all kinds of culinary delights, more often than not washed down with raki or the local red wine, and were serenaded by local minstrels – replete with bagpipes! – as well as live music in the aptly named (?) Titanic bar.

    This was the second year in a row that Artvin had hosted the Festival of Wheels’ International Golden Bull Film Competition, and it is thanks to the peripatetic festival that this little town, which nestles on a steep slope almost 500 metres above the Coruh Gorge, now has a cinema all year round.

    Last year, the Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar Cultural Centre was modernized with the installation of new film projection and sound facilities and now provides a regular programme mix of mainstream US, Turkish and European arthouse films for the local residents.

    Congratulations to Başak and Ahmet and their enthusiastic young team for organizing such a thought-provoking and varied film programme and also for making their guests’ stay at Festival On Wheels 2010 so unforgettable.

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