Omnibus de cinq courts métrages qui ont été tourné dans la Province de Kars, à l’est de la Turquie. Parmi les cinq réalisateurs, trois sont débutants qui ont été choisis pour filmer leurs histoires après avoir gagné un concours de scénarios. Le résultat est une collection sympathétique de petites histoires.

(2010, film omnibus, fiction)

Réalisateurs :
Özcan Alper
Zehra Derya Koç
Ülkü Oktay
Ahu Öztürk
Ömer Emre Akay

Omnibus of five short films that were shot in the Province of Kars, in eastern Turkey. Among the five directors are three debutants who were chosen to film their stories after winning a scenario contest. The result is a sympathetic collection of small stories.

Omnibus of five short films that were shot in the Turkish province of Kars, on the border with Armenia. Among the five directors are three debutants who were chosen to film their stories after winning a scenario contest. The final result is a sympathetic collection of films that remain small and simple: the puppy love between a boy and a girl on their winter trip to school, the memories of a young woman about her mother’s response to her first menstruation and bra, and the story of a student who returns to his village, but all too soon flees again for the past that is waiting for him there.
The stories take place strikingly often around the cemetery and look at things from the past being revealed. The last contribution to the omnibus film is also significantly called ‘a small truth’.

PROGRAMMER NOTES
Echoing last year’s special theme programme, Young Turkish Cinema, we have selected this Turkish omnibus for its world premiere at the IFFR to continue following and discovering some new young Turkish voices. Except for Ozcan Alper, the other ones are nearly all newcomers. This film is a result of a daring initiative of the Festival On Wheel in the form of a workshop given in Kars. IFFR as a supportive festival for upcoming talent seems an excellent venue for its presentation. Only the future can tell who of the five directors is to become a new Nuri Belgi Ceylan, Semih Kaplanoglu, or Yesim Ustaoglu. Like last year, we hope to welcome directors and have discussions with them after the screenings.

LC, IFFR 2010

Tales from Kars is a portmanteau of the five winning short stories in a script competition held as part of the 2007 Festival on Wheels and spearheaded by the Ankara Cinema Association and former mayor of Kars, Naif Alibeyoğlu. With all five shorts shot in Kars, the ensemble was wrapped with post-production support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and has since received invitations from numerous international festivals. The shorts were directed by Özcan Alper, Ülkü Oktay, Ahu Öztürk, Zehra Derya Koç and Emre Akay, who have been instrumental in introducing Kars, one of the farthest flung corners of Turkey, to the rest of the world.

Selected for the January 2010 edition of the Rotterdam Film Festival, Tales from Kars followed up its world premiere in the Netherlands with screenings at the Istanbul, Transylvania, Jerusalem and Sarajevo, Warsaw, Beirut, Hamburg, Vancouver, Valencia, Bratislava, Arpa, Mumbai film festivals respectively. In the months ahead, the film is also due to be shown at the Roma Independent Film Festival and Sofia International Film Festival in 2011.

Turkey, 2010

Directosr:
Özcan Alper
Zehra Derya Koç
Ülkü Oktay
Ahu Öztürk
Ömer Emre Akay

Producer
Basak Emre
Ahmet Boyacioglu
Gezici Film

Scenario: Ozcan Alper, Zehra Derya Koc, Ülkü Oktay, Ahu Öztürk, Emre Akay



Cast
Ayda Aksel
Bennu Yildirimlar
Meral Cetinkaya
Ozan Bilen
Sebnem Köstem

Photography: Özgür Eken
Editor: Cicek Kahraman, Ulas Cihan Simsek
Sound design: Ismail Karadas

Length: 81′

2011 | Ankara International Film Festival | 17-27 March 2011
* Competition

2010 | 39th IFFR – International Film Festival Rotterdam | www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com
* Selection (Bright Future)