Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

Cinema Turks are committed cinema-goers and the local industry continues to go from strength to strength. Local directors, many of whom are based in İstanbul, are now fixtures on the international festival circuit. Local Stories Oddly enough, few masterpieces of Turkish cinema have been set in İstanbul. Acclaimed directors including Metin Erksan, Yılmaz Güney and Erdan Kıral tended to set the social-realist films they made in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s in the villages of central or eastern Anatolia. This started to change in the 1990s, when many critical and popular hits were set in the city. Notable among these were the films of Zeki Demirkubuz, Omer Kavur, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Mustafa Altıoklar and Yavuz Turgul. Contemporary directors of note include Ferzan Özpetek, who has a growing number of Turkish-Italian co-productions to his credit. His 1996 film Hamam, set in İstanbul, was a big hit on the international festival circuit and is particularly noteworthy for addressing the hitherto hidden issue of homosexuality in Turkish society. The issue of discrimination against Kurdish members of the community is investigated in Yeşim Ustaoğlu’s powerful 1999 film Journey to the Sun, which is set in the city. Yavuz Turgul’s 2005 film Lovelorn is the story of idealist Nazim, who returns home to İstanbul after teaching for 15 years in a remote village in eastern Turkey and starts a doomed relationship with a single mother who works in a sleazy bar. It’s particularly notable for the soundtrack by Tamer Çıray, which features the voice of Aynur Doğan. Kutluğ Ataman’s 2005 film 2 Girls and Reha Erdem’s 2008 film My Only Sunshine are both dramas in which the city provides an evocative backdrop.