Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

Turkish-German director Fatih Akın received a screenwriting prize at Cannes for his 2007 film The Edge of Heaven, parts of which are set in İstanbul. His 2005 documentary about the İstanbul music scene – Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul – was instrumental in raising the Turkish music industry’s profile internationally. Erdem Tepegöz’ bleakly realistic 2013 film Zerre ( Particle ) follows single working woman Zeynep as she searches for a job to support her mother and disabled daughter. The film was shot in Tarlabaşı, near Beyoğlu. Filiz Alpgezmen’s Yabancı ( Stranger ; 2013) tells the story of Özgür, who was raised in Paris but returns to her parents’ home town of İstanbul to bury her father, in the process discovering much about her family and herself. Turkey’s most acclaimed director, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, was awarded the 2014 Palme d’Or at Cannes for his film Winter Sleep, which is set in Cappadocia. At the awards ceremony, he dedicated his prize to ‘all the young people of Turkey, including those who lost their lives over the past year’, a clear statement of support for the anti-government protests at Gezi Park in 2013. Ceylan has directed three films set in İstanbul: Distant (2002), Climates (2006) and Three Monkeys (2008). The final scenes in Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s award-winning 2015 film Mustang are set in İstanbul.

Clamour over Galata Tower, Aya Sofya’s dome, the minarets of the Blue Mosque and the roof of Topkapı Palace while playing the popular PS3/Xbox 360 video game Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, which is set in Constantinople in 1511.

Through Foreign Eyes Many of the foreign-made films with scenes featuring İstanbul have been thrillers. These include James Negulesco’s The Mask of Dimitrios (1944); Norman Foster’s 1943 film Journey into Fear; Tomas Alfredson’s 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, based on John Le Carré’s 1974 novel; Olivier Megaton’s Taken 2 (2012); and three James Bond films: From