News

If you try and define modern cinema from Turkey, you simply cannot avoid mentioning the body of work of director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. His eighth feature, which competed in for the Palm d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, was inspired by a story of a father and son who lived near Ceylan’s home town. The son, Akin Aksu, also co-wrote the script for the film, which, typical of Ceylan’s work, presents an intersection of a person’s biography and the current state of his home country. To be precise, “The Wild Pear Tree” combines the rich visual beauty while telling a story of people suffering from a lack of direction in their lives, thus seeming lost and even quite desperate.

“The Wild Pear Tree” screened at Vesoul International Festival of Asian Cinema

Before his final exams as a teacher, Sinan (Aydin Doğu Demirkol) returns to Çan, his hometown,...

"A big, bold masterpiece." The Cinema Guild & Film Forum have released an official Us trailer for the latest film from acclaimed Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, titled The Wild Pear Tree or Ahlat Agaci originally in Turkish. It will finally be opening in Us cinemas (mostly only in NYC to start) in January, after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and stopping by the Toronto and New York Film Festivals earlier this fall. This film was one my favorite films at Cannes this year, and it has been on my mind quite a bit, since the dialogue is so formidable and intellectual. The story is about a young writer named Sinan who returns to his hometown, dealing with his family and his father, while also struggling to believe whether his dream of becoming a writer is still possible. Dogu Demirkol stars as Sinan, with Murat Cemcir, Bennu Yildirimlar,...