Festival of Lovers

A young poet named Lal (32) spends his endless days alone with his thoughts inside his small prison cell. A sparrow, not certain if its real or if its a product of his imagination, suddenly appears inside his cell. This sparrow flying frantically while looking for an escape, pushes Lal to go on a personal journey caught in between reality and a dream. As the poet returns to the streets of the city of his childhood, he will find time frozen, his memories destroyed and his people scattered.

A man struggles after his release from ten years as a political prisoner.

The countenance of Joseba Sarrionandia is multi-faceted, not only for having dabbled in all literary forms of expression, but for having been capable of creating his own imagery, composed of endless worlds. Thus, several of the elements appearing in the literary world will undoubtedly appear here: the sea, the port, childhood, trains, uprooting, war, destruction, love, drifting, pain, fantasy, mystery, initiation, torture...

A film by Ozcan Alper.

A woman struggles with love and personal loss against the backdrop of a land torn by civil war in this drama from filmmaker Ozcan Alper. Sumru (Gaye Gursel) is a Turkish woman who studies ethnic music at a college in Istanbul and frequently makes field recordings of artists who practice rare and unusual forms. Sumru is struggling with loneliness after the disappearance of her Kurdish boyfriend, and for her latest project, she sets out on a lengthy road trip recording the stories of Kurdish women who have survived the murder of their Turkish husbands or lovers, hoping she might track down her man in her travels. After making her first stop in the city of Diyarbaki, Sumru meets Ahmet, who makes a living selling black market goods and shares her love of music and history. The two become fast friends, and as Ahmet joins Sumru on her travels, their relationship grows deeper, though she also becomes more aware of the tragedy that has gripped her country and the consequences of the civil war.

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’.

At the times of World War II, accomplished painter and translator Aram flees Istanbul due to political offenses. When he is trapped at the USSR-Georgia borders, his flight turns into a remembrance of things past...