Sat Dec 4
5.30pm
5.30pm
Seattle Turkish Film Festival 2021 – Opening Night: Two Types of People (İnsanlar İkiye Ayrılır) [In-Person at SIFF Uptown]
film
Opening Night + Gala (Dec. 4, 5:30pm) [IN-PERSON ONLY]:
$100 Film Screening + Gala
at Ada’s Restaurant and Bar (5910 Phinney Ave. N.)
$10 Film Screening Only
at SIFF Cinema Uptown (511 Queen Anne Ave. N.)
Short Film Program (Dec. 5, 12:00pm) [IN-PERSON]:
at Northwest Film Forum (1515 12th Ave.)
$10 General Admission
$7 Student/Child/Senior/Member
Festival Passes [VIRTUAL]:
$60 Festival Pass General Admission
$40 Festival Pass Student/Child/Senior/Member
Individual Tickets [VIRTUAL]:
$10 General Admission
$7 Student/Child/Senior/Member
Inaugurated in 2012 by the TACAWA Film Committee, Seattle Turkish Film Festival has become one of the most admired and venerated events of the Turkish American Cultural Association of Washington. The film festival is a non-profit, volunteer-driven event, committed to bringing the best of Turkish films to Seattle in an effort to provide an international platform for talented filmmakers working in both short and feature length formats to showcase their work.
** This screening takes place at SIFF Cinema Uptown (511 Queen Anne Ave N) at 5:30pm PT, followed by an Opening Night Gala at Ada’s Restaurant & Bar (5910 Phinney Ave N) at 8:00pm PT. **
Duygu and Bahadir work as debt collectors; their job is to maximize profit by cornering debtors using psychological tactics. Ceren, a young woman deep in debt, is their new target. Two Types of People explores human nature, acceptance, and desire through the experiences and frustrations of young professionals fighting to survive in a ruthless system.
(Uluç Bayraktar, Turkey, 2020, 118 min, in Turkish and Kurdish with English subtitles)
During his military service in 1990s Southeast Turkey, Ahmet experiences something that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
In 2013, when the chaotic days of Gezi Park protests in Istanbul start, Ahmet learns he has a brain tumor. Its pressure begins to fog his perception, blurring the lines between truth and fiction, dreams and reality, and his past and present… and at the same time, he meets Serap, the love of his life. Haunted by his diagnosis and suffocating under the weight of past trauma, Ahmet struggles to understand: who is the child that plays hide and seek with him?
(Fikret Reyhan, Turkey, 2020, 82 min, in Turkish with English subtitles)
Fatih, a Turkish migrant worker based in Britain, once borrowed a lot of money from fellow UK-based Turk Ayhan to send to his family back home. Even after having returned to Turkey, however, Fatih’s debt remains unpaid. While on a visit to Turkey, Ayhan visits Fatih’s family to ask for his money back, but the family is caught up in divisions of faith and economics. Scrambling to repay Ayhan, the family’s buried conflicts slowly bubble to the surface.
(Nesimi Yetik, Turkey, 2020, 95 min, in Turkish with English subtitles)
Hicran, Vildan, and their mother Dudu live in their own worlds within the same household, their relationships perpetually oscillating between hatred and love. These three women experience conflict on every level–beauty, marriage, money, and health. When Dudu receives a marriage proposal, with the prospect of her imminent departure, their whole dynamic is thrown into question and everything unspoken rises to the surface.
(Maryna Er Gorbach & Mehmet Bahadir Er, Turkey, 2019, 104 min, in Turkish & Arabic with English subtitles)
Ismet is a Turkish soldier who recently retired from his duties as a Commander of the Coast Guard at the border. Now as a civilian, he struggles to communicate with his family and the people around him. His only son abandoned him by leaving for the U.S. and now his wife wants to join him there as well. When Ismet becomes neighbors with two refugees, Omar and Mariye, at his home near the Turkish-Greek border, he is suddenly called to face his prejudices and political views.
(Ferit Karol, Turkey, 2020, 94 min, in Turkish with English subtitles)
A middle-class accountant and family man, Orhan is under heavy debt when his friend for whom he had been a guarantor abandons him. On top of that, Orhan’s mother has been in a coma for a while. As he struggles to recover from his compounding misfortunes, Orhan moves away from his loved ones and becomes alienated.
(Nisan Dağ, Turkey, United States, Germany, 2020, 97 min, in Turkish with English subtitles)
The dreams of Fehmi, an aspiring 19-yr-old rapper from a rough neighborhood of Istanbul, are jeopardized by his addiction to bonzai, a cheap and deadly drug.
When Fehmi crosses paths with Devin, a 25-year-old DJ, they fall hard for each other, finding artistic inspiration in their blossoming relationship. But the flames of their love soon become troubled, and then toxic.
When I’m Done Dying is an emotional roller coaster of youthful passion in Istanbul, driven by edgy rap composed by one of Turkey’s most acclaimed beat-makers and rappers, Da Poet.