It can’t be much fun being a journalist in Turkey at the moment unless you whole-heartedly support the present regime. Film-makers too are unlikely to be able to cross certain political parameters, though Nuri Bilge Ceylan — whose Winter Sleep is one of the favourites at Cannes this year — cannot be said to fear the government’s wrath. But as the London Turkish Film Festival proves, many Turkish films quietly illustrate social and cultural problems rather than push for easier commercial success.
In competition at the London event this year, for instance, is Reha Erdem’s Singing Women, in which a wealthy man refuses to leave his island home despite being evacuated because of an earthquake. Erdem presents us with a dark, apocalyptic tale that might just mirror Turkey’s political upheavals.
Other highlights out of competition are two films that won best-debut titles at international festivals. Deniz Akçay Katiksiz’s Nobody’s Home, the story of a family intent on destroying itself within an insecure middle-class society, won its award at last year’s Istanbul Festival, and Ali Aydin’s Mold, about a railway worker looking for his son, who has disappeared in police custody, won best debut at Venice.
Perhaps the most spectacular film at the festival is Alphan Eseli’s The Long Way Home, pictured, which has a mother and daughter fleeing through a barren, war-torn Anatolian landscape after the heavy Turkish defeat by the Russians in 1915.
The 19th London Turkish Film Festival (020 7503 3584, ltff.co.uk) runs at Rio Cinema, E8; O2 Cineworld, SE10; Hackney Picturehouse, E8; Dolby Theatre, W1; and Aubin Cinema, E2, until June 1
