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Alley

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Documentaries from Türkiye

Alley

00:05:34

Defne Kırmızı

-

Avusturya, Türkiye

The camera lingers, tracing a quiet alley where people go in and out of frame — glimpsed, reflected, and lost. A game unfolds in this stage, where shifting perspectives turn passersby into unwitting performers. Elsewhere, landscapes are slipping away and rebuilt on a cyclical pattern. A brief syncopation in a daily routine, a fleeting interplay of a place and bodies in motion.

Thursday, January 22, 2026

11:00

Fransız Kültür Merkezi

Halal Dreams

International Experimental Film Competition

Halal Dreams

Mohammed Mamdouh

In the sleepless lights of New York, a father's longing becomes the city's quiet heartbeat.
Kuşgözü Grubu Gösterimleri

Belgesel Fotoğraf Gösterimleri

Kuşgözü Grubu Gösterimleri

Kuşgözü

Yazbek: A Portrait

International Short Film Competition

Yazbek: A Portrait

Frederick Shelbourne, Lucy Andia

Yazbek: A Portrait recounts a Sergio's life, leading up to the moment he uncovers a box of his late father’s lost negatives. As he develops the photographs, Sergio reconnects with his father in ways he never expected, discovering new facets about the man and his legacy. Sergio reflects on how his father taught him not only the secrets of photography but also of life itself, shaping his understanding of the world through the lens. This film explores themes of memory, family, and the profound connection between art and life. ... 'Yazbek: A Portrait' narra la vida de Sergio, hasta el momento en que descubre una caja con los negativos perdidos de su difunto padre. Mientras revela las fotografías, Sergio se reconecta con su padre de maneras que nunca imaginó, descubriendo nuevas facetas sobre el hombre y su legado. Sergio reflexiona sobre cómo su padre le enseñó no solo los secretos de la fotografía, sino también de la vida misma, moldeando su comprensión del mundo a través del lente. Esta película explora temas como la memoria, la familia y la profunda conexión entre el arte y la vida.
Thank You Kaf Kaf (With the Director in Attendance)

Special Film Screenings

Thank You Kaf Kaf (With the Director in Attendance)

Ömer Gümüşe

Through the eyes of the Karşıyaka Sports Club announcer, we witness the club's story, its history and culture, touching on the passion of its supporters, in an unconventional account of Karşıyaka Sports Club's one-season tale.
A Legend of Foça: Nihat Dirim (With the Director in Attendance)

International Feature Film Competition

A Legend of Foça: Nihat Dirim (With the Director in Attendance)

Hakan Barçın

A Legend of Foça: Nihat Dirim A Legend of Foça: Nihat Dirim is a 60-minute documentary that chronicles the life and legacy of Nihat Dirim, the legendary mayor of Foça, a district renowned for its historical and natural beauty on Turkey's Aegean coast. Serving two terms as mayor from 1989 to 1999, Dirim shaped Foça's identity through his commitment to environmental protection, cultural heritage preservation, and a people-centered governance approach. Despite today's generally adverse climate, his influence continues to be a defining force in the town. The documentary delves into Dirim's profound passion, love, and dedication to Foça, illustrating how this emotional bond contributed to the town's development. His visionary leadership is exemplified by initiatives such as building bridges of friendship with Greece's Lesbos Island and Palea Fokea, leading environmental campaigns against a proposed thermal power plant in Aliağa, and launching projects to protect the endangered Mediterranean monk seals. Beginning with Dirim's childhood, the film explores his journey through his mayoral tenure to his enduring impact on Foça today. This narrative is conveyed through interviews with nearly 40 individuals conducted over a year, led by his close friend Hakan Barçın. These interviews provide deep insights into Dirim's genuine relationships with the public, his leadership style, and his unwavering devotion to Foça.
Radio, My Love (With the Director in Attendance)

Documentaries from Türkiye

Radio, My Love (With the Director in Attendance)

Nazan Haydari, Özden Cankaya, Cem Hakverdi

Radio, My Love is an investigative documentary that frames radio broadcasting as an arena of struggle. The film revolves around the experiences of women who entered the profession in the 1970s by taking exams to join TRT, first established as an autonomous broadcasting institution. The documentary is based on the oral history project titled “Women Radio Broadcasters in the History of Turkey. It weaves together archival recordings with contemporary interviews, bringing voices from different eras together to reveal how these broadcasters shaped both the sound of radio and the cultural landscape of Turkey during a pivotal period.
Under my Mother's Roof

Best International Experimental Documentary Film

Under my Mother's Roof

Christian Abi Abboud

A film where fiction and reality collide; Richard and Kim decide to cowrite with the filmmaker, pieces of their future lives together. “Under my mother’s roof” is a portrait of a man who is facing his biggest fear; the diagnoses of his love with autism. A journey which will lead him back to his childhood biggest trauma, the loss of his mother.
Tight Lines (With the Director in Attendance)

Student Documentaries from Türkiye

Tight Lines (With the Director in Attendance)

Cihan Berkay Mahçup

“Tight Lines” tells the story of a woman whose life is woven with nets, beginning each day with the sea. She does not merely make a living from the sea; she speaks to it, challenges it, and endures alongside it. Fishing is often perceived as a man’s profession, yet in this documentary, the hands guiding the nets belong to a woman. Rastgele goes beyond the act of casting nets into the water, revealing a quiet yet powerful resistance that makes the unseen visible.
Mahalleme Dokunma (With the Director in Attendance)

Belgesel Fotoğraf Gösterimleri

Mahalleme Dokunma (With the Director in Attendance)

Emine Kart

Let me tell you a bit about the neighbourhood we didn't want to touch. 100th Year, Workers' Blocks Neighbourhood. Built for workers, squatters have been living there for years. Thousands of buildings have sprung up around it, glass towers, shopping centres, mosque projects offering donation opportunities on credit card instalments, demolitions, constructions, bars and barricades. We didn't want this; we deserved better. The year was 2013... The whole country was united around three or five trees. The wind from those trees enveloped a student and retired neighbourhood in Ankara. Do you know what we wanted? We didn't want them to build that road separating the school from the neighbourhood. We didn't want them to cut down the forest that was home to all kinds of trees and animals. We wanted to throw in your faces every day the image of the workers and women your system killed, and those you slaughtered in the name of labour, peace and democracy, erasing them the very next day. We wanted a tree planted, a field we cultivated together, a garden where we could come together and tend to the crops. We wanted a patch of land open to labour and sustenance, with no lock on its gate.
Foto Akgün

Student Documentaries from Türkiye

Foto Akgün

Fidan Çaça

A tribute to Mehmet Akgün, a camera repairman in Konya who has been restoring memories for nearly 50 years. Foto Akgün tells the inspiring story of resilience, craftsmanship, and passion—despite physical limitations.
Wind Blows By

International Short Film Competition

Wind Blows By

Paula Fuentes, Guillermo Carrera

Among the Galician mountains hides Vilar do Courel, a small village that has been resisting to disappear for decades. Its last three inhabitants are the guardians of a timeless space, which transits its past and looks to its future from an empty, immobile and fragile present. With Branca's return from Barcelona, the reality of the place begins to transform. At night, memories, dreams and ancient legends guide the characters through magical forests and forgotten paths.
Since You've Been Gone

Student Documentaries from Türkiye

Since You've Been Gone

Ayşegül Ongun

A woman who lost her father follows the historical route that she and her father used to follow. During the journey, she tries to understand her own connection to the city. While she compares her father's Istanbul in his youth and today's city, she ironically conveys the problems such as unplanned urbanization, ecological distortions, and crowd. Throughout the journey she talks to her father, while she uses the city as a metaphor for remembrance and nostalgia in relation with grief and loss.
Bocuk: An Ancient Ritual

International Short Film Competition

Bocuk: An Ancient Ritual

Buğra Mert Alkayalar

"Bocuk" traces the remnants of a Balkan-Turkic belief said to date back to the Middle Ages, still alive in a remote village of Thrace. This docudrama explores the contemporary meaning of an ancient winter ritual and documents the local narratives surrounding it. Blending fear with tradition, the film invites viewers to discover the extraordinary Night of Bocuk, a practice still observed across generations in Turkey.
Bir Ömür Deniz

Özel Film Gösterimleri

Bir Ömür Deniz

Ahmet Özkan, Veyis Polat

This film views the sea not as a landscape, but as a living space. Here, the sea is not a romantic backdrop; it is a life woven with sweat, patience and repetition. We approach Mavişehir Fishermen's Shelter not as a place, but as a memory. This harbour, whose location has changed with the filling of the shores, bears the traces of over a century of labour. Against concrete, time and transformation, we defend the continuity of the relationship established with the sea. This manifesto aims to make the great stories of small boats visible. The labour of fishermen who set sail in boats less than seven metres long is a form of living knowledge that is in danger of being forgotten in the shadow of industrial production. We stand against the loss of this knowledge. Repeating the mending of nets, the threading of needles, the setting out to sea before dawn... Because repetition here is not ordinary; it is resistance. This order, re-established every day, is an expression of the ancient covenant between man and the sea. While telling the story of the fishermen, this film focuses on silence, modesty, and the power of collective production. It sees accepting what the sea provides as a virtue. We take on the responsibility of photography, the camera, and witnessing. We advocate not just looking, but seeing; not just recording, but understanding. A Lifetime at Sea is not an elegy for the past; it is a mark left for the future. As long as this way of life built with the sea continues, cultural memory will also continue to live on. Some lives are not written on land, but in the wake of the waves.
Chanting of the Dunes

International Feature Film Competition

Chanting of the Dunes

Mokhless Al-Hariri

Chanting of the Dunes has so far won over 40 awards and 20 nominations! The film takes viewers on a dazzling journey through multiple countries and during momentous world events that extend from the Levant in the 1920s to the U.S. and China in the 1990s. Chanting of the Dunes recounts the life of Wahbi Al-Hariri-Rifai who was an accomplished international artist, architect, archeologist, and author. It is told through the mixed perspective of his wife, Widad Marachi, who married him at the age of 15. The fascinating storyline is full of unexpected turns and is accompanied by a superb award-winning soundtrack. The film is beautifully illustrated through hundreds of meticulously restored black/white and color archival photographs and original footage. According to festival managers, the film exceeds all expectations and represents a new cinematographic genre between narrative feature and documentary. Many have called it “extraordinary, moving, mesmerizing, full of messages...”
HaulHaul

Student Documentaries from Türkiye

HaulHaul

Yeliz Kıroğlu, Damla Mozioğlu

This documentary shows the new popularity of thrifting; the core between sustainability and subculture creates a conflict because of the commodification of aesthetics- the perspectives of different people from different backgrounds.
Los Pasaroz Sefaradis (Yönetmenlerin Katılımıyla)

Special Film Screenings

Los Pasaroz Sefaradis (Yönetmenlerin Katılımıyla)

Rose Modiano, Alberto Modiano

The Jews who arrived in Ottoman lands 530 years ago brought many cultures with them. Naturally, this included their language. Over time, this language blended with other cultures to form a new, unique language called “Judeo Espagnol”. Although it is in danger of being forgotten, the older generation continues to preserve it in areas where they live together, primarily in Izmir and Istanbul. The documentary is about the Los Pasharos Sefaradis Group, Kula 930, and many other Jewish musicals that have emerged over more than 30 years, the formation of the group of four people, and the concerts they have given.
The Stonemason’s Daughter

International Short Film Competition

The Stonemason’s Daughter

Arturo Franco

The film was shot around the place of O Fieiro, a small village of no more than twelve houses and nine inhabitants, among them Rosa. A ninety-year-old woman who dedicates her last years to watching the rain through the window. Her father was a canteiro, a house builder, before the reservoir changed everything. Rosa remembers how her father lifted the stones and the people transported them from one place to another. It is shown as an abstract visual poem where the rain and the stones are the protagonists of the story Rosa tells us.
Longarms

Student Documentaries from Türkiye

Longarms

Cemal Karaaslan

Dilara is an art student striving to become a successful painter despite the challenges in her life and dreams of studying abroad. Cemal, a film student, wants to document her journey, knowing that their last days together could come at any moment. However, things do not go as planned. They try to overcome the difficulties of pursuing art and creating something meaningful in a small town with the support of their friends. Dilara, hayatındaki zorluklara rağmen başarılı bir ressam olmaya çalışan ve yurt dışında eğitim almak isteyen bir resim öğrencisidir. Sinema öğrencisi Cemal, arkadaşı Dilara'yla geçireceği son günlerin her an gelebileceğini düşünerek onun belgeselini çekmek ister fakat işler planladıkları gibi gitmez. Küçük bir şehirde sanatla uğraşmanın ve bir şeyler üretmenin güçlüğünü arkadaşlarının desteği ile aşmaya çalışırlar.
Block E, No. 5

Documentaries from Türkiye

Block E, No. 5

Çağla Gillis

Çağla moves to Austria for university, facing the loneliness of a temporary dormitory, a liminal space that shapes her emotional journey. Meanwhile, her family in Istanbul struggles with the uncertainty and frustration of living in a rented apartment. Their home, demolished due to aggressive urban policies under the guise of earthquake risk prevention, remains incomplete for years. Through intimate yet online conversations, they share their longing for belonging, the weight of waiting, and the mundane tasks of daily life. In these cold, fractured spaces, time seems to blur, and memories echo as voices.
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