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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.

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.

Documentaries from Türkiye - Out-of-Competition Selection
The Last Nest
Hasan Hüseyin Alkan
"Son Yuva" (The Last Nest) tells the story of Ahmet Karakaya, a shepherd in Anatolia facing the harsh impact of the climate crisis. Torn between leaving his homeland or staying to fight for it, Ahmet must make a difficult choice. His struggle reflects the profound and universal disruptions caused by climate change, as well as the resilience required to face an uncertain future.

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.

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.

Student Documentaries from Türkiye
Evara
Cansu Carlak
Evara, which means gift of God, deals with the cycle journey of our character who finds herself in the middle of the climate change
crisis in the conflict between city and nature. Based on the philosophy of second nature and social ecology, Evara is a critique consisting of questioning, resistance, observation and feelings and is reflected through performance art.

Special Film Screenings
Free Fish
Bisan Owda, Carolina Pereira
Free Fish — filmed entirely in Gaza during the ongoing genocide tells the story of two brothers separated by war and displacement, whose daily struggle to fish under blockade becomes an act of survival and resistance. Because in Gaza, even the sea is under siege. Fishing has become an act of defiance — and creation, an essential exercise of freedom.

Student Documentaries from Türkiye
Mosaic
Ibrahim Ayoub
Dive into the mesmerizing world of architecture through "Mosaic," a captivating film that pays homage to the intricate patterns and designs that defined an empire. Using innovative stop-motion animation, "Mosaic" invites audiences on a visual journey through the majestic beauty of architecture, where every stone tells a story and every tile is a piece of art.
As the camera seamlessly glides through elaborate mosques, palaces, and bazaars, viewers are immersed in the rich history and cultural significance of these architectural marvels.
"Mosaic" celebrates the timeless beauty and craftsmanship of architecture. Prepare to be transported to a world where history comes to life in every meticulously crafted frame.

International Short Film Competition
GIOJA22
Stefano De Felici
A new skyscraper stands out against the sky amidst massive mirrored buildings and vertical forests, symbols of Milan’s new skyline. Alone, one man bravely scales the building, defying the concrete and glass bastions of new world finance. His act of civil disobedience at 500 feet in the sky makes people look up for a few hours and reflect on the meaning of the expression “stay human”.

International Short Film Competition
Trains
Maciej Drygas
TRAINS is a found-footage documentary composed entirely of archive footage and sound design that creates a collective portrait of people in 20th century Europe, capturing their hopes, desires, dramas and tragedies. A train compartment is a place where people are taken out of their everyday context for a while. Sometimes the journey is accompanied by the hope that something will change in our lives upon reaching the destination, or conversely, by a stark absence of hope. And yet the history of the 20th century unfolds in railway carriages in a repetitive refrain. Every few years, hauntingly similar scenes play out in railway stations around the world: carriages full of men leaving for war, only to return wounded or as casualties. This cycle is followed by an exodus of civilians, evacuees mingling with prisoners of war returning from camps, and soldiers of victorious armies leading the defeated, until ordinary passengers reappear at stations.

Documentaries from Türkiye
Toprağın Hatırası
Didem Tütüncü
"The Memory of the Soil" takes viewers on a journey from İzmir's ancient past to the present, exploring the vineyards and the cultural heritage of Buca. This story, spanning from Levantine mansions to contemporary producers, reveals that grapes are not merely a fruit; they symbolize time, memory, and collective consciousness. From harvest rituals to winemaking traditions, from cherished memories to today's hopes, the documentary makes visible a culture deeply rooted in the soil of İzmir.

Documentaries from Türkiye
Back to the Land
Kerem Kurtuluş
Tevfik, who moved to New York with his family at the age of 2, relocated to his grandfather's home in Rize, where his father was born, at the age of 35 and started a new life there.
Tevfik has been living in Rize for 19 years and is now the father of two children, working in agriculture. He sustains his life by producing tea and kiwi.

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...”

En İyi Uluslararası Uzun Metraj Belgesel Film
Mother of Snow Cranes
Iiris Härmä
Over 90 years old, Ellen Vuosalo has lived many lives. First as a Finnish immigrant in Canada, then as an American citizen and student of zoology at UCLA and finally as a Mother of Cranes in Iran. Iiris Härmä's Mother of Snow Cranes tells the story of an incredible woman's extraordinary life, from love to tragedy to revolution. It is a story about nature, humanity, and the role of women in both the West and Iranian culture. Or as Ellen herself says " What a life! What a world!"
Reference story: Unlike the world famous story of Betty Mahmoody (NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER, 1991), MOTHER OF SNOW CRANES tells the story of the Western woman who had to stay in Iran and later who decided to stay.
Our production company Guerilla Films has produced award-winning documentary films for international broadcasters (YLE, SVT, NHK, ARTE, NETFLIX etc.), cinemas and film festivals for more than 20 years.
Mother of Snow Cranes (orig. Kurkien äiti)
Duration: 78 mins
Director: Iiris Härmä
Producer: Visa Koiso-Kanttila/ Guerilla Films
Production Country Finland
Filming location Iran
Release Date: Cinematic release in Finland September 2024.

Yönetmenlerin Katılımıyla
Songs of Fraternity
Çayan Demirel, Ayşe Çetinbaş
"Songs of Fraternity” is a feature-length project that tells the musical and political journey of the ‘Kardeş Türküler Project, which started within the Boğaziçi University Folklore Club in 1993… in a way a chronicle of“togetherness”, children, women, trees, rivers, a fraternity of cultures and languages that cannot be divided by borders. Not only languages, but history, culture, poetry, writers and artists meet on the stage: Hrant Dink, Neşet Ertaş, Reem Kelani, Sezen Aksu, Arto Tunçboyacıyan, Sayat Nova choir, the list goes on… So this movie brings forward for the first time the 30-year old story of Kardeş Türküler as they navigate and reflect with their music the political and social realities of the recent history of Turkey.

International Short Film Competition
Not My Film
Astra Zoldnere
What happens if older people challenge stereotypes in films about aging? Six seniors re-perform scenes of poor health, sexual invisibility, and gendered stereotypes of the wise old man and the bad witch. Toward the end of the film, the participants rebel against these cinematic images, proving that older age can be associated with love, sexuality, and self-revelation.

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.

Documentaries from Türkiye
Who Shot Jr.? (With the Director in Attendance)
Gül Abus Semerci
This documentary takes a closer look at the passionate fans of the Turkish TV series industry. It explores how fans feel so connected to the stories that they even influence actors’ lives or the script’s flow. Their passion leads to social media campaigns targeting writers and efforts to "save" favorite characters, reflecting their strong sense of belonging. Meanwhile, industry representatives’ comments on fans and the cold realities of their professional world add another striking layer. This contrast of admiration and distance paints a portrait of the series world and its fans.
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