Nalan Kuruçim

Set during the aftermath of the September 28 1997 military coup of Turkey, one of the most fascinating periods of modern Turkish history, Hilal, Feza and Other Planets follows the unlikely relationship between a pro-Muslim student Hilal and her friend Feza, a male transgender prostitute who aims to become a woman. With cultural and social backgrounds that are superficially, and in their own perception, polar opposites, Hilal and Feza find common ground through their separate struggles against state oppression and social prejudice. Though not always smooth or free of conflict, their friendship survives the test of time despite ingrained prejudices, and we see their mutual respect and understanding for each other grow each time they meet.

In Istanbul, on the verge of a country-wide power surge, four characters come across in a neighborhood undergoing the process of gentrification for the “New Turkey”: a mother whose son is in prison, a young female dancer, a feminist artist, and a cunning middle man. Their stories intertwine during a drug deal, offering a roaring tale of the contemporary generation.

The mid 90’s. Turkey’s political instability, inflation and hopelesness on people were increased. In those years when all hope was lost, people deeply bond with Bold Pilot and Halis Karataş who win every race coming from the last place. People see themselves at the point where this horse and jockey are: at the back. This duo make people to believe that everybody can win. The race ends at the finish line and the first to cross this line are Bold Pilot and Halis riding it.

Losing his father at a very young age, Bekir lives with his mother Rabia and grandfather İlyas, who jointly run a haberdashery store. When İlyas passes away, to spare him grief young Bekir is told that “his beloved grandfather has gone to the moon and become Grandpa Moon.”

A reclusive woman in her thirties leads a life frozen in time in a cave-like room. In her rare trips to the city, she chats with an oarswoman haunted by the devils. She searches for her twin sister in unfrequented corners of the city. In this journey in which time and space are out of joint, a same dream is recounted time after time.

The residents of a small town set between a stormy sea and an ominous forest are becoming insane. They are convinced that successive signs appearing in the town are indications of doomsday.

Leyla, a lawyer and a poet, takes the long-distance train to attend her high school reunion dinner. On the train, she meets Canan, a young nursing student in distress. As the conversation develops, Leyla learns that Canan is travelling to assist with the suicide of a paralysed man, Yavuz, who wants to die. At the end of the long over- night trip, surrounded by the stories of people both on and off the train, Leyla decides to accompany Canan on her difficult visit.

In a small village near Erzincan (Turkey) young Mert is about to get traditionally circumcised, but the family does not have the money to follow up with the circumcision celebration. The family wants to be able to serve lamb meat to the guests of the celebration. Mert's older sister scares him that if they cannot afford a lamb the father will slaughter him instead.

In the hard-boiled world, where will the soft-shelled end up? A cozy kind of extermination is on the stage and keeping a low profile. The decadence around us is nothing less than clandestine annihilation of the civil man. Yet it is carried out so well with a grinning face, it is officially sold as transition. Now that the tamed indulgent is striped off social justice, welfare, even denied the tender love of concentration camps and slavery plantations of past centuries. At least hand them a round of rope They have high expectations from taking things in their own hands. Circle is a peculiar story of an ordinary man caught between an untimely romance and a brave new hostile world.

Planning to take any job she can get in order to save enough money and leave Turkey for the U.S., Mina is hired at an Istanbul café as a fortune teller who reads the dregs in coffee cups. She discovers she has the ability to offer comfort and insight to the customers who are just as lost in the wilderness as she is.

The film tells the tragic story of an Iraqi-Turkish girl, Cennet, who loses her entire family during a US-led operation against insurgents in her village in US-occupied Iraq. She makes a distressing journey through the border between Turkey and Iraq to find her brother who had been sent to Turkey for treatment.