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L'immortelle (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963)
Mar
12
National Hitchcock Day
A woman in silhouette (Françoise Brion) enters a building. The setup is perfectly symmetrical except a beam of light passing through the opened doors that highlight's the woman's presence, adding a sense of wrong to the scene. DP: Maurice Barry.
“You're a foreigner and you're lost.”
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Sevmek Zamanı [Time to Love] (Metin Erksan, 1965)
Jan
6
Muslim-American Heritage Month
The man, the woman, and her portrait. DP: Mengü Yeğin.
“Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.”
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L'immortelle (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963)
Jun
23
Sat
A man's hand holds a crumbled up diary page for Saturday June 23. There are no calendar entries. DP: Maurice Barry.
“You're a foreigner and you're lost.”
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Umut [Hope] (Yılmaz Güney & Şerif Gören, 1970)
Dec
30
National Resolution Planning Day
Hasan (Tuncel Kurtiz) and Cabbar (Yılmaz Güney) planning their next step sitting atop of the pit. DP: Kaya Ererez.
Discussing an elaborate plan on National Resolution Planning Day.
Cabbar (Yılmaz Güney), an impoverished, illiterate phaeton driver, loses his already half-dead horse when a rich man crashes into the cart. Now destitute and burdened with feeding his six children, wife and grandmother, Cabbar is offered several ways out. While winning the lottery is not in his stars, his friend Hasan's (Tuncel Kurtiz) and imam Hodja's (Osman Alyanak) wondrous plan to go out into the Kurdish wastelands to dig up an illusive treasure may be his only escape.
“I left forty lira at home, the family is hungry now.”
– Cabbar
Umut is Turkey's early venture into Neorealismo. Banned by the national board of censorship – the display of abject poverty, characters not observing morning prayer etc etc – the film was smuggled out off the country and into Cannes, where its screening urged the Turkish government to reconsider its decision. It's now seen as one of Turkey's most important cinematic masterpieces.
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Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977)
Sep
9
turkey
“We're in America now.”
– Bruno S.
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Umut [Hope] (Yilmaz Güney, 1970)
Jun
18
Cabbar (Yilmaz Güney, center), his travel companions, and their hosts share an opulent meal. DP: Kaya Ererez.
“I left forty lira at home, the family is hungry now.”
– Cabbar