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Ahead of its European bow in San Sebastian as part of the fest’s New Directors Competition, Turkish writer-director Belkis Bayrak reveals the first look trailer for her riveting debut feature, “Gülizar,” shared exclusively with Variety.

“It is, of course, an honor to be in competition at San Sebastian with my debut feature,” Bayrak relayed. “I can’t wait to see the film with a European audience, especially the famed San Sebastian audience!”

Bayrak is an alum of the Torino Film Lab, Reclaim The Frame’s Filmonomics Program and a member of Ewa who has previously released notable shorts “The Apartment” and “Cemile.”

“Gülizar,” which saw its world premiere in Toronto at TIFF’s Discovery strand, was produced by Bayrak alongside Murat Yaşar Bayrak at Turkey’s Saba Film in tandem with Mehmet Bahadir Er of Turkey’s Protim V.P and co-produced by Valmira Hyseni of Kosovo’s Planbee Films.

Belkis Bayrak made her feature debut with “Gülizar” at Toronto International Film Festival this year. The slow domestic drama is laden with suspense for the titular Gülizar, a Turkish woman (Ecem Uzun) due to be wed in Albania. She is sexually assaulted, however, when she crosses the border to meet her to-be-husband, Emre (Bekir Behrem). The incident taints any attempt at intimacy between them. Gülizar struggles to play the role of a model housewife, while Emre burns with revenge. Gülizar’s secret brings the two of them closer together, but isolates them in the bedroom all the same. The tension only escalates as their wedding date grows closer and closer – until one day, Gülizar decides to take matters into her own hands.

We had the opportunity to speak to director Belkis Bayrak and Emre-playing actor Bekir Behrem at Toronto International Film Festival, shortly after their world premiere. Together, we spoke...

Feeling constricted in her family house where life is defined by strict rules of conduct imposed by her dominant, tough-as-nails mother, Gülizar (Ecem Uzun) can’t wait to depart to Kosovo to wed Emre (Bekir Behrem) in an arranged marriage she puts high hopes in. She isn’t naive to believe that this new chapter of her life will be all milk and honey, but it’s a fresh start offering her the possibility to explore her own expectations and maybe find happiness.

Gülizar is screening at Toronto International Film Festival

In her debut feature named by the lead character, Belkis Bayrak delivers what most auteurs who seek to catch the female gaze fail to do: observe, listen and expose the complexity of a trauma that marks a woman’s life in a way that is difficult to grasp, almost always conditioned by the societal norms. She is navigating the...

A simple, melancholy image forms most of the design for the key art of Belkis Bayrak's Gülizar. A woman in a car presses her hands up to the glass, eyes downcast, as if saying goodbye to her world for the last time before taken away. There are small scars or bruises on her palm and fingers. There is a gentle light reflected off the glass and a light grain along with actresses Ecem Uzun's make-up free freckled visage, and a fuzzy sweater coming just past the threshold of her wrist, further add a wealth subtle texture to the image.  The title card fades out at each end, but otherwise forms a cautionary yellow in the centre of the design, while the credit block, and director's credit...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The other Golden Dolphins were shared between In the Shadows and Mavzer in the National Competition, while Ordinary People and Kodokushi won in the International Competition. Ferit Karol’s debut feature, Penny Bank, and Bulgarian director Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Sister emerged as the big winners of the Best National and International Film Awards, respectively, at the closing ceremony of the eighth Bosphorus Film Festival, which ran from 23-30 October while following all necessary measures to ensure social distancing. Emrah Kılıç, the artistic director of the Istanbul-based gathering, which screened a total of 60 films, stated that it was very important to organise the event physically and thanked the guests who attended. The National Feature Film Competition jury, led by Turkish writer-scriptwriter-producer Tarik Tufan, and also comprising director Ramin Matin, cinematographer Taner Tokgöz, and actresses Ipek Türktan Kaynak and Ecem Uzun, handed the 100,000 Tl Golden Dolphin to the director of Penny...

The Istanbul-based gathering is preparing for a physical edition, and has announced its national and international competitions. The eighth edition of the Bosphorus International Film Festival is getting ready to kick off. Running from 23-30 October in Istanbul, the festival will hold its physical screenings in the Beyoğlu and Kadıköy neighbourhoods. It is organised by the Bosphorus Cinema Association, with contributions from the Republic of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the country’s General Directorate of Cinema. Emrah Kılıç is serving as its artistic director. In the competitions, starting with the National Feature Film Competition, ten films are vying for seven awards, including the Golden Dolphin, valued at 100,000 Tl. The winner will be decided upon by the president of the jury, writer-scriptwriter-producer Tarik Tufan, and his fellow jury members: director Ramin Matin, cinematographer Taner Tokgöz, and actresses Ipek Türktan Kaynak and Ecem Uzun. Eight of the selected.

53rd Antalya International Film Festival in Turkey Announces Winners of its Golden Orange Award“Clair-Obscur” by Turkish director Yeşim Ustaoğlu wins International Competition for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. In the National Competition, it wins Best Actress while “Blue Bicycle” wins for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. “My Father’s Wings” Wins Audience Award for Best Film and National Competition Awards for Best First Feature, Best Actor and the Dr. Avni Tolunay Special Jury Award for Sound Design.

The 53rd International Antalya Film Festival, co-hosted by the Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and Festival President, Menderes Türel, and Elif Dağdeviren, the Festival’s Director, is a festival which is weathering the storms hitting Turkey. Just months after an attempted government coup, Turkey is a country increasingly involved in the long war in neighboring Syria; it has been the target of several recent terrorist attacks which scare...

★★★★☆ Echoing the work of Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan as well as recent Oscar nominee Mustang, Yeşim Ustaoğlu's complex drama Clair Obscur tactfully explores female liberty in a modern-day Turkey torn between its secular and religious tendencies. Ustaoğlu juxtaposes two women who at first glance couldn't be more different: Chenaz (Funda Eryigit), a socially liberal psychiatrist with a healthy sex drive who lives with her boyfriend Cem (Mehmet Kurtulus) and enjoys dancing in nightclubs and drinking wine; and Elmas (Ecem Uzun), a timid and devout young woman forced into marriage with a ruthless older man.

When a few hundred films stop by the 41st Toronto International Film Festival, it’s certainly impossible to cover everything, but we were able to catch over 120 features — and, with that, it’s time to conclude our experience, following the festival’s own award winners. We’ve rounded up our top 20 films seen during the festival, followed by a list of the complete coverage.

Stay tuned over the next months (or years) as we bring updates on films as they make their way to screens. Note that we didn’t include films screened at other festivals in our “best of” round-up, but you can see Venice, Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance wrap-ups at those links, which feature some of the most-praised films of the festival, including La La Land, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, Certain Women, Elle, Things to Come, Nocturnal Animals, and many more.

One can also click here for...

Life for a woman like Elmas (Ecem Uzun) in Turkey is a living nightmare. An eighteen-year old all but sold to a willing husband (Serkan Keskin‘s Koca) much older than she to clean his house, give her mother-in-law (Sema Poyraz‘s Kaynana) across the hall insulin shots, and — marriage or not — get raped every night, she’s gradually losing her sense of identity and mind. She’s so young and unversed in the world that she makes a game out of folding the sheets atop their bed to see whether a coin will slide from one end to the other without hitting a fold. Elmas’ sole release is watching her neighbor in the adjacent building dance to pop music while sneaking a cigarette on the balcony when no one is looking.

This is the conservative Muslim life we in the western world believe women in the Middle East endure.