Jeremy Colson

The 3rd International Eurasia Film Festival, curtain-raiser for Turkey's 44th Antalya Film Festival, is all set to open on October 19 and will feature a showcase of much-acclaimed recent films of international origin.

Displaying the latest productions and hosting their performers and directors at Antalya, the Eurasia Film Festival covers a line up of highly praised films produced  during the last two years. Awards of US$75,000 and US$25,000 will be granted to the “Best Film” and the “Best Director” respectively. Among the international competition line up are: Asif Kapadia’s Sara Maitland adaptation ‘Far North’, an epic tale set in the harsh beauty of the Arctic, starring Michelle Yeoh and Sean Bean; Sergei Bodrov’s “Mongol”, a co-production of three countries (Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia) on the life of the founder of the biggest empire in history, the legendary Genghis Khan; “You the Living” (Du Levande), Roy Andersson’s, intrepid narration of the nature of humankind, its greatness, its baseness, joy and sorrow, its self-confidence and anxiety, its desire to love and be loved; Tony Ayres’ “The Home Song Stories”, the story of a Chinese singer and her family who settle in Australia in 70s, inspired by Ayres’ own extraordinary childhood and the memory of his mother, starring Joan Chen; “Kenneth Bi’s original and stylistic film that combines an engaging character-driven story with dramatic action and the stunning art of Chinese zen drumming: “The Drummer”; Eran Korilin’s feature directorial debut “The Band’s Visit” (Bikur Ha-tizmoret) which won the Jury Coup de Coeur prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival; “Assembly”, the latest film directed by the celebrated Chinese director Xiaogang Feng, the adaptation of a short story about a soldier who seeks recognition for his fallen comrades during the Chinese civil war in 1949 between the Communists and the Nationalists, who retreated to Taiwan; Freanch star Sophie Marceau’s second feature film as a director, “Trivial” (La Disparue De Deauville), starring Christopher Lambert and Sophie Marceau.  Two Turkish productions will be shown within the competition section of this year's festival: “Egg” (Yumurta), the first film of the trilogy by Semih Kaplanoglu, which was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight in the Cannes Film Festival and which stars actress --Saadet Aksoy-- who won “Best Actress” in the 2007 Sarajevo Film Festival.

The other Turkish entry in this section is Handan Ipekci’s latest feature “Hidden Faces” (Saklı Yuzler). Based on the issue of “honour crimes” in Turkey it tells the story of  the murder of a woman by members of her family who do not approve of her sexual behaviour.

Best film critics from around the worldTo underline the fact that film festivals and film critics are the most active agents working for the dissemination of film culture, Eurasia Film Festival presents “Critics Awards” as a symbol of this mutual collaboration since 2006. The “Critics Award” jury comprises international film critics as well as critics from the Turkish Association of Cinema Writers. The director of the winning film of the Critics Award will be awarded US$15,000 at the “Closing Ceremony” of the festival on 28th October.  Among the lineup in the Critics Award section are: “Fados”, the latest film from legendary filmmaker Carlos Saura who depicts a journey through the narrative arc of fado that is not merely music, but a melding of cultures, customs and sounds. The film attempts to capture the elusive nature of the Portuguese “saudade” featuring legendary singers like Carlos do Carmo, who along with Rodrigues, reshaped fado after the sixties.

Also freatured are: “It’s a Free World”, Ken Loach’s latest title of brilliant irony that is based on the plight of Eastern European migrants who provide a cheap labour pool for wealthier European Union nations; Simon Gross’s “Fata Morgana” that brought him the “Best Director” award at the Munich Film Festival; the celebrated censor-fighter director of the Soviet era, Kira Muratova; Marco Simon Puccioni’s bittersweet film “Shelter” (Riparo) exploring the niche between various polarities within the “civilized” world - native versus foreign, straight versus gay, rich versus poor; and Philippe Aractingi’s “Under the Bombs” (Sous les Bombs / Taht Alqasf) shot in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 in the middle of a real war.

Eurasia Production Platform

Eurasia Production Platform (EPP) will open on October 22nd along with this year's Eurasia Film Market, serving the goal of providing a focus of interaction for yet-to-be-initiated productions and those in progress. EPP will function as a venue to provide guests with an opportunity to launch new ideas and to make the right connections. EPP is conducted in an informal but effective atmosphere, as an extension of the angle already establishec during the Market and Festival's 2005 and 2006 events.

Scriptwriting Workshop with Olivier Lorelle and Jacques Deschamps

The "Scriptwriting Workshops" initiated within the previous Eurasia Film Market will take place with the attendance of Olivier Lorelle and Jacques Deschamps this year.The workshops will be conducted along a program based on participating projects and each participant will make a presentation under the guidance of Olivier Lorelle and Jacques Deschamps at the beginning of each session. The presented projects will be throughly reviewed and "doctored", revealing their strenghts and weaknesses and treating the entire dramatic structure from a comprehensive point of view. The workshops, that will focus on the "scriptwriting" phase of the projects, will also be open to participants who don't yet have projects.