Turkish cinema, now a regular in Venice Film Festival

Turkish cinema has become a regular fixture at the Venice International Film Festival since 2008, following a nearly decade-long stupor. This year, acclaimed Turkish-German director Fatih Akın will compete for the Golden Lion with ‘The Cut,’ while newcomer Kaan Müjdeci’s ‘Sivas’ is in the lineup for the Future of the Lion award. Here’s a look at Turkey in Venice throughout the years Back in 1990, director Yusuf Kurçenli’s “Karartma Geceleri” (The Blackout Nights) competed for the Golden Lion in the world’s oldest film festival, the Venice International Film Festival. Three other films were selected to the Golden Lion line-up before that, all in the 1980s, Erden Kıral’s “Ayna” (The Mirror), Ali Özgentürk’s “Bekçi” (The Guard) and the late Ömer Kavur’s “Anayurt Oteli” (Motherland Hotel).

Then the winter sleep came when Turkey was nowhere to be seen in Venice for almost two decades, save for two directors, Yeşim Ustaoğlu (in 2002) and Ferzan Özpetek (in 2007), being invited to the jury. 2008 turned out to be the year when Turkish cinema’s luck turned around, with two films included into the lineup for the main competition.

An adaptation of Melania G. Mazzucca’s best-selling Italian novel “Un Giorno perfetto” by Turkish/Italian director Ferzan Özpetek, the previous year’s jury member, as well as director Semih Kaplanoğlu’s “Süt” (Milk), the second film in Yusuf’s Trilogy, were both listed in the line-up competing for the Golden Lion. “Un Giorno perfetto,” the story of the 24 hours in a family right before a general election, brought...