'My Father's Wings': Film takes haunting look at working class

Through its heart-breaking story and beautiful cinematography, the multiple-award winner and debut feature of Kıvanç Sezer, "Babamın Kanatları" (My Father's Wings), lays bare the conditions of the so-called "new Turkey," as the leading Justice and Development Party (AKP) has dubbed its achievements over the past decade.

The luxurious high rises sprawling across big cities around Turkey are juxtaposed against the poor conditions of the construction workers who build them in Sezer's film. At the center of the story is İbrahim, played by veteran actor Menderes Samancılar, who won two awards at the Antalya and Adana film festivals for his role in the film. 

İbrahim is a seasoned construction worker who has left his family in the eastern city of Van to work in Istanbul in the hopes of buying a house to secure the future of his family. We soon learn that İbrahim and his family lost their house in the 2011 Van earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 600 people and rendered thousands more homeless.

İbrahim's might be a sad story, but he is dealt even worse blows when he cannot get his well-deserved income on time and when he learns that he has to pay money he doesn't have to become eligible to receive his retirement pension. He has more to come when he is diagnosed with an aggressive and untreatable form of lung cancer.

An everyday reality in Turkey are the work accidents that are mostly due to negligence and a lack of precautions. In "Babamın Kanatları," such an accident leads to the death of a university student. İbrahim and the fellow construction workers witness the exchange of "blood money," an illegal compensation from the construction owners to the family of the deceased in an exchange for their refusal to pursue legal action...