The 2017 Boston Turkish Film Festival, part of the overall Boston Turkish Festival, continues today at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with two more Turkish-connected premieres. BTFF is unique among the BSAF season as it is split over a number of days and several weeks of programming, and eCinemaBoston is where you want to be to get the lowdown on what’s going on with films that celebrate Turkish filmmakers. The festival also presents a series of concerts throughout the festival as well.
Friday’s screenings kick off with Toss Up, from this year’s recipient of the Excellence in Turkish Cinema award, director/actor Ugur Yucel – here’s the description from the BTFF website:
Toss Up is the film of two stories taking place in 1999. The stories of two young men: «Rdvan the Devil», a football player from Cappadocia, Central Anatolia, and «Cevher the Ghost», a young man living with his father in Istanbul. Both went to the army for the military service together, and fought in the Southeast. Both had dreams and expectations for their civil lives back home. After returning from the army, Ridvan goes back to his village with his right leg missing, due to a land mine explosion, the leg that he would score goals with. The same explosion causes Cevher to lose his hearing ability
Toss Up will be followed with the US Premiere of the restored 1987 classic Mr. Muhsin, directed by Yavuz Turgul; here’s the synopsis from the BTFF website:
Mr. Muhsin was voted one of the Ten Best Turkish Films of all time by the Ankara Cinema Association, which says about the film “Muhsin Bey can be seen as a social mirror which manages to reflect, tragicomically, the ‘changing Turkey’ of the 80’s. The film, based on the interaction between Muhsin Kanadıkırık (Şener Şen) and Ali Nazik (Uğur Yücel), is based around a clash of attitudes. Muhsin Kanadıkırık is a man living through life’s autumn, not having achieved much success because of his principles, a music manager standing upright, tilting against windmills, a lover of traditional Turkish music (who without doubt hates arabesk!) and Ali Nazik is a youth from Urfa with a promising voice.
As always, all screenings take place at the Museum of Fine Arts. Today’s films are both at the Remis Auditorium; Toss Up screens at 4:30 PM, Mr Muhsin at 7:30 PM. Tickets for tonight and all the films being presented can be purchased at the MFA website. And don’t forget to check out BTFF’s official website for complete info on all the films coming up! Also, tonight’s screening will be followed by the Excellence in Turkish Film award ceremony and reception at Taste Cafe with live music by The Cay Party. You’ll want to stick around for that for sure.
The Boston Turkish FIlm Festival will continue throughout this weekend and a couple weeks beyond with more films from the Turkish point of view. Be sure to check in with eCinemaBoston each day for film and schedule information. And don’t forget – coverage of the festival will be a part of Subject:CINEMA‘s “Boston Springs A Fethival” two-show super weekend May 20-21 at eCinemaBoston and parent site eCinemaOne…don’t miss it!
See you with more from BTFF tomorrow morning!