Turkish cinema is... well, what is it? To be honest, there are only a few cinematic products from the Middle Eastern country. There are arthouse productions like MUSTANG and controversial surprise hits like VALLEY OF THE WOLVES. In the genre, on the other hand, you keep hearing about the SICCLIN series... and Can Evrenol. In cinematic fan circles, the only name that remains is that of the director, who was born in Istanbul in 1982. He was initially referred to as the "director of BASKIN". But that falls far too short.
Evrenol has been making short films since the mid-2000s. Initially strongly influenced by experimentation, he soon developed his own style. Nevertheless, his influences are clear. Lynch can already be identified as an inspiration in SCREWS (2006), and in KAVAL (2007) he also explores the possibilities of nightmarish aesthetics. Initially predominantly monochrome, color creeps into his films from 2008 onwards. But finally, TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER is where things really pop. In his short film from 2010, Evrenol refers to HIGH TENSION in a very clear and high-quality way and incorporates LOVECRAFT elements. The discomfort that has always been present in his films is now given concrete images. This variety of genre film thrilled film festivals around the world until Eli Roth's short film BASKIN was screened in Sitges in 2013... and the rest is history.
The feature film adaptation is Evrenol's breakthrough, a huge festival hit and at the same time a film with a clear signature. The world marveled at the brute birth of a filmmaker who takes on a chauvinistic police gang.
into literal hell. Peppered with religious symbolism, his film is also a dissecting knife for social norms.
To see BASKIN as a prototype for an Evrenol film, however, ignores the director's great variability. With HOUSEWIFE (2018), Lovecraft crawls back into his work. Just two years later, he made perhaps the most unusual film of his career. GIRL WITH NO MOUTH (2019) is a post-apocalyptic family story in which a girl encounters other maimed children and fights her way through an inhospitable world with them.
Although he discreetly turns away from the genre here, he remains true to it. Children and women play important roles in his oeuvre. They are not victims, they are not only defined by their husbands or fathers, but are underestimated in society. Similarly underestimated as SAYARA, which is nothing less than a primal force. SAYARA is a brutal screen spectacle with a political substructure that needs to be examined. And yet: here, too, a trail leads back to its early phase. In 2013, Evrenol shot a promotional clip for MATA LEON that anticipates SAYARA... as always: just a little differently.
If you look at his work as a whole, there is only one conclusion: Evrenol is a very special filmmaker. You should never underestimate him (or his protagonists).
CAN EVRENOL'S FILMS AT THIS YEAR'S FILMFEST
SAYARA
Friday, April 11, 2024 | 6:00 pm
Rarely have guys been wished to die like this: after her sister is abused by rich machos, Sayara goes on a bloody vendetta. The FSK won't like it. We do.
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TUR 2024 | 98 minutes
GIRL WITH NO MOUTH
Saturday, April 12, 2024 | 3:30 pm
In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of children born with deformities must escape the merciless hunters of the powerful Corporation. A children's adventure movie for adults!
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TUR 2019 | 97 minutes
BASKIN
Sunday, April 13, 2024 | 3:00 pm
Welcome to hell! The assignment of five police officers in a dilapidated house somewhere in the middle of nowhere turns into a gruesomely gory trip into a bizarre limbo full of violence and death.
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TUR 2015 | 97 minutes
