The third annual Rome Turkish Film Festival (Film Festival Turco di Roma) kicked off on Thursday with a wide attendance of Turkish film industry stars, including Uğur Yücel, Yılmaz Güney's widow Fatoş Güney, Melike Demirağ, Ezgi Mola, Mete Horozoğlu and Şebnem Bozoklu. Director Ferzan Özpetek serves as the honorary chairman of this year's festival which will also highlight a number of classic films shot by the late Yılmaz Güney.
The festival, which opened with actor-director Uğur Yücel's most recent film "Soğuk" (Cold), is also showing Belmin Söylemez's debut feature "Şimdiki Zaman" (Present Tense), Sermiyan Midyat's comedy film "Hükümet Kadın" (Government Mom) and Abdurrahman Öner's short film "Buhar" (Vanished into Blue) as well as a number of recent Turkish film favorites Derviş Zaim's "Devir" (The Circle), Reha Erdem's "Jin," and Hakan Algül's "Eyvah Eyvah".
The Rome Turkish Film Festival, which was launched in 2011 as a joint effort by the Turkish Embassy in Rome, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Turkey's Ministry for EU Affairs, will be held this year under the slogan "'Mamma li Turchi' arrivano con i film!" (Oh mother, the Turks are coming with films!)
