Pera Film brings back the postponed screenings of its "Uğrak" ("The Beaten Path") program as part of the "Istanbuls Today" exhibition, starting on March 15 to meet with cinema enthusiasts. The selection of films, which portrays Istanbul in different roles – sometimes tackling it as a film set, sometimes a prop while occasionally as the protagonist, portraying it as a cultural hub, a place of refuge – can be watched at the Pera Museum auditorium until March 31.
Suna and Inan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum film and video programs unfurl Istanbul's thousands of faces to the audience through the new selection called "Uğrak." The word “uğrak” ("the beaten track"), which is thought to originate from the Turkic-Mongolian language family, means to stop by and go. The word uğrak, transformed over the years to mean to make a temporary stop and to go frequently, allows us to show the films that transform Istanbul into a place of a haunt. The Pera Film selection provides an opportunity to see films that transform Istanbul into a place of refuge – a place of stop-and-go.
Within the scope of the exhibition, the program includes nine film examples from the experimental, documentary and fiction genres.
Director Merlyn Solakhan, who was born in Istanbul, is featured in the program with two films: "The City" from 1983 and "Tongue Twister" from 1984. About "The City," the director elaborates, "I wanted the expression itself, rather than the film, to be the narrator."
In "Tongue Twister," on the other hand, which was featured in the 1986 Berlin Film Festival program, the streets of Istanbul, surrounded by eeriness, are displayed five years after the military coup. The film presents the transformation of the tongue twister into a hesitation through an original aesthetic.
Alain Robbe-Grillet's first directing attempt, "The Immortal," from 1963, focuses on a French man visiting Istanbul who meets a mysterious woman and falls into an inextricable labyrinth as he follows her trail. Istanbul, with its enchanting and surreal stillness, represents the setting of the film.
Mika Kaurismäki's tragicomedy "Zombie and the Ghost Train" from 1991 tells the story of a young musician named Zombie who tries to find a group and a place in the world but gets lost in the flow of life between Istanbul and Helsinki, losing track of reality.
Maurice Pialat's "Turkey Journals" from 1964, which is dedicated to Türkiye's history and people, consists of five short films called "Istanbul Bosporus," "Byzantine," "Golden Horn," "Istanbul," and "Galip Usta." While "Byzantine" is based on a text by writer Stefan Zweig, "Golden Horn" starts from a poem by Gerard de Nerval, and "Galip Usta" progresses based on the poems of Nazım Hikmet.
The "Uğrak" film program is screened at the Pera Museum auditorium until March 31.
