Bridgend
"Bridgend" tells the story of Sara and her father, Dave, who move to a small town in a state called Bridgend. The town is cursed by the suicides of the resident teenagers. As Sara falls in love with Jamie, Dave, the town's newest police officer, tries to stop the suicides. The film focuses on the uncompromising story of sensitive youths and their families. The film is based on mysterious suicides in a town actually named Bridgend in Wales where the main industry is coal mining. From December 2007 to January 2012, 79 suicides were recorded in the area. Most of the deceased were youth who hanged themselves but left no suicide notes behind. Danish documentary director Jeppe Ronde followed the condition of the youths for years before writing the script. "Bridgend" is Ronde's first fictional production. The film was shot in Wales and the actors were real residents in the town.
When: Thursday at 9:30 p.m.
Where: Aspendos Theater
Search Engine
Director Atalay Taşdiken – who gained recognition with his films "Mommo," which won 15 awards at various international festivals, and "Meryem," which won awards in five categories at the 50th International Antalya Festival – returns to the festival this year with "Arama Motoru" (Search Engine). Trying to ironically compare the Anatolian region where everyone looks for something with the technological concept of the search engine, the film is mostly improvised and features real people, not professional actors. "Search Engine" is among the films making their world premiere at the festival.
When: Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Aspendos Theater
The Lobster
The film focuses on a love story in the near past. Lonely people are caught and placed in a hotel. They have to find a partner in 45 days, but if they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and are left in a forest. A desperate man flees from the hotel and takes shelter in the woods. Though it is against the law, there is a place where the lonely people can live and fall in love freely.
When: Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Aspendos Theater
Saul's Son
The film is set in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland in October 1944. Hungarian Saul Auslander is a Jewish prisoner forced to be a sonderkommando – those that aided the Nazis dispose gas chamber victims during the Holocaust. While working at a crematorium, Saul encounters a body that he thinks belongs to his son. Saul decides to complete an impossible mission while the other sonderkommandos plans an uprising. His aim is to save his son's body from the flames and bury it accompanied with prayer in accordance with Jewish traditions.
When: Thursday at 2:45 p.m.
Where: Migros Shopping Mall