The 24th Adana Film Festival continues until Sunday with a rich line-up. The festival is screening highlights of the year, both local and foreign productions.
Having won Sofia Coppola the Best Director award at this year's Cannes Film Festival, "The Beguiled," a remake of Don Siegel's 1971 film, tells the story of a wounded soldier found by a young girl in the woods who takes him to her all-girls school. The film features Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst in the lead roles. Farrell, the wounded soldier, is treated by the head of the school, Kidman, and the girls. Starting with courtesy and mutual respect, the relationship between the soldier and the female residents of the school turns into a violent conflict when love, desire and finally fear come into play.
Another foreign film, "The Killing of a Sacred Deer," directed by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, is quite a striking thriller-drama with a unique theme. Surprisingly, Colin Farrell and Nichole Kidman also share the lead roles in this film. Farrell plays a cardiologist who had problems with alcoholism in the past. The son of a patient who died on the operating table inserts himself into the doctor's family's life, seeking revenge. He has strong sway over the children, which leads them to a kind of illness in which they can't use their legs and stop eating. The doctor must kill his wife, his daughter or son to end the pain.
As for Turkish films, "Murtaza," directed by Özgür Sevimli and featuring veteran actor Cezmi Baskın and actress Meral Çetinkaya in the lead roles has wonderful cinematography in a heart-wrenching story. Murtaza and Sabure are an elderly married couple that live in a mountain village away from the city of Malatya. Murtaza takes care of his blind wife. It is obvious that he feels somewhat ashamed, as their marriage resulted from his rape of Sabure, and he seems to be trying to compensate, in vain, for her unhappy life. They have a daughter and a son who live in Istanbul. After a phone call, Murtaza goes to Istanbul to see his daughter Selvi just to find out if she is on her deathbed. He insists on not telling Sabure of Selvi's death. While struggling to survive, he keeps the truth from his wife.
The long-awaited film from award-winning director Semih Kaplanoğlu, "The Grain," will make its Turkish premiere at the festival after its world premiere at the recently held Sarajevo Film Festival. Produced in English over five years, the film features Jean-Marc Barr, Ermin Bravo, Grigory Dobrygin and Cristina Flutur in the lead roles. Highly praised by critics and audiences, the film depicts the journey of two scientists, Cemil Akman and Professor Suat Erin, an expert in seed genetics. The two men travel to an area that is known as the "dead soil."