Entertainment Industry

High Presents Turkish Film Series in October
Discovering Turkish Cinema

ATLANTA, September 6, 2007 – The High Museum of Art presents the Discovering Turkish Cinema film series on October 5 and October 14. This two-weekend series explores the complications of romantic love and the hunger for happiness that often proves elusive in relationships. The films, “Destiny (Kader)” and “Climates (Iklilmer),” are modern, minimalist works that draw strong visual parallels between their characters' environments and their inner lives.

“Now in our third year of Discovering Turkish Cinema, we are pleased to present these extraordinary examples of Turkish filmmaking,” said Linda Dubler, Curator of Media Arts at the High. “These two films gracefully and powerfully describe love and connection through the struggles of complex characters.”

Discovering Turkish Cinema opens on Friday, October 5, with Zeki Demirkubuz’s “Destiny,” winner of nine major film festival awards including Best Actor and Best Director at the Istanbul International Film Festival. “Destiny” is the story of Bekir, the quiet, nerdy son of a carpet seller, who falls for Ugur, a flirtatious girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Bekir’s feelings for Ugur are rivaled only by Ugur’s feelings for another man, a murderer serving time in prison. The film follows the pair through their lives, which are rife with misplaced passions and wrong turns, examining how one-sided infatuation draws them across countries and ultimately, farther apart.

A 2006 Cannes Film Festival selection, “Climates” closes the series on Sunday, October 14, at 5 p.m. This emotionally charged, visually stunning drama from award-winning actor/director Nuri Bilge Ceylan follows Isa and Bahar as their marriage falls apart on a Mediterranean vacation. From the sunny Riviera to the snowy mountains of eastern Turkey, the film tracks the couple’s next steps, following Isa as he tries to win back Bahar. The Village Voice’s J. Hoberman wrote that “‘Climates’ confirms 47-year-old Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan as one the world’s most accomplished filmmakers—handling the end of a relationship and the cloud of human confusion rising from its wreckage as if the subject had never before been attempted.”

Film Series Schedule
All films are screened at 8 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) in the Richard H. Rich Theatre, located in the Memorial Arts Building, adjacent to the High at Peachtree and 15th Streets in Midtown Atlanta. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles. These films are not appropriate for children.

“Destiny”
Friday, October 5
8 p.m., Rich Theatre

“Climates”
Sunday, October 14
5 p.m., Rich Theatre

Support
Discovering Turkish Cinema is organized by Linda Dubler, Curator of Media Arts at the High Museum of Art, and is co-sponsored by the Atlanta Turkish Arts Council and the Turkish American Cultural Association of Georgia. 35mm projection facilities in the Rich Auditorium were provided by a gift from George Lefont.

Tickets
Tickets can be purchased in advance by visiting the Woodruff Arts Center box office or by calling 404-733-5000. Admission prices are $5 for the public, $4 for Museum members, students and seniors. Patron-level members enter free. Tickets may also be purchased at the door on the night of the screening.

Film Information
The public may call the High’s film hotline at 404-733-4570 for up-to-the-minute information about visiting directors, receptions, changes or cancellations and a free subscription to the quarterly film calendar. The Museum’s website is www.High.org.

High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, is the leading art museum in the southeastern United States. With more than 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High Museum of Art has an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American and decorative art; significant holdings of European paintings; a growing collection of African American art; and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography and African art. The High is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the only major museum in North America to have a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of folk and self-taught art. The High’s Media Arts department produces acclaimed annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic cinema. In November 2005, the High opened three new buildings by architect Renzo Piano that more than doubled the Museum’s size, creating a vibrant “village for the arts” at the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown Atlanta. For more information about the High, please visit www.High.org.

The High Museum of Art is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, which also includes the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Young Audiences and the 14th Street Playhouse.

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This release was provided to GDEcD by the High Museum.