The Italian films participating in the 25th edition of the Istanbul International Film Festival which will take place April 1-16, are : Don’t Tell by Cristina Comencini, presented in Competition, Quo Vadis, Baby? in the section “From the World of Festivals” and Viva Zapatero! by Sabina Guzzanti in the section “Human Rights in Cinema”.
Our cinematography is also greatly represented by 9 co-productions, which include Little Red Flowers by Zhang Yuan, Italy/China co-prodcution, presented In Competition. In the section “From the World of Festivals” are: Hell by Denis Tanovic, Mary by Abel Ferrara, Il Sole by Aleksandr Sokurov and Tickets by Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami and Ken Loach; Gabrielle by Patrice Chéreau and Les Amants Reguliers by Philippe Garrel are to be presented in the section “French Spring”; The Dog and his General by Francis Nielsen and The Merchant of Venice by Michael Radford in their respective sections “Merry-Film-Round” and “Akbank Galas”.
In this year’s edition the Festival pays tribute to two of our cinema’s great masters.
The first tribute is dedicated to Roberto Rossellini on the centennial of his birth and features three of his masterpieces : "Stromboli", "Viaggio in Italia", "Dov’è la libertà"; as well as Isabella Rossellini’s documentary "My dad is 100 years old". The second tribute is dedicated to Vittorio De Seta, who will be present to present 7 of his documentaries, from "Lu tempu di li pisci spata"( 1954 ) to "Pescherecci" (1957).
Finally in the section "Golden Films of 25 Years", a selection of films screened in the past 25 editions of the Turkish festival, we find the screenings of "Il quartetto Basileus" by Fabio Carpi (1981) and the recent Luce co-production 2046 by Wong Kar-Wai.