Italian films in Istanbul

The Italian Medfilm Festival opened in Istanbul on Saturday and will showcase 35 films at the Italian Culture Center and Istanbul Modern through Dec. 7.

The aim of the festival is to promote the distribution of Italian films in Turkey and establish a greater cultural understanding between the two countries, said the director of the Italian culture center, Gabriella Fortunato, speaking at a press conference in Istanbul on the weekend.

The Medfilm Festival was created in 1995 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of cinema. With the motto, "Difference is a Value," the main purpose of the festival is to promote cooperation among neighboring countries and establish an intercultural dialogue to deal with social changes taking place in Europe, especially between the two shores of the Mediterranean, through audiovisual media and high quality cinema.

"The films, which for the most part have never been screened in Turkey before, present an open and lively view of key issues regarding Europe and the countries of the Mediterranean," Fortunato said.

This year Turkey and Germany are the guests of honor at the festival. Fortunato said Turkey, a country in the heart of Europe, is the perfect setting to host such a rich variety of features, shorts and documentaries from Italian cinema. The films will be screened in Italian, but will have both Turkish and English subtitles.

After each screening, guests will be asked to write their comments and place them in a box. These comments will then become the basis for discussion at a symposium to be held at the Italian Culture Center on the final day of the festival.

Guest of honor
The guest of honor for the 2008 Istanbul Italian Film festival is acclaimed actress Serra Yılmaz, who was described by Fortunato as, "the mother of the festival." Yılmaz, who is famous for her role in the award-winning film, "Motherland Hotel," said the Medfilm Festival in Istanbul is important because it gives members of the audience who only know Italy through Hollywood films a more realistic glimpse of modern Italy.

Films in the program include "Pa-ra-da" by Marco Pontecorvo; "Il vento fa il suo giro" (The Wind Blows Round) by Giorgio Diritti; "Notturnobus" (Night Bus) by Davide Marengo; "Cover Boy" by Carmine Amoroso; "Il mio miglior nemico" (My Best Enemy) by Carlo Verdone; and "La ragazza del lago" (The Girl by the Lake) by Andrea Molaioli.

Organizers are hoping to make the film festival an annual event in Turkey to increase collaboration between Turkish and Italian filmmakers and audiences.