SHADOWS AND FACES

SHADOWS AND FACES, 2010

Turkey | DCP, Color, 116’ | Turkish

Cast: Buğra Gülsoy, Settar Tanrıöğen, Cihan Tarıman, Osman Alkaş

Shadows and Faces won the award for Best Editing and the Turkish Film Critics’ Association Award in the National Feature Competition at the 47^th International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. The film is the last installment in Derviş Zaim’s trilogy focusing on traditional Turkish arts, which began with Waiting for Heaven and continued with Dot. Based on true events, the film tells the coming-of-age story of a young girl who is separated from her father, a Karagöz shadow puppeteer, at the outbreak of the conflict between Turks and Greeks in 1963 in Cyprus. The background to the escape from ravaged villages to the safer city sheds light on the story of Cyprus itself.

“Of course, Shadows and Faces is not a film that simply recounts the acts of violence that led to the division between the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus in 1963. It tells the universal story of those who are enemies under the same sky, those who find no remedy for their past sufferings and bring these constantly into the present, and those who are unable to see the truth in all its brilliance.” -Alin Taşçıyan