Festival Films of the 37th Munich Turkish Film Days, 17 - 26 April 2026
Festival Opening
UÇURTMAYI VURMASINLAR
DON’T LET THEM SHOOT THE KITE
Turkey, 1989 | Drama | 90 min. | Turkish with German subtitles
Director: Tunç Başaran. Cast: Nur Sürer, Ozan Bilen, Füsun Demirel, et al.
Based on the novel by Feride Çiçekoğlu, this landmark of Turkish cinema portrays the extraordinary bond between a woman and a child under extreme circumstances. Told through the eyes of five-year-old Barış, the film depicts life inside a Turkish women’s prison after the 1980 military coup, where he lives with his incarcerated mother. In this oppressive world, Barış forms a moving friendship with İnci, a political prisoner portrayed by Nur Sürer, whose enduring humanity has made her one of the most powerful female figures in Turkish cinema.
Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspielhaus
Friday, 17.04.26
Admission: 6:00 p.m. – Beginning: 7:00 p.m.
BURADAYIM, İYİYİM
I’M HERE, I’M FINE
Turkey, 2025 | Drama | 100 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Emine Emel Balcı. Cast: Bige Önal, Elit İşcan, Görkem Mertsöz, et al.
Filiz, a young real estate agent, struggles with postnatal depression after the birth of her son and feels overwhelmed by the pressure to be a “good” mother. Longing to reclaim a sense of autonomy, she decides to buy a car of her own. During her search, she meets Şule, a young woman trying to escape her abusive boyfriend. Gradually, a bond of solidarity forms between them, helping both women confront their fears and navigate their fragile circumstances.
Royal Filmpalast
Saturday, 18.04.26, 3:00 pm
HEMME’NİN ÖLDÜĞÜ GÜNLERDEN BİRİ
ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHEN HEMME DIES
Turkey, 2024 | Drama | 84 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Murat Fıratoğlu. Cast: Murat Fıratoğlu, Sefer Fıratoğlu, Salih Taşçı, et al.
With his feature debut, Murat Fıratoğlu returns to his hometown of Siverek in southeastern Turkey, taking on the lead role alongside a cast of local non-professional actors. The film follows Eyüp, a farm laborer weighed down by debt from his time in İzmir. Hoping to earn quick money, he joins the tomato harvest, but when the wages never come, a confrontation with his foreman leaves him adrift. As he wanders the streets in search of escape, the story unfolds through chance encounters, moving at the slow rhythm of a sweltering summer day and capturing a quiet sense of resignation.
Royal Filmpalast
Saturday, 18.04.26, 5:30 pm
PERDE
CURTAIN
Turkey, 2025 | Drama, Comedy | 84 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Özkan Çelik. Cast: Tülin Özen, Cem Zeynel Kılıç, Faruk Barman, et al.
Samet invites his friends over to celebrate his promotion to general manager. While feeding the cats outside the building before heading upstairs, he accidentally sees the woman living on the ground floor undressing. Panicked when she notices him, he flees — and the building’s doorman is unjustly blamed for the incident.
Zeynep, Samet’s wife, has always defended the doorman in conversations with her friends, insisting on fairness and integrity. But when she discovers that Samet is the real culprit, she faces a moral dilemma: will she stand by her principles, or will she choose to protect her own interests?
Royal Filmpalast
Sunday, 19.04.26, 3:30 pm
ÖLDÜRDÜĞÜN ŞEYLER
THE THINGS YOU KILL
France, Poland, Canada, Turkey 2025 | Drama, Thriller | 115 min. | Turkish with English subtitles.
Director: Alireza Khatami. Cast: Ekin Koç, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil, Hazar Ergüçlü, Ercan Kesal et al..
A haunting tale of patriarchal power and the desire to break free.
Ali, a literature lecturer, is deeply troubled by the neglect his mother suffers at the hands of his father. After her sudden death, he joins forces with the enigmatic gardener Reza to seek revenge. Yet he soon finds himself lost in a hypnotic maze where identities blur and reality fractures. As painful truths emerge, Ali must confront the darkness within himself.
This complex psychological thriller by Iranian director Alireza Khatami was submitted by Canada as Best International Film for the 2026 Academy Awards.
Royal Filmpalast
Sunday, 19.04.26, 5:30 pm
TAVŞAN İMPARATORLUĞU
EMPIRE OF THE RABBITS
Turkey, 2024 | Drama | 96 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Seyfettin Tokmak. Cast: Alpay Kaya, Kubilay Tunçer, Sermet Yeşil, et al.
Empire of the Rabbits is a melancholic tale of childhood. Twelve-year-old Musa lives with his father, Beko, who earns his living supplying rabbits for the village’s greyhound races. After each race, Musa gathers the survivors, buries the dead, and nurses the injured in an abandoned mine — a hidden refuge where he can briefly feel like a child. When Beko learns that families of children with disabilities receive state support, he forces Musa to feign disability to claim the benefit. As this deception turns into a deeper nightmare, Musa begins a quiet rebellion to reclaim both his childhood and his rabbits.
Royal Filmpalast
Sunday, 19.04.26, 8:00 pm
PSYCHO THERAPY: THE SHALLOW TALE OF A WRITER WHO DECIDED TO WRITE ABOUT A SERIAL KILLER
SAYKOTERAPI: BİR SERİ KATİL HAKKINDA YAZMAYA KARAR VEREN YAZARIN SIĞ HİKAYESİ
USA, Turkey 2025 | Drama, Comedy | 102 min. | English with Turkish subtitles
Director: Tolga Karaçelik. Cast: Steve Buscemi, John Magaro, Britt Lower, et al.
Keane, a struggling writer in the midst of a divorce, befriends a peculiar man named Kollmick, who claims to be both Keane’s biggest fan and a retired serial killer. What begins as an unlikely encounter soon takes an even stranger turn: Kollmick persuades a very drunk Keane to write about him and, after meeting Keane’s wife Suzie, unexpectedly assumes the role of marriage counselor. As Keane becomes increasingly entangled in Kollmick’s unsettling charm, the retired killer also steps into a new position — serving as a “killing consultant” for Keane’s next book.
An outstanding dark comedy featuring famous actors such as Steve Buscemi, Britt Lower and John Magaro. The Guardian described it as „a hidden gem of a film“.
Royal Filmpalast
Monday, 20.04.26, 8:00 pm
İDEA
Turkey, 2025 | Drama, Thriller | 94 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Tayfun Pirselimoğlu. Cast: Tarhan Karagöz, Nalan Kurucim, Jale Arıkan, Ercan Kesal, et al.
Kemal takes on a new job guarding the aging country estate of a shadowy businessman. One day, on his way back from the city, he finds a book left behind on the bus and absentmindedly begins to read it. Soon, however, he senses that something has shifted. Strange figures claiming ties to the state begin to appear, accusing Kemal of being the leader of a clandestine organization called İDEA. As the net around him tightens, the boundaries between reality and fiction dissolve with increasing intensity.
Royal Filmpalast
Tuesday, 21.04.26, 8:00 pm
O DA BİR ŞEY Mİ
AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW
Turkey, 2025 | Drama | 114 min. | Turkish with German subtitles
Director: Pelin Esmer. Cast: Timuçin Esen, Merve Asya Özgür, Nur Sürer, Mehmet Kurtuluş, et al.
When renowned director Levent visits the Söke Film Festival, he is unaware of Aliye, a young hotel employee who quietly observes him from the margins. Fascinated by his work, Aliye begins crafting and recording an imagined version of her life, gradually drawing Levent into her captivating stories. Ultimately, both are forced to choose between reality and fiction.
Royal Filmpalast
Wednesday, 22.04.26, 8:00 pm
BÖLÜK PÖRÇÜK: BİR TUNCEL KURTİZ BİYOGRAFİSİ
ALL OVER THE PLACE: A PORTRAIT OF TUNCEL KURTIZ
Turkey 2025 | Documentary | 86 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Özcan Alper. Featuring: Erkan Can, Nur Sürer, Halit Ergenç, Cansu Dere, Şevval Sam, Fatih Akın, Berkay Ateş, Nursel Köse, Reis Çelik, Menderes Samancılar
Through testimonies and archival footage, this documentary presents the first comprehensive exploration of Tuncel Kurtiz’s multifaceted artistic career. Working across cinema, theatre, and television for over fifty years in several countries, Kurtiz received numerous accolades, including the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Beyond portraying a remarkable artist who moved fluidly between genres and styles, the film also sheds light on Turkey’s turbulent recent history and the experience of exile that shaped his life.
Royal Filmpalast
Thursday, 23.04.26, 6:00 pm
ERKEN KIŞ
EARLY WINTER
Turkey 2025 | Drama | 92 min. | Turkish, Georgian with English subtitles
Director: Özcan Alper. Cast: Timuçin Esen, Leyla Tanlar et al.
A poignant drama about the search for home in a fractured world. Lia, a Ukrainian woman living in Georgia, comes to Istanbul as a surrogate mother for Ferhat and Handan. When the newborn Ada requires six months of breastfeeding, Lia remains with the family — and an unexpected bond forms between her and the child. Unable to accept this closeness, Handan asks Ferhat to take Lia back to Georgia. Their journey along the Black Sea coast gradually brings the two strangers closer, raising profound questions about motherhood, belonging, and what it truly means to call a place “home.”
Royal Filmpalast
Thursday, 23.04.26, 8:00 pm
DJ AHMET
North Macedonia, Czechia, Serbia, Croatia 2025 | Drama, Comedy | 99 min. | Turkish with German subtitles
Director: Georgi M. Unkovski. Cast: Arif Jakup, Dora Aka Zlatanova, Agush Agushev et al.
In rural North Macedonia, among Turkish-speaking Yörük communities, fifteen-year-old Ahmet declares his freedom through the bass-heavy music blasting from his tractor. His strict father tries to silence his passion, but everything changes when Aya, visiting from Germany, enters his life. Bound by tradition yet driven by music and first love, Ahmet begins searching for his own path. Blending youthful rebellion with subtle dark humor, the film portrays two young people striving to claim their place in the world.
Royal Filmpalast
Friday, 24.04.26, 6:00 pm
KARDEŞ TÜRKÜLER İLE 30 YIL
30 YEARS WITH SONGS OF FRATERNITY
Turkey, Germany 2025 | Documentary | 108 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Directors: Çayan Demirel, Ayşe Çetinbaş
This documentary tells the 30-year story of Kardeş Türküler, a project that began in 1993 within the Folklore Club of Boğaziçi University. By bringing together diverse musical traditions of Anatolia, the collective became a symbol of cultural coexistence and the belief that languages and identities cannot be divided by borders. Through memorable stage encounters — from Hrant Dink to Neşet Ertaş, from Sezen Aksu to Arto Tunçboyacıyan — the film sensitively explores the unifying power of music and its dialogue with Turkey’s recent history.
Royal Filmpalast
Friday, 24.04.26, 8:00 pm
TRAUGOTT
Turkey 2024 | Documentary | 46 min. | German with English subtitles
Director: Dirk Schäfer
What remains of a person after death? Traugott Fuchs’s gravestone in Istanbul’s Feriköy Protestant Cemetery marks a life that bridges German and Turkish history. Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1934, he settled in Istanbul, where he taught German literature for nearly fifty years. After his death in 1997, thousands of personal documents and artworks were discovered in his apartment, forming the basis of an archive at the Orient-Institut Istanbul. Drawing on this material, the documentary sketches an intimate portrait of a life shaped by exile, intellectual devotion, and unfulfilled love.
Gasteig HP8, Projektor
Saturday, 25.04.26, 2:30 pm
YERLİ YURTSUZ
ROOTLESS RESIDENT
Turkey 2025 | Documentary | 61 min. | Armenian, Kurdish, Turkish with German subtitles
Director: Rıza Oylum
This documentary follows Yervant Demirci, a blacksmith from Derik, as he navigates Armenian, Turkish, and Kurdish identity across Turkey and Armenia. His path moves from Kurdish to Turkish and finally toward Armenian, as he seeks to reclaim a mother tongue he never fully learned. Crossing two countries and three cities, he confronts the labels that define him as both “Kurdish-Armenian” and “Turkish-Armenian.” Against shifting historical landscapes, Rootless Resident becomes a meditation on belonging, where language and memory shape one man’s search for home.
Gasteig HP8, Projektor
Saturday, 25.04.26, 4:00 pm
KEÇİ501
GOAT501
Turkeyi 2025 | Documentary | 70 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Evrim Çervatoğlu
A poetic docu-drama set in the Eastern Black Sea highlands follows Cengiz, a solitary shepherd living within a timeless natural cycle. Beginning with the birth of a goat and ending one year later with the birth of her offspring, the film traces more than the life of a herd. As others care for the animals for profit, Cengiz lives outside the logic of money and society, gradually merging with the landscape itself. In the end, he becomes Goat No. 501. GOAT501 unfolds as a quiet meditation on nature, simplicity, and belonging.
Gasteig HP8, Projektor
Saturday, 25.04.26, 6:00 pm
GÖNÜLLÜ
THE VOLUNTEER
Canada, Turkey 2025 | Documentary | 77 min. | Turkish, English with English subtitles
Director: Münire Armstrong, Gelareh Kiazand
This documentary chronicles the story of the We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP) and its relentless pursuit of justice for victims of femicide in Turkey. Following the court case seeking the dissolution of the organization, the film sheds light on the determination and courage of the volunteers who support families in femicide trials. Through their tireless efforts, The Volunteer offers a powerful portrait of solidarity and resistance, foregrounding the ongoing struggle for women’s rights.
Gasteig HP8, Projektor
Saturday, 25.04.26, 8:00 pm
ROMAN GİBİ
LIKE A NOVEL
Turkey 2024 | Documentary | 62 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Tayfun Belet
This documentary traces the lives of journalists Sabiha and Zekeriya Sertel, who devoted themselves to press freedom and endured persecution throughout Turkey’s turbulent history, ultimately dying in exile.
For years, Sabiha’s story remained silenced within her own family. Through the book Like a Novel, her niece Nur Deriş uncovers this buried past. The film follows her search, revealing a personal history intertwined with Turkey’s collective memory. Like a Novel becomes a journey into a silenced generation and a denied era.
Gasteig HP8, Projektor
Saturday, 25.04.26, 8:00 pm
BİR GARİP RÜYA RENGİ
A STRANGE COLOUR OF DREAM
Turkey 2024 | Documentary | 73 min. | Turkish with English Subtitles
Director: Yasemin Akıncı
Ertil, the director’s grandfather and a retired architect, lives in Istanbul, where he continues to dream of modernizing Turkey. Each day, he works on his imagined 3D projects as the city around him transforms at breakneck speed. For the past ten years, filmmaker Yasemin Akıncı has documented his struggle to prevent his building from being demolished. As new structures rise, the gap between Ertil’s vision and the changing reality widens — mirroring the growing tension between memory and oblivion, dreams and destruction.
Gasteig HP8, Projektor
Sunday, 26.04.26, 4:00 pm
GÖRÜNÜR GÖRÜNMEZ: BİR (OTO)SANSÜR ANTOLOJİSİ
SEEN UNSEEN: AN ANTHOLOGY OF (AUTO)CENSORSHIP
Turkey 2024 | Documentary | 66 min. | Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Fırat Yücel, Erhan Örs, Hakan Bozyurt, Can Memiş, Sibil Çekmen, Nadir Sönmez, Serra Akcan, belit sağ
This uncompromising documentary explores repression and its impact on artistic creation through rare first-hand material. Behind ever-rising walls, filmmakers and artists from Turkey confront a pressing question: to show or not to show? The documentary unites six works into a collective reflection on censorship and self-censorship. Drawing on unrealized projects, interviews, prison inscriptions, unpublished images, and unsent letters, the film addresses taboo subjects including political activism, imprisonment, homosexuality, and ethnic conflict.
Gasteig HP8, Projektor
Sunday, 26.04.26, 6:30 pm
8 SHORT FILMS competing for the Audience Award
Gasteig HP8, Projektor
Sunday, 26.04.26, 8:00 pm
1-DANK
Turkey 2024 | Short Film | 16 min. | Turkish, w/ English subtitles
Director: Tuvana Simin Günay. Cast: Ecem Gündoğan, Kayhan Açıkgöz
When Nergis, moved by pity for the porter carrying a washing machine into her home, lets her kindness go a step too far, what begins as a simple exchange turns into an unexpectedly intimate — and increasingly tense — conversation between them.
2-ALIS
Turkey 2025 | Short Film | 17 min. | Armenian, Turkish w/ English subtitles
Director: Beril Tan. Cast: Deniz Türkali, Şebnem Sönmez, Ceren Taşçı etc.
Alis, an Armenian woman living alone in Turkey, returns to her summer house as she has every year. This time, however, she finds her surroundings vanishing. Urban redevelopment threatens to demolish her building. Planting her plastic umbrella firmly into the ground, Alis begins a quiet yet unwavering act of resistance.
3-AİLE YEMEĞİ – FAMILY DINNER
Turkey 2025 | Short Film, Animation | 3 min. | No dialogue.
Director: Tuğçe Sönmez
Mom, Dad, the children, and Grandma gather around the table for dinner. Everything seems perfectly ordinary. Until the food is served.
4-KUDRET
Turkey 2025 | Short Film | 14 min. | Turkish w/ English subtitles
Director: Mehmet Oğuz Yıldırım. Cast: Fırat Kaymak, Süleyman Kadim Kabaali, Orkun Huylu, Ömer Oduncu
Kudret leads a quiet, solitary life with his dog in the industrial workshop where he works as a night security guard. Their fragile peace is shattered when a neighborhood thug turns his violence against both Kudret and his loyal companion.
5- CENNETSİZ – WITHOUT HEAVEN
Turkey 2025 | Short Film | 15 min. | Turkish w/ English subtitles
Director: Merve Bozcu. Cast: Meltem Gürlevik, Elçin Atamgüç
When Deniz (34) confronts her mother about the abuse that has haunted her since adolescence, she begins to realize that her mother carries a burden of her own.
6- KRALİÇE – THE QUEEN
Turkey 2025 | Short Film | 14 min. | Turkish w/ English subtitles
Director: Deniz Uymaz. Cast: Süreyya Kilimci, Nizam Namidar, Ece Yaşar, Naz Göktan, Fatma Çelik
The authoritarian matriarch of a traditional Turkish family is forced to confront shifting values within her own household as she struggles to prevent her eldest daughter’s divorce.
7- GARAN
Turkey 2024 | Short Film | 20 min. | Kurdish, Turkish w/ English subtitles
Director: Mahsum Taşkın. Cast: Yavuz Akkuzu, Savaş Işık, Sami Demir etc.
At the border dividing two countries, a helpless man’s hope slowly gives way to the fear of irreversible loss.
8- OTEL – THE HOTEL
Turkey 2025 | Short Film | 11 min. | No dialogue.
Director: Halil Tanışan. Cast: Erdem Şenocak
A man arrives at a desolate hotel, its eerie silence pressing in on him like a quiet warning. As he moves through the dimly lit corridors, he finds no trace of life — only a solitary, untouched meal waiting in the dining room.
