Yerevan's Golden Apricot Film Festival kicks off with Turkish 'A-list'

Friday, July 09 2010 21:40 GMT+2


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Yerevan's Golden Apricot Film Festival kicks off with Turkish 'A-list'

Thursday, July 8, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL — Hürriyet Daily news

Armenia’s Golden Apricot Movie Festival readies to celebrate its seventh anniversary this year in Yerevan. Fatih Akın, the world-renowned Turkish-German director, headlines this year’s list of guests. Unlike diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia, the festival demonstrates the continuing warm artistic relations between the two countries


Fatih Akın, the world-renowned Turkish-German director, headlines this year’s list of guests.

Demonstrating once again the fraternal ties between Turkish and Armenian artists that contrast their countries’ political relations, Yerevan’s Golden Apricot Film Festival will open Sunday with a number of international guests, including prominent Turkish directors.

Headlining this year’s seventh edition of the festival is “Honey” (Bal), from Turkish director Semih Kaplanoğlu. The film, which won international plaudits after receiving the Golden Bear award during the prestigious Berlin Film Festival in February, will be shown to Armenian audiences during an exclusive screening at the event.

This year the film festival will also host two honored guests, including Turkish-German director Fatih Akın, as well as Greek director Theo Angelopulos.

The festival, which takes place from July 11 to 18, is dedicated to the anniversaries of two prominent directors of Armenian origin: Arni Verno and Atom Egoyan.

A total of 120 movies will be shown during the seven-day festival. The opening movie will be from Verno, whose movie "Mayrig" (Mother) is being eagerly anticipated by Armenian audiences. The festival will also host Italy’s Claudio Cardinale this year.

Turkey and Armenia dialogue

Even though relations and the protocols being negotiated between Armenia and Turkey have become frozen by the countries’ respective parliaments, artists from both neighbors have continued to pursue friendly ties.

During the last two years, Turkish and Armenian artists have conducted important projects on a variety of artistic levels.

Turkish movies were first screened for Armenian audiences within the framework of the Golden Apricot Film Festival in 2008, while the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, or İKSV, also hosted Armenian directors during the Istanbul Film Festival’s “Meeting the Bridge” movie event.

The Yerevan festival’s art director, Susanna Harutyunyan, said they were still in contact with the Istanbul Film Festival board. “We try to exchange Turkish and Armenian directors.”

Tradition of blessing the apricots

Noting that the festival developed a lot within the past seven years, festival director Mikael Stamboltsyan recently told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the organizers’ aim was to bring world cinema to Yerevan and make the town a center for movie festivals.

“Before this festival, Armenian audiences could not gain access to world cinema, Stamboltsyan said. “It was just a dream for them. With this festival we are not only encouraging Armenian audiences to meet world cinema, but we are also supporting young directors to open to the world.”

As in past years, the festival will begin after a new crop of apricots receives a blessing in a church. Apricots, however, are not the only fruit that will be blessed. During the grape harvest, the Armenian Apostolic Church also blesses other fruits. As grapes are blessed during the second week of August, people also have a “grape fast,” abstaining from eating them until the time of blessing. These celebrations in Armenia come from the pre-Christianity period.

“Seven years ago, when we started to have these celebrations, we decided to start a new tradition with this,” Stamboltsyan said. “We decided that we should also bless the apricots. The apricot is an Armenian fruit. The Latin name of it is ‘Prunus Armeniaca.’”

The festival has hosted many honored guests in the past several years, such as director Egoyan from Canada, Wim Wenders from Germany, Abbas Kirostami from Iran, Catherine Breillat from France, Nikita Mikhalkov from Russia and Goran Paskelevic from Serbia.

More detailed information on the festival is available at www.gaiff.am.