Much like the US has Hollywood, with the neighbourhood and its once-flourishing film studios lending its name to the industry, Yeşilçam is the metonym that has stuck to Turkish cinema. Literally meaning Green Pine, it’s also the name of the Istanbul thoroughfare, Yeşilçam Street, that traditionally housed its filmmaking hub.
In honour of that beautiful image, here are some of the most rewarding films that unfurl like green shoots from the SBS On Demand .
The Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Agaci)
Gifted Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan picked up the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2014 for , his startling take on Anton Chekhov’s novella, The Wife. His next feature, 2018’s The Wild Pear Tree, also bowed at Cannes. While it didn’t scoop up the Palme d’Or this time, it’s nonetheless mesmerising and funny with it. Set in the coastal town of Çanakkale, it follows Aydin Doğu Demirkol’s irksomely confident, somewhat hapless aspiring author as he battles the unlikeliness of his chosen career in a meandering voyage that’s nevertheless endlessly engrossing. A witty and wise musing on the meaning of art and the perils of human folly.
The Wild Pear Tree is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
The Wild Pear Tree
drama • 2018
drama • 2018
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da)
For many, Ceylan’s true masterpiece is this 2011 Palme d’Or-nominated gem (sensing a pattern?) that took home the Grand Prize of the Jury from Cannes. Essentially a noirish crime drama in which two prisoners (Firat Tanis’ Kenan and Burhan Yildiz’ Ramazan) are marched out by frustrated cops into the darkness of the Anatolian steppe to reveal the final resting spot of the man they murdered. Only despite the gravity of their actions, they can’t quite remember where it took place. Gorgeously shot by Ceylan’s regular cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki, it’s occasionally a pitch-black (often literally) comedy, but one that is also a devastating portrait of crime and punishment and our darkest moments.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia
drama • 2011
drama • 2011
Watchtower (Gözetleme Kulesi)
Pelin Esmer’s deeply personal, hybrid docufiction film 10 to 11 (2009), which starred her late Uncle Mithat, and her affecting strangers on a train drama Something Useful (2017) were both lauded at her hometown cinematic showcase, the Istanbul Film Festival. Her haunting follow-up, Watchtower, takes us far from that teeming city and into the quiet majesty of Dipsizgöl’s volcanic mountains to the east. Olgun Şimşek plays Nihat, a fire warden perched in the outpost of the title, where he hopes to escape the aftermath of a tragic accident in quiet contemplation. But his solace finds company upon meeting Nilay Erdönmez’s similarly emotionally wounded tour guide while stocking up in the local village.
Watchtower is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Watchtower
drama • 2012
drama • 2012
Honey (Bal)
Semih Kaplanoğlu cut his teeth in the advertising industry before switching lanes into cinema, bringing that clarity of storytelling with him and his somewhat brave sideline in film criticism. The third in his childhood trilogy – beginning with Egg and continuing with Milk – Honey is a beautiful portrait of a father’s love, as Yakup (Erdal Besikçioglu) clambers up vast trees to harvest the wild honey that keeps him and his beloved, stuttering son Yusuf (Bora Altas) and wife Zehra (Tülin Özen) in meagre coin. But when he doesn’t return one day, the young lad’s world is upturned in this engrossingly internal film about discovering oneself.
Honey is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Honey
drama • 2010
drama • 2010
Dormitory (Yurt)
Landing direct from this year’s Venice Film Festival, where it docked in the Horizons sidebar, Nehir Tuna’s fascinating debut feature marks the emergence of an impressive new voice. Shot in black and white and set in 1997, it’s a tumultuous period of great change for the continent-spanning country increasingly bending to the hardline vision of future President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (at this point Mayor of Istanbul), with Doğa Karakaş as 14-year-old Ahmet, who attends a secular, Western-style school by day, but is boarded overnight in an Islamic dormitory by his increasingly pious Muslim father. Facing considerable abuse in this place, the young lad feels increasingly torn between worlds. Which way will he turn?
Dormitory is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Dormitory
drama • 2024
drama • 2024
Snow and the Bear (Kar ve Ayi)
Ankara-born Selcen Ergun is an alum of the emerging filmmaker program Berlinale Talents, with her debut feature Snow and the Bear going on to debut at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in 2022. She casts Merve Dizdar as a nurse from the big city who is posted to a remote village on the border with Georgia. Frozen in time and eternal snow, it’s a place riven with ingrained conflicts so deep and closely guarded that when a man goes missing, he’s all too easily written off as the victim of a bear attack. But who are the real predators here? Look out for a fleeting moment of famous Turkish director Metin Erksan’s 1965 classic Time to Love (Sevmek Zamani) playing on TV in the background.
Snow and the Bear is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Snow and the Bear
drama • 2022
drama • 2022
Brother’s Keeper (Okul Tıraşı)
Hailing from the eastern city of Muş, which is prone to foggy morns, Kurdish director Ferit Karahan picked up the FIPRESCI prize for his third feature, which appeared in the Panorama sidebar during the online-only lockdown edition of the 2021 Berlinale. Sharing some similarities with Dormitory, it’s also set in a punishingly bleak boarding school where Yusuf (Samet Yildiz) struggles to get help for his ailing friend Memo (Nurullah Alaca) after the later falls distressingly ill following an unnecessarily brutal punishment meted out in the communal showers by a vicious teacher. But the damage done here is deeper, in a film that shines an unflinching light on the attempted erasure of Kurdish culture in Turkey.
Brother’s Keeper is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Brother's Keeper
drama • 2021
drama • 2021
The Law of the Border (Hudutların Kanunu)
A prolific luminary of the energising Turkish New Wave, the late Lütfi Ömer Akad has left an indelible mark on Yeşilçam. He casts similarly non-stop working-class polymath and Kurdish hero Yilmaz Güney – who went on to become a revered director himself, was imprisoned while continuing to work on his films and then escaped and entered political exile in Paris – as the lead of this impactful black and white adaptation of his own novel. Güney plays a charismatic if impoverished farmer who turns to smuggling sheep across the border to eke out a living that will support his young son in the face of a monstrously explosive regime.
The Law of the Border is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
The Law of the Border
