Mission Istanbul to be screened in Eurasia fest in Turkey

ANTALYA: Hindi thriller Mission Istanbul will get a Gala Screening at the forthcoming Fourth International Eurasia Film Festival.

The festival, along with the 45th Golden Orange Film Festival and a film market, are to take place in this picturesque town from 10 to 19 October. The festival is organised by Tursak, the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture.

Directed by Apoorva Lakhia, Mission Istanbul, released in August, stars Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Shriya Saran, Shabir Ahluwalia, and Nikitin Dheer.

Mission Istanbul is the only Asian film to be part of the 11 films that will have Gala Screenings. The films to be screened in the Gala Screenings include Laurent Cantet’s The Class, Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York and Guy Ritchie’s Rock’n Rolla.

British actor Michael will recieve the Honorary Award of the Festival, said Tursak International media co-ordinator Burcu Özgen.

The Festival will open with Italy-based Turkish filmmaker Ferzan Özpetek’s Un Giorno Perfetto.

The films in competition include Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’ Shiva (Seven Days), Hirokazu Kore-edda’s Still Walking, Christian Petzold’s Jerichow, Bohdan Slama’s The Country Teacher, Rashid Masharawi’s Laila’s Birthday, among others.

The films in the Critics Jury category include Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir, Ole Christian Madsen’s Flame and Citron, Russian Helmer Vladimir Kott’s Mukha and Daniel Burman’s Empty Nest.

The festival will have a special screening of Destiny to pay homage to the Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine who passed away on 27 July this year.

The festival will also include a selection of films of historical importance restored by the World Cinema Foundation presided by filmmaker Martin Scorsese, championing the cause of preserving the cinema heritage of developing countries and rejuvenating films of historical prominence left to the mercy of time. The films include Ahmed El Mannouni’s Transes and Djibril Diop Mambety’s Touki Bouki, Metin Erksan’s Dry Summer and Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin‘s Dry Summer.

The section devoted to documentary films will feature a selection of this year‘s sensational titles. Nathan Rissman‘s I am because We are, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s I want to see are some of the films that will be screened in this section.