Ercan Kesal

The Things You Kill

Haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, Ali, a university professor coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance. As long-buried family secrets resurface, the police tighten their noose, and doubts begin eroding his conscience, Ali has no choice but to look into the abyss of his own soul.

Such Things Don’t Happen in This World

Recep, once mentioned to have a good job and life in Ankara, is forced to return to his village due to psychological issues. In the village, he exhibits strange, erratic behavior. His father feels ashamed and secretly fearful alongside his anger towards his son. One night, after waking from a nightmare where his son kills him, the father gets up and looks out the window, realizing in the most painful way that his fears were unfounded.

The Reeds

Set in a village in Anatolia at the foothills of the mountains, portraying the story of the resistance of a young man, Ali, against the domination of landlords and local gangs, striving to win back his wife’s love and affection.

Hopeful Dark Journey

Yılmaz is a civil servant. There are two months until his retirement. His only dream is to build a house on his ‘little piece of land’. However, will the trouble his son Fırat who suddenly turned up without notice in the middle of the night, got himself in take away Yılmaz’s dream?

Paperflower

Remzi, a controlling and powerful businessman, is in disagreement with his son, Baha, about their family business. During their arguments, their differences surface up, and Remzi is not willing to solve these differences by talking.

The Criminals

Late at night in a small Turkish town, a young couple tries to find a hotel room to spend the night together. They are rejected from all hotels for not having a marriage certificate. Once they believe they’ve found a trick to use, the situation gets out of hand.

Love Me Instead

Accompanied by a ward, a prisoner travels to his hometown to reconnect with his daughter and make amends, but a tragic truth mars his journey.

You Know Him

Doctor Kemal is head of a private hospital, is ambitious and has the best intentions for the residents of Istanbul. He is the best candidate for mayor of the Beyoglu district – in his opinion. An opinion not shared by his sceptical ex-wife; nor by the voters who come to eat and drink at his expense; nor the party leader, who even after several meetings still thinks he's an architect rather than a doctor; not even his faithful chauffeur. The slogan 'the doctor has the cure' might be catchy, but the doctor has little clue how sick the climate of political nepotism really is.

Kısmet

A young girl's bargaining with her father to marry whoever she wants will cause her family to reveal their hidden dirty laundry.

9,75

During his military service in 1990's Southeast Turkey, Ahmet experiences something that will haunt him for the rest of his life. In 2013, when the chaotic days of Gezi Park protests in Istanbul start, Ahmet learns he has a brain tumor. Just as the lines between truth and fiction, the dream and the reality start to get blurred for him, he meets Serap; the love of his life. But time is ticking and his painful past weighs down on him every day, suffocating him with the same question: Who is the child that plays hide and seek with him?

Passed by Censor

In the heart of Istanbul's prison, Zakir controls the letters prisoners receive. His average day is spent between the censorship office, his colleagues and his evening writing class. For a writing assignment, he steals a photo from one of the letters, in which appears Selma, an inmate's wife. More than an inspiration, she becomes an obsession for Zakir. He observes her, makes up stories, and imagines the worst to the extent that he puts himself at great risk.

Black Sun

A coming storm after dog days dawns during a road trip to an island for a funeral. The deceased is buried in haste and a man makes a detour through Aegean Turkey. The funeral is eclipsed by a last wish.

The Smell of Money

A cab driver, a teahouse owner and an out-of-work journalist live in a down-at-heel suburb of Ankara. When the driver tells his friends tales of the murky and unlawful dealings of his passengers, they install a camera to record the passengers.

Butterflies

Three strangers with one thing in common — the same father — come to a Turkish village to bury him, and learn about him and each other.

Sideway

The residents of a small town set between a stormy sea and an ominous forest are becoming insane. They are convinced that successive signs appearing in the town are indications of doomsday.

Cold Hell

A young Vienna-based taxi driver of Turkish origin witnesses an extremely brutal murder. The perpetrator, a serial killer, makes eye contact with her; a deadly game of cat-and-mouse ensues.

Nausea

Ahmet, who had recently lost his wife and little daughter in a traffic accident while he was away with his lover, is a prominent person dealing with "head work". As someone who does not care for anybody and does not knuckle under anything, he moves on quite unaffected. Yet some things start to change in himself and his life without any apparent reason.

Yozgat Blues

Sabri, a barber in Yozgat - a very small city in the middle of Anatolia - has an emotional breakdown when he runs into Yavuz and Neşe, who come to the town to sing in a small music hall-bar. This will also affect Neşe and Yavuz. None of their desires will be how they want them to be.

I Am Not Him

Nihat, an introverted employee in a hospital cafeteria, is confused by Ayşe, a mysterious woman who just started working there as a dishwasher. Her obvious seductive approaches embarrass Nihat and make him nervous at the same time. Despite the rumors about her husband having been sentenced to many years in jail, Nihat reluctantly accepts Ayşe’s invitation to dinner at her house. This is the beginning of a strange and dangerous liaison. When Nihat discovers a picture of the woman’s husband and realizes that he looks astoundingly like him, the relation becomes even more toxic.

Thou Gild'st the Even

In a small town in Anatolia, whose inhabitants possess various supernatural powers but still have to deal with ordinary problems, Cemal helps out in his father’s barbershop and, in his free time, acts as a football referee.

Swing

The last 12 minutes of a young woman in a house on the edge of the city. The radical decision of a woman whose life was made a prison by tradition, violence and poverty...

Mold

Basri, 55 year old, every day walks for miles along the tracks working as a railroad watchman. His nagging thought is finding his son. Eighteen years ago, while the boy was studying at the university in Istanbul, the police took him into custody for antigovernment activities. Then, he mysteriously disappeared.

Government Woman

Xate is an ordinary woman from Midyat with eight children in tow. The only thing that sets her apart is her husband's job as Mayor of Midyat. Until, that is, an extraordinary day changes her life - and the lives of everyone else in Midyat. For the illiterate, uneducated Xate becomes Mayor of Midyat! While she takes on her mayoral duties much as she does those in her house, the infantile rivalry between her children in municipal matters leads to adventures that have the Midyat folk howling with laughter.

Take a Deep Breath

A high school student, raised in a modern family, is taken to a gynecologist for a virginity test by her parents. The psychologically and physically traumatizing examination makes her realize she does not have control over her own body. She will do anything she can to take the control back.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

A group of men lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's location. As the group continues looking, its members can't help but chat among themselves about everyday life, which ultimately leads to conversations about their deepest existential concerns and secrets.

Hair

A wig-maker from Istanbul, who suffers from cancer, becomes obsessed with a woman who enters his shop one day.

Vavien

Celal, lives an unhappy family life with his wife Sevilay and his child in a small town. Celal and his brother Cemal, running an electrician shop which doesn't go well. They are in debt. The only fun they have is going to the night clubs in Samsun. Celal's love for Sibel Ceylan who works in the night club, will cause him trouble. Celal's wife, Sevilay, saves her money, sent by her father who lives in Germany. She is unaware of the fact that Celal knows her secret.

Making of Three Monkeys

A documentary about the shooting session of the film "Three Monkeys / Üç Maymun" by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. 'Three Monkeys' had been shot in about 2 months in the summer and autumn of 2007 mostly in Yedikule district of Istanbul.

Three Monkeys

A family battles against the odds to stay together when small lies grow into an extravagant cover-up. In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities that would otherwise be impossible to endure, the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?

Distant

After his wife leaves him, a photographer has an existential crisis and tries to cope with his cousin's visit.

İdea

Kemal is a guard at an empty villa belonging to a dark businessman outside the city. One night, he finds a book called IDEA, left by someone whose face he cannot see, on the bus he occasionally goes to the city. After, Kemal’s life begins to turn to hell in a way that he could never understand.