A recent Turkish film that takes place in Turkey’s “east fortress” Kars, tackled the post 1980 coup with an efficacious plot and acting.
Directed by Faruk Hacıhafızoğlu, the film’s plot shapes around the city of Kars, which had been the border of Turkey until the Soviet Union was dispersed. Screened at the Dalston Rio Cinemas, the film was screened for three consecutive days with the director Mr Hacıhafızoğlu himself’s attendance for the Q/A sessions.
Snow Pirates cleverly takes the viewer into the mind’s eye of three 12-13 year-old-boys during a dangerous period in Turkish history. However, being just boys, they are largely unaware of the significance and threat of everything happening around them. This means that Serhat is just as concerned about getting ice-skates for his birthday as he is about the sight of political prisoners with paper bags over their heads. Radio broadcasts and news bulletins in the background serve to keep the viewer appraised of the deteriorating political situation, although the boys pay little attention to this. The movie skilfully creates a dissonance between reality, and the boys’ own views and actions. This makes for some nice moments of black humour, as well as high tension, as disaster could be lurking around every corner.
Amongst the cast, were Taha Tegin Özdemir, Yakup Özgür Kurtaal, Ömer Uluç and İlker Sır. The film also obtained great success out of its screenings at the Iran, Singapore, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany Film festivals.