MOTHERLAND HOTEL (ANAYURT OTELİ), 1985

Türkiye | DCP, Color, 105’ | Turkish
Director: Ömer Kavur
Cast: Macit Koper, Şahika Tekand, Orhan Çağman

A highly creative adaptation of Yusuf Atılgan’s novel, this film of magical realism is a memorable psychological story about loneliness and the individual’s inner world.

Zebercet runs a small hotel in provincial Anatolia. One day, a woman visits the hotel. After spending that day together, she tells him she will come back, and Zebercet begins to wait. His difficulties with communication and his introverted nature, compounded by this vigil, pull him toward profound solitude and madness. A melancholic narrative of not finding one’s place in a repressive society, this socio-psychological work is regarded both as an auteur film and as one of the pioneers of the cinema of Türkiye, which turned toward character-driven filmmaking in the wake of the 1980 military coup.

Motherland Hotel was restored by the Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation (İKSV) with the support of Groupama.