PROGRAM 3

THE SLOPE (HEVRAZ), 2025
Türkiye | DCP, Color, 17’ | Kurdish, Turkish
Director: Cemal İşnas
Cast: Aram Dildar, Şahabettin Dağ, Ruken Önen

Doctor Kemal, preparing to leave for Germany through irregular migration routes, returns to his village to say goodbye to his father. The bond he reestablishes with his elderly and ailing parent turns his decision – whether to leave or stay – into a moral impasse. Through this intimate predicament, the film explores themes of migration, belonging, and responsibility.

PROCEDURE (PROSEDÜR), 2025
Türkiye | DCP, Color, 15’ | Turkish
Director: Rabia Özmen
Cast: Mücahit Koçak, Reyhan Özdilek

Winner of the Special Jury Prize in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival, the film begins when Murat, newly incarcerated, asks his wife Sema to fulfill a request that violates prison regulations. Under her husband’s pressure, Sema attempts to smuggle the prohibited item into the prison, while strict security measures make every step increasingly difficult.

RETREAT (İNZİVA), 2025
Türkiye | DCP, Color, 15’ | Turkish
Director: Saim Güveloğlu
Cast: Bilgesu Akın, Bihter Dinçel, Zehra Durgut

Having grown distant and harsh toward others, Berna rents out every room in a boutique hotel in search of solitude. What she imagines will be four peaceful days surrounded by nature turns into a confrontation with an inescapable truth: wherever she goes, she cannot truly be alone.

BLOCK E, NO:5 (E BLOK DAİRE 5), 2024
Türkiye, Avusturya | DCP, Color, 13’ | Turkish
Director: Çağla Gillis

After moving to Austria for university, Çağla confronts loneliness in a temporary dorm room, while her family in Istanbul struggles with the uncertainty of their earthquake-risk home, demolished yet left unfinished for years. Through online conversations, past and present, place and memory intertwine; waiting and longing become a shared memory across two geographies.

HAPPINESS (MUTLULUK), 2024
Türkiye, Netherlands | DCP, Color, 18’ | English, Dutch, Turkish
Director: Fırat Yücel

The opening film of IDFA, this desktop documentary moves between images of genocide in Palestine and protests in Amsterdam, following the digital diary of a sleepless group of activists. Through social media feeds and personal notes, it reflects on the tension between witnessing and the desire for action, asking: How does one sleep in the age of genocide?