“Turkish director Tayfun Pirselimoglu's prize-winning thriller is a surreal small-town murder mystery with echoes of Kafka and Lynch.” – The Film Verdict
“Revered for his surrealist exercises, the multifaceted Pirselimoğlu, who is also a writer and painter, adapts one of his own novels for the first time. Originally published in 2014, Pirselimoğlu speaks to fluctuating meanings and subtexts in this contemporary adaptation of a Kafkaesque black comedy.” -- Ioncinema
Can witnesses a murder in the town where he came for the funeral of his father. The police don’t allow him to leave after his testimony. He meets various strange friends of his father in the town where he is trapped, and some weird things happening one after another. Can is totally possessed by fear when he meets the murderer in his deceased father’s tailor store. Meanwhile, a quarantine is declared due to rabid dogs. The whole town turns into purgatory with no exit and is almost at the edge of insanity.
Selected Festivals and Awards:
- Academy Awards Nominee of Turkey for Best International Feature (2023)
- Golden Globes Nominee of Turkey (2023)
- Warsaw Film Festival, Poland (2021): World Premiere
- Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Turkey (2021): Best Director, Best Music, Film-Yön Best Director Award
- Istanbul Film Festival, Turkey (2021): Best Director, Best Art Director
- Izmir Film and Music Festival, Turkey (2021): Best Director, Best Music
- Jakarta Independent Film Festival, Indonesia (2022): Best Feature Director
- Ravenna Nightmare Film Festival, Italy (2022): Critics’ Award
- Asian World Film Festival, USA (2022): Best Cinematography
- International Film Festival of Kerala, India (2022): Best Director
Director TAYFUN PİRSELİMOĞLU
Tayfun Pirselimoğlu was born in 1959 in Turkey and graduated from Middle East Technical University (Ankara).
He moved to Vienna for studying painting at Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst (Academy of Applied Arts). He held various exhibitions in different cities of the world, including Vienna, Istanbul, Ankara, Budapest, Tallinn and many others.
He started his career in the film industry as a scriptwriter and wrote various scripts for shorts and feature films.
He directed his first short film "Dayım" (My Uncle) in 1999 and then "Il Silenzio e d'Oro" (Silent is Golden) in 2002; received numerous international awards.
In 2002, he directed his first feature film "Hiçbiryerde" (In Nowhereland, supported by Eurimages).
It was followed by a trilogy of "Conscience and Death" including "Rıza" (2007), "Pus" (Haze, 2009) and "Saç" (Hair, 2010).
In 2013 he directed "Ben O Değilim" (I Am Not Him, supported by Eurimages) and "Yol Kenarı" (Sideway") in 2017.
His latest feature film 'Kerr' (2021), supported by Eurimages, was awarded in many international festivals and selected as the nominee from Turkey to the 95th Academy Awards Best International Feature and Golden Globes.
Pirselimoğlu is one of the founders of the independent art initiative Akademie Genius where he delivered lectures on scriptwriting, cinema and painting.
He is also the author of seven novels ("Tales from the Desert", "Album of the Missing Persons", "Melancholia", "Towers of the City", "Kerr", "The Barber", "Land Surveyor") and three story books ("Rooms of the Hotels", "The Newest Lives of Harry Lime or Praise to the Third Man", and "Otherside of the Desert").
Director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu’s films, Hair, I Am Not Him, and Sideway were screened at the Boston Turkish Film Festival in previous years, and he was presented BTFF Excellence in Turkish Cinema Award.
