SIBEL
East Coast Premiere
Directed by Çağla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti
Cast: Damla Sönmez, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil, Emin Gürsoy, Elit İşcan
2018 / 95 min. / with English subtitles
25-year-old Sibel lives with her father and sister in a secluded village in the mountains of Turkey's Black Sea region. Sibel is a mute, but she communicates by using the ancestral whistled language of the area. Rejected by her fellow villagers, she relentlessly hunts down a wolf that is said to be prowling in the neighboring forest, sparking off fears and fantasies among the village women. There she crosses path with a fugitive. Injured, threatening and vulnerable, he is the first one to take a fresh look at her.
The whistle language in the film was admitted to the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List in 2017.
Selected Festivals and Awards
- Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland (2018): FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
- Hamburg International Film Festival, Germany (2018): Hamburg Producers Award for European Cinema Co-productions
- Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, France (2018)
- Adana International Film Festival, Turkey (2018): Best Film, Best Actress (Damla Sönmez), Best Supporting Actor (Emin Gürsoy)
- Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Australia (2018)
- Chicago International Film Festival, USA (2018)
- CPH Pix, Denmark (2018)
- Haifa International Film Festival, Israel (2018)
Directors ÇAĞLA ZENCİRCİ and GUILLAUME GIOVANETTI
Çağla Zencirci (Ankara, 1976) and Guillaume Giovanetti (Lyon, 1978) have directed together since 2004 several shorts (all selected in Berlin, Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand Festivals) and two features, Noor (Pakistan, 2012 / Cannes Acid) and Ningen (Japon, 2013 / Toronto). Sibel is their third feature.
Their short film, “Ata”, is the winners of Best Short Film Award in the Boston Turkish Festival Documentary and Short Film Competition in 2009.
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