The 8th Annual New York Turkish Film Festival starts this week at the Anthology Film Archives and runs October 3 – October 11, and if you don’t know nothing about Turkish cinema, this is the place to start. It’s not just arthouse films getting screened, but genuine hits and popular recent faves from Turkey. I don’t know much about what’s screening but you can find the full schedule and description here and here’s a list of some of the highlights:

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ON FERTILE LANDS (opening film) – a classic of Turkish cinema, this flick was banned in 1980 when it was released but went on to win prizes at international film festivals. Unfortunately, somehow all the prints of the movie were stolen and it was never widely released. A negative surfaced in Switzerland 28 years later and earlier this year a restored copy of the film screener to a standing room only audience at the Istanbul Film Fest.The film itself is a rough-hewn, working class epic about three friends struggling to find work and survive in Turkey’s fertile southeastern plains. As one program note for the movie says, “It will not end well for them.”

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AKAMAS – a ROMEO & JULIETTE story of a Turkish Cypriot boy falling in love with a Greek Cypriot girl, this flick caused a controversy in 2006 when its director refused to cut a scene that the government insisted he remove.

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ARA – this 2008 film was inspired by Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and it’s a family saga about the relationship between two couples over 20 years living in the same house. A critical hit in Turkey it played to small box office but major raves.

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KABADAYI – a massive box office hit in Turkey, this film also received rave international reviews when it opened in 2007 (read one here). A retired gangster is the king of his small neighborhood, keeping up with old colleagues and resolving minor conflicts. When he discovers that a one-time fling produced a son, now grown, he devotes his life to protecting his son from all enemies, including a ruthless young turk gangster.

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(Full festival info, including list of directors attending and ticket sales)