Hayri and Orhan are two music producers head over heels in debt. In an attempt to find the next big thing to turn the business around, they contact Ferhat, a gastarbeiter in Germany, and desperately bring him to Istanbul to sign him. As they are struggling to find the necessary funds to promote...
Eflatun is a master miniature artist who's living in 17th century Istanbul. One day, he's taken to the vizier's mansion by force. There he learns that Danyal, one of the Ottoman princes who has ignited an insurrection, is arrested in a far off state and to be executed soon. Eflatun is ordered to...
Mahsun Supertitiz is an unemployed homeless man who steals cars at night so that he can sleep in a heated place during the winter. Mahsun lives in Rumelihisar, an old section of Istanbul, and makes ends meet by getting the local fishermen to help him. Mahsun loves the cars he robs, cleans and...
A fisherman, his wife and young daughter who is unable to speak lives in a village on the shores of a lake. Their story starts with a myth of a fish, trying to find a cure for their daughter.
Shadows and Faces tells the story of a young girl who is separated from his shadow puppetry performer father during the ethnic conflict between Cypriot Greeks and Cypriot Turks in 1963.
Elephants and Grass (Turkish: Filler ve Çimen) is a 2001 Turkish drama film, written and directed by Derviş Zaim, about six different stories that merge into a common theme. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on January 5, 2001, won awards at film festivals in...
At the end of every summer, 'Hasanpasa' village holds a shepherding contest. The traditional contest requires shepherds to herd their sheep one by one through a pool of water. The shepherd who crosses the pool with his flock fastest and with least hesitation wins the contest. 'Hasanpasa's seasoned...
Derviş Zaim turns his camera into a tragedy in Syria this time and reminds once again the value of telling stories. Flash memory is from a true story; It is inspired by a Syrian military officer secretly taking out 11,000 photographs documenting the regime's violence against civilians and...
Four 40-something friends are haunted by the violent past of a divided Cyprus. Temel wants desperately to speak about the crimes of vengeance he committed as a teenager. He would like to confess about the bodies buried in the muddy patch of a dried-up salt lake, but fear holds him back from even...
Turkish and Greek islanders talk about their losses and their experience of shifting residences across to the north and to the south post-1974. In this Turkish and Greek Cypriot joint production, Zaim and Chrysanthou deal with extremely sensitive socio-historical material successfully.
Crime considers the themes of crime, crime addiction, society and freedom through the personality of Mustafa Serttas, a.k.a. the Devil (Tavuri) who spent half his life behind bars for theft and fraud. Mustafa Serttas, a primary school dropout raised in a poor, broken home in Cyprus, began stealing...
In a matriarchal society the roles between men and women are reversed. Arya represents power, money, and freedom; Meriç represents morality and docility. The two met on social media, and they meet in person for the first time.