‘Canada’s Top 10’ on screen at Istanbul Modern Cinema

ISTANBUL

A special film program titled “Canada’s Top 10,” serving as a cinematic bridge between Türkiye and Canada, kicked off yesterday at Istanbul Modern Cinema, presenting a selection of landmark works from Canadian cinema spanning from the 1970s to today.

Running through May 17, the program is organized in collaboration with the Consulate General of Canada in Istanbul and brings together both classic films by influential directors and internationally acclaimed contemporary productions.

The selection is inspired by the “Top 10 Canadian Films” list determined through surveys conducted by the Toronto International Film Festival with critics and filmmakers.

Curator Müge Turan said at the opening event that one of the most compelling aspects of Canadian cinema is its resistance to easy categorization. “It can be deeply intimate one moment and strikingly strange the next. Just when you think you’ve settled into realism, David Cronenberg quietly appears to unsettle you,” she noted.

Highlighting the diversity of the selection, Turan said the films reflect a cinema shaped by multiple voices, histories, landscapes and identities, adding that this openness is what makes Canadian cinema so appealing.

Canada’s Consul General Natalie Britto described cinema as a mirror of identity, noting that the 10 films in the program span different years, regions, languages and lived experiences, reflecting Canada’s linguistic duality, Indigenous creativity and perspectives shaped by geography, migration and memory.

She also underlined cultural similarities between Canada and Türkiye, adding that themes such as history, identity and storytelling in the selection would resonate with Turkish audiences.

Britto said the films strongly reflect the country’s embrace of diversity. The screening program traces a wide historical arc, from “Goin’ Down the Road” by Donald Shebib to “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” by Zacharias Kunuk. The program also includes contemporary titles like “Beans” by Tracey Deer.