Girik stars as a female counterpart to Shakespeare’s tragic prince in a scene from Erksan’s ‘The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet.’
Pera Film, the film and video program of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation’s Pera Museum, will bring four cult classics of Turkish cinema to audiences in a special program exploring the country’s avant-garde cinematic tradition.
Titled “So, What Was Avant-Garde?,” the program will run from Sept. 16 to 27, featuring bold experiments in horror, fantasy and thriller filmmaking spanning the 1950s to the 1980s. Following its Istanbul screenings, the program will travel to the United Kingdom in partnership with The Nickel Cinema, introducing international audiences to unconventional works from the Yeşilçam era.
The selection focuses on four films that drew inspiration from world cinema and classical literature while developing distinctive visual and narrative languages.
The program opens on Sept. 16 with “The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet,” Metin Erksan’s 1976 reinterpretation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy, starring acclaimed Turkish actress Fatma Girik. Erksan’s 1974 film “The Turkish Exorcist,” a Turkish adaptation inspired by The Exorcist, will screen on Sept. 23.
On Sept. 25, audiences can watch “Dracula in Istanbul,” Mehmet Muhtar’s 1953 adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Gothic tale, which relocated the iconic vampire story to a distinctly Turkish setting.
Atıf Yılmaz’s 1986 film “Oh Belinda,” a surreal exploration of identity and social expectations, will close the selection on Sept. 27.
The program will be accompanied by a special fanzine featuring critical essays examining the films’ theoretical contexts, along with curated music playlists. Information is available through Pera Museum and its website, while tickets can be purchased via Biletix and the museum reception.
