In the Blind Spot
Ayşe Polat
2023
About Film
A film crew from Germany, filming in a remote village in northeastern Turkey, interviews an old Kurdish woman. The woman carries out an ancient ritual to keep the memory of her son alive, whom she lost years ago. The young woman who helps the German team with the Kurdish translation is also the caregiver of seven-year-old Melek. Melek's father, Zafer, belongs to a shadowy organization whose real purpose is unclear. When a mysterious entity haunts Melek, Zafer is torn between his loyalty to the organization and the well-being of his family. The result of all these people coming together will be devastating.
About Director
Ayşe Polat, who shot Super 8 video films for hobby purposes when she was fifteen years old, combined this experience with social projects during her university education and made short films covering the problems of the 4th generation immigrant society while living in Germany. In 1991, she received awards for her work carried out with a fund given to foreign students. She shot her first film, Fremdnacht, which tells the life of a Turkish-origin refugee who committed suicide in 1992, and received awards at many festivals with his 1997 film Ein Fest für Beyhan (An Entertainment for Beyhan). Her film En Garde won the Best Film and Best Actress awards at the 2004 Locarno International Film Festival and the Best Film Award at the German Film Critics Awards. In the Blind Spot premiered in the Encounters section of the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, and received 4 awards, including the Best Film and the International Society of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) awards at the 42nd Istanbul Film Festival, and a total of seven awards at the 34th Ankara Film Festival. She is the recipient of the Bilge Olgaç Achievement Award.
English (UK) 
Türkçe