Films that left their mark on world festivals met with the audience at the Ayvalık International Film Festival on 16-21 September.

 

Görkem Baygın, Setur Marinas Ayvalık Front Office Representative

 

Embracing all branches of culture and art, Ayvalık opened its doors to cinema once again in September. In the festival, which was brought to life by the Seyir Association, dozens of impressive films were presented to the audience in the beautiful atmosphere of Ayvalık.

 

 

In addition to film screenings, the festival also included workshops, panels and interviews, and this year a special workshop was held for children to raise awareness about cinema at a young age. For his film titled "Ela ile Hilmi ve Ali", director Ziya Demirel won the "Yeni Bir ..." award, which was brought to life for future filmmakers.

 

 

Setur Ayvalık Marina, which has been among the supporters of the festival since its first year, brought the movie "Three Thousand Years of Longing", directed by George Miller, together with art lovers this time. The fantastic genre film, starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, is based on the relationship of the narrator Alithea, who came to Istanbul for a conference, with the genie emerging from a nightingale's eye (a souvenir bottle) she bought from the Grand Bazaar. "Three Thousand Years of Longing" , which also includes Turkish actors such as Zerrin Tekindor, Erdil Yaşaroğlu and Ece Yüksel, is an Eastern tale about the characters of people and jinn that share a sense of loneliness and abandonment. The movie has good questions: Do our wishes bring us happiness or disappointment? If a person can be completely happy, why do we have desires?

 

 

While "Three Thousand Years of Longing" bid farewell to moviegoers with smiles on their faces and questions waiting to be answered in their minds, the International Ayvalık Film

Festival is now on its way to becoming one of the indispensables of the city.

 

Photographs: Onur Kunduz