Five Cities

This article is about the Turkish film. For the region of San Luis Obispo County, California, see San Luis Obispo County, California § Cities.

Five Cities
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Onur Ünlü
Written by	Onur Ünlü
Produced by	Funda Alp Onur Ünlü
Starring	Ahmet Rıfat Sungar Ege Tanman Şebnem Sönmez Bülent Emin Yarar İpek Erdem Beste Bereket Tansu Biçer
Cinematography	Eyüp Boz
Production company	Eflatun Film
Distributed by	Tiglon Film
Release date	9 April 2010 (2010-04-09)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	Turkey
Language	Turkish
Box office	$16,329

Five Cities (Turkish: Beş Şehir) is a 2010 Turkish drama film, written, produced and directed by Onur Ünlü, about a young policeman just arrived in Istanbul who falls in love with a woman in a candy shop. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on April 9, 2010 (2010-04-09), won awards at film festivals in Antalya and Istanbul and has been described as, an absurd poetic tale of five seemingly unrelated people’s lives.^[1][2]

Synopsis

Aydın is a policeman recently appointed to a new post in Istanbul. While trying to get used to life in the big city, Aydın stumbles upon Mehtap, a young woman who works at a candy shop in Beyoğlu, and he falls for her. But there is no way that Aydın can make Mehtap realize that he even exists, just as Şevket, a young man who has dropped out of law school before starting to sell toy trains on the streets to make a living, cannot make Dilek, another girl who works at the same store, realize his feelings for her. When Dilek and Aydın meet, Aydın diverts his uncontrollable feelings toward Dilek.

Release

General Release

The film opened on general release in ten screens across Turkey on April 9, 2010 (2010-04-09) at number twenty-seven in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$4,728.^[3]

Festival Screenings

• 46th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival (October 10–17, 2009)^[4]
• 29th International Istanbul Film Festival (April 3–18, 2010)^[5]

Reception

Box Office

The film was in the Turkish box office charts for four weeks and has made a total gross of US$16,329.^[3]

Reviews

Emine Yıdırım, writing in Today's Zaman, describes the film as, an ensemble cast piece of intertwined stories of the Robert Altman School. The same publication has also described the film as absurd poetic tale of five seemingly unrelated people's lives intertwining in a most interesting way.^[5][6]

Awards

• 46th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival Best Screenplay Award: Onur Ünlü (won)^[6]
• 29th International Istanbul Film Festival Best Actor Award: Tansu Biçer (won)^[1]

See also

• 2010 in film
• Turkish films of 2010

External links

• Bes Sehir at IMDb

References

1. "'Vavien,' 'The Misfortunates' get top awards at İstanbul fest". Today's Zaman. 19 April 2010. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
2. "This week in theaters". Today's Zaman. 10 April 2010. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
3. "BES SEHIR". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
4. "Emerging directors dominate Golden Orange competition". Today's Zaman. 16 September 2009. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
5. Yıdırım, Emine (4 April 2010). "İstanbul Film Festival -- Oh yes, it's finally that time of the year!". Today's Zaman. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
6. "Reha Erdem, İnan Temelkuran share top Golden Orange award". Today's Zaman. 19 October 2009. Retrieved 8 August 2010.^{[permanent dead link‍]}