Women on Borders
Woman & Migration

Pera Film in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration in Istanbul presents, Women on Borders, a program focusing on the subject of woman and migration. The selected films delve into a survey of strong female characters and their stories. Some of these films explore mature women or adolescent characters torn between countries, home and exile, while other films discover the emotional shifts and journey that the female protagonist goes through. The program includes eight films that depict astounding women under harsh, interesting, and challenging conditions.

The film A Separation is a powerful, complex Iranian drama centering on a conflict that cuts across boundaries of gender and class, traditions, justice, and male-female relationships in modern Iran. The Reader, an exemplary piece of filmmaking explores: What is the nature of guilt--and how can the human spirit survive when confronted with deep and horrifying truths? A hushed and haunting meditation on these knotty questions, the film is sorrowful and shocking, yet leavened by a deep love story that is its heart. Poulet Aux Prunes is a grand, romantic life story about love, loss, regret and the sadness that can be evoked by a violin — not only through music, but through the instrument itself. It is all melancholy and loss, and delightfully comedic, with enough but not too much magic realism. In Beyond the Hills, which draws from actual events, director Cristian Mungiu confirms the skill of portraying female friendship with great empathy through a psycho-spiritual drama in which two women who grew up in the same orphanage reunite in the present. Where Do We Go Now? follows the antics of the town's women to keep their blowhard men from starting a religious war. Women heartsick over sons, husbands and fathers lost to previous flare-ups unite to distract their men with clever ruses, from faking a miracle to hiring a troop of Ukrainian strippers.

Last, two films of the program are presented in collaboration with the l'Institut français; Les Main en L'air, a film about Milana, who remembers her life as a young Chechen immigrant in Paris, struggling for a better life; and Louise Wimmer, a film about 50-year-old Louise whose life is turned upside down when a painful separation and an unexpected crisis leave her immersed in debt and homeless, forcing her to sleep in her car.

Art Has Wings / Sanatın Kanatları: IOM is organizing for the 3rd time an art exhibition on the theme of migration gathering artists with migrant background. Skilled foreigners of Istanbul and Turkish artists working on the theme of migration are coming together to present a collection of art pieces at the Arte Istanbul gallery. This IOM project aims at highlighting the positive impact of international migrants in Istanbul on the rich cultural diversity they bring to its art scene. Visit the exhibition from 11 to 16 of November 2013 at Arte Istanbul, Kumbaracı Yokuşu, Tercüman Çıkmazı no16/1, Beyoğlu, Istanbul. The exhibition will be followed by a charity auction led by Sotheby’s on 30 of November 2013 at the palace of the General Consulate of Sweden in Istanbul.

Screenings can be seen with a discounted museum ticket (5 TL). No reservations taken.

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