Billed as one of the most prestigious film showcases in the world, the Toronto festival, now in its 34th year, is seen as an unofficial kick-off to the Oscars.Özge's “Köprüdekiler” (Men on the Bridge) and Necmi's 2008 feature debut “Bunu Gerçekten Yapmalı Mıyım?” (Should I Really Do It?) are among the 335 films from 64 countries to be screened over 10 days at the festival, which started on Thursday, the Anatolia news agency reported.
“Men on the Bridge” is being offered in the festival's Contemporary World Cinema program. In “Men on the Bridge,” Özge originally intended to reveal the different aspects of her hometown of İstanbul in documentary format. Yet somewhere along the line, the project began to shift toward fiction. Using her original subjects, Özge scripted their lives to match her inspiration, casting each person in their own life story. So “Men on the Bridge” is as true to life as fiction can possibly get,” the festival's Web site says.
Necmi's “Should I Really Do It?” follows the story of Petra, who has to leave İstanbul to care for her sibling in Germany and finds her life transformed into a series of quiet afternoons. The Toronto festival is the first Canadian outing this year for “Should I Really Do It?” The Toronto festival kicked off on Thursday with the British film “Creation.”
