Eskişehir, an off-the-beaten-track fılm festıval with Flair - Part 2

One of the interesting sidebars of the festival is a three room Visconti exhibit on view at the main city art museum of Eskişehir, sponsored by the İtalian Cultural İnstitute in the capital, Ankara. A half dozen Italian classics by Visconti, Fellini, Antonioni. et al, will also be shown. The Anadolu campus has a major department of film studies and therefore a rather sophistıcated youthful vıewership.  In an educational vein four early Hitchcock films from the thirties are scheduled and a like number of Charly Chaplin classics; The Gold Rush, City Lights, The Kid, and Modern Times. In a memorium to recently departed master directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, Bergman's landmark "Seventh Seal" of 1957, and Antonioni's "Passenger", 1975, starring a still slim and youthful Jack Nicholson before he turned ınto a "dırty old man", and lusty-busty Maria Schneider fresh from her salacious encounters with Marlon Brando in "Last Tango in Paris" will be projected.

In the line of serendipity, at İstanbul airport in order to pass the time between plane changes I was leafing through a copy of an airport magazine and came across an article on one of the top young stars of the new Turkish cinema, a striking beauty by the name of Fadik Sevin Atasoy. The article mentioned that Ms. Atasoy had just been named best actress at the recent Ankara fılm festıval for a film called "Zeynep's Eight Days", whereupon İ thought to myself wouldn't it be something if İ could meet hersomewhere along the line on this Turkey trip -- but not very likely that she's going to show up at Eskişehir.  Upon arrival in Eskişehir we foreign guests were immedıately treated to a lavish sit down dinner and who should be seated at my table -- non other than actress Fadik Sevin Atasoy who speaks perfect English and was a perfect joy to meet. Her film "Zeynep's Eight Days" will be presented tomorrow and will be the subject of my next report.

Alex in Eskişehir