The 7th annual Istanbul International Children’s Film Festival taking place in November at Cinecity cinemas. From 6-19 November the festival includes 67 films from 25 different countries.

Tales of puppets, children in Africa, two 10 year old friends Frederike and Fabian working on a teleporting system, the not-so-smart dissolving fireman Bob with his tomboy friend Kika, are jus some of the examples of films that will be shown at the film festival. The festival has previously taken place in Colombia, The Czech Republic, India, and America. This years IICFF includes 67 colorful films from 25 countries. To name: France, Greece, Sweden, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, USA, Germany, The Netherlands, England, Iran, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Finland, India, Belgium, Canada, Romania, Scotland, Colombia, Latvia, and Israel.

The organization of the festival has been thought out according to the audience, children. Broken down into age groups, 3+, 6+, 8+, 10+, 12+ making it very convenient for parents to purchase tickets, and to know what the audience will be like in the theater. Short films take up a large part of the festival’s program, ranging from 10 minutes long to 20 minutes long, films from all over the world, mainly animated, are either dubbed in Turkish or contain no dialogue at all.  These naturally are for the younger ones, and each film has different kooky techniques that make it that much more original.  One film, “Friend” from The Netherlands uses a sand-on-glass technique to tell the story of a little fox trying to find a friend. Duration is 3 minutes and for ages 3+.

Other short films included in the short films category are “Moon Children” from Switzerland, “The Tiny Fish” from Russia, “One minute in a museum of Islamic Art” from France, “In our home” from Iran, “Mashroom of the storm” from Poland, and “Aquarium” from Italy are just some of the short films that will be shown. Most are dubbed in Turkish if they have any dialogue at all, due to the short duration of the films.

Moving on to the longer films. For the older children films (these usually have Turkish subtitles, the dialogue is in the language of the country of origin) which tell of love, friendship, acceptance, and youth cast young actors and pinpoint the issues that many children today are coping with. One film for example, “The Crocodiles” from Germany directed by Christian Ditter, explains how a young boy desperately wants to be a member of a “cool” gang who call themselves The Crocodiles; in order to get in he must do a dare, when the dare doesn’t exactly work out so well, he is saved by his friend in a wheelchair. Together, the two use information that they have as a way to enter into the gang.

The next, “A Letter for the King” (Die Brief Voor den Koning) from The Netherlands is the story of a young boy who will be knighted once he completes a task he is given. He must deliver a letter to a knight in the forest that contains an important message for the King. When he gets to the knight in the forest, he sees that he is severely injured and has to deliver the message to the King himself, and in time. Ages 10+, Turkish subtitles.

“The Witch from Melchet Street” is an Israeli production (2005) based on a book by Gadi Taub. A young boy, Assaf, falls in love with a girl who lives on his street, but she never notices him. The 300-year old witch, who lives in the same building as Assaf, notices his heartache and sympathizes with him. Fast forward a few years and Assaf sees the girl again and is once again mesmerized by her. The witch and the boy develop a relationship in which they both learn that being in love has nothing to do with magic. Ages 12+, Turkish subtitle.

These were just a taste of the cultural delights children will soak up at the festival. Despite the unfortunate case that the films wont be in English for the most part, your children will be exposed to a whole new world of media. Hearing different languages that are not heard on the streets or on TV is something that every child should experience, since they start to take in all this in at a young age. The cinemas which will feature the films are located both on the European and Asian side and tickets are sold at 7 TL. Check the website for the showings and cinemas and any other info: http://www.iicff.com/english.htm