Ghosts

Four characters passing through the same neighborhood happen to cross paths on the day of a nationwide power outage that goes on for hours. Didem is desperate to win a hip-hop dance battle and turn professional; İffet cleans for the municipality and urgently wants to send her jailed son money; Raşit is a scheming opportunist with his finger in the urban redevelopment pie; and Ela, an artist and activist, volunteer-teaches filmmaking to kids in the neighborhood... Each of them is trying to make their own way in the domino-effect chaos. Ghosts tells the interwoven stories of these four different characters on a “dark” day and paints a dystopian portrait of contemporary Turkey. Azra Deniz Okyay’s film left this year’s Venice Film Festival with the International Critics’ Week Award for Best First Film.

Azra Deniz Okyay

Born in Istanbul, Azra Deniz Okyay started photography at the age of 12, and became an assistant at 14 of the photographer Dora Gunel. She moved to Paris to study Cinema at Sorbonne-Nouvelle where she had her bachelor’s and master’s. She worked in Michel Gondry’s Partizan Production company. She returned to Turkey in 2010 and became the first female director at Depo, an advertising production company of Istanbul. She made various shorts and music videos. Her works on Video-Arts was selected international exhibitions and galleries. Her first feature film Ghosts (Hayaletler) premiered in Venice Film Festival, Critics’ Week.