Yellow Letters, a Turkish-language drama about what happens to a marriage put under extraordinary political pressure, won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear top prize yesterday.
The drama filmed in Germany but set in Türkiye follows a married actor and playwright who have to leave behind their comfortable lives after the husband is targeted by the state for posting critical content online.
“I know what (this win) means to my cast and crew who came from Türkiye, who now are getting a visibility that is on an international scale,” Turkish-German director Ilker Catak said after the award ceremony.
The director, whose previous Berlin entry The Teachers’ Lounge was nominated for an Oscar, said it was important that the film was not just about Türkiye, but Germany as well.
“There is a sign that says 1933 and what we’ve seen in this country before, we must never forget,” he said, referring to the year that Adolf Hitler came to power.
This year’s jury president, legendary German director Wim Wenders, praised the winner as ‘a movie that speaks up very clearly about the political language of totalitarianism’.
In total, 22 films had been in the running.
The festival maintained its reputation as the most overtly political of its peers, Venice and Cannes, with the war in Gaza in particular dominating public discussions about the films.
“If this Berlinale has been emotionally charged, that’s not a failure of the Berlinale, and it’s not a failure of cinema,” said festival director Tricia Tuttle at the opening ceremony, using the festival’s nickname.
&uuid=(email))