{"id":53636,"date":"2022-07-30T13:16:08","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T10:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=53636"},"modified":"2022-08-03T14:26:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T11:26:58","slug":"jerusalem-film-festival-2022-anatolian-leopard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=53636","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem Film Festival 2022: Anatolian Leopard"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anatolian Leopard – U\u011fur Polat\/Photo courtesy of PR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anatolian Leopard<\/em> traces the end of an era in muted colors and a somber mood sparked by dry humor. Written and directed by Emre\u00a0Kayi\u015f, the film reflects larger themes through a close focus on zoo director Fikret, as he sees his life\u2019s work come to an end. As privatization sweeps the country, the public zoo will be shut down to make way for a theme park \u2013 Aladdin\u2019s Magic Lamp. U\u011fur Polat stars as Fikret, each one of life\u2019s disappointments etched in the lines on his face, his dark eyes revealing the sorrow of a lifetime of resignation.<\/p>\n

Understated and precise, the film tells its story in the details. One learns about Fikret through his actions, and his relationships with others. Getting out of his car at the zoo, he\u2019s first seen comically walking on his heels to avoid getting mud on his shoes. As he walks towards the administration building, he passes the sign marking the parking space reserved for the zoo\u2019s director. Before he\u2019s uttered a word, we already know that he\u2019s a person who does not even try to claim what is rightfully his own. Yet even as they depart, his employees at the zoo treat Mr. Director with fond respect, intimating that there must be something about Fikret to inspire those feelings.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, there is an obstacle that is delaying the zoo\u2019s closure. Among the zoo animals is an Anatolian Leopard, considered an \u201cindigenous cultural asset.\u201d The zoo cannot be closed until an appropriate home is found for the leopard. The proper procedures must be followed, and his assistant Gamze (Ipek T\u00fcrktan), apologetically informs Fikret that a solicitor has called requesting the leopard\u2019s birth certificate. Divorced and distant from his only daughter, Fikret grimly grinds through his daily routine, somber and morose. Even when he is drinking with friends, he seems lonely and alone. As someone who gets along better with animals than with humans, nothing can be more devastating for Fikret than the closure of the zoo.<\/p>\n

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Anatolian Leopard – Ipek T\u00fcrktan and U\u011fur Polat\/Photo courtesy of PR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fikret chooses to act, and his choice leads to a series of events, some are humorous, others unfortunate. Ipek T\u00fcrktan delivers a touching performance as Gamze, Fikret\u2019s loyal assistant whose primary function appears to be delivering disappointing messages in a regretful tone, yet emerges in a different light, that reveals her courage and sense of adventure. Tansu Bi\u00e7er is delightfully intimidating in the role of the prosecutor, his conversations with Fikret and the stories he tells infuse the film with suspense and evoke the resonance of a mythic past. Yet ultimately, Fikret carries the weight of this quiet gem of a film, and U\u011fur Polat\u2019s performance evokes empathy for a man who in his confrontation with fate, approaches, in his own small way, the heroic.<\/p>\n

Anatolian Leopard<\/em> (original title: Anadolu Leopari)<\/p>\n

Turkey\/Poland\/Germany\/Denmark\/2021\/108 min\/Turkish with English and Hebrew subtitles<\/p>\n

Director: Emre\u00a0Kayi\u015f; Screenplay: Emre\u00a0Kayi\u015f; Cinematography: Nick Cooke; Editing: Ricardo Saraiva; Cast: U\u011fur Polat<\/a>,\u00a0Ipek T\u00fcrktan<\/a>,\u00a0Tansu Bi\u00e7er, Seyithan \u00d6zdemir<\/a>; Awards: FIPRESCI Jury Award at the Toronto International Film Festival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anatolian Leopard traces the end of an era in muted colors and a somber mood sparked by dry humor. Written and directed by Emre\u00a0Kayi\u015f, the film reflects larger themes through a close focus on zoo director Fikret, as he sees his life\u2019s work come to an end. As privatization sweeps the country, the public zoo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":53637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[97,163,96,27,170],"class_list":["post-53636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-cinema","tag-debut-feature","tag-film","tag-jerusalem-film-festival","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}