Screening Dates: Tuesday, June 16, 2026, 8:00 PM

Director: Erden Kıral
Screenplay: Ferit Edgü (novel), Onat Kutlar
Cast: Genco Erkal, Erkan Yücel, Şerif Sezer, Rana Cabbar, Erol Demiröz, Macit Koper, Zeynep Irgat, Berrin Koper

Turkey, West Germany / 1983 / Turkish / 110 min. / Color / English Subtitles

A Season in Hakkari is adapted from Ferit Edgü’s 1977 novel O, which recounts his experiences as a teacher in the village of Pirkanis in Hakkari in 1964 through a dreamlike narrative, and was adapted into a screenplay by Onat Kutlar. Directed by Erden Kıral in 1982, the film was banned for many years on the grounds that it depicted the poverty of the east and the weakness of the state. The film, which could only be released in Turkey in 1987, won four awards at the 1983 Berlin International Film Festival. The film’s music is by Timur Selçuk, and its poetic visuals are by Kenan Ormanlar.

A Season in Hakkari, Sinematek’s first restoration project, tells the story of an urban intellectual who is alienated from himself and his surroundings, who is exiled both by necessity and by choice; who encounters a society and culture completely foreign to his own world, as well as deprivation and poverty, in a village without roads or electricity; and how this shocking encounter is reflected in his search for identity and the question of existence.