Screening Dates: Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 8:00 PM / Sunday, May 24, 2026, 2:00 PM / Saturday, June 27, 2026, 2:00 PM 

Director: Louis Malle
Screenplay: Louis Malle, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (novel)
Cast: Maurice Ronet, Léna Skerla, Jean-Paul Moulinot, Bernard Tiphaine, Bernard Noël, Jeanne Moreau, Jacques Sereys, Alexandra Stewart

France / 1963 / 108 min. / Black and White / DCP / French / Turkish Subtitles

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 24th Venice Film Festival, The Fire Within, one of Louis Malle’s most powerful films, is a simple yet striking elegy on the fragility of existence. The film follows writer Alain Leroy as he struggles to reconnect with life after leaving a rehabilitation clinic in Paris, grappling with the emptiness within him. Accompanied by Erik Satie’s melancholic music, this masterpiece by Louis Malle invites us on an existential journey through friendships that now feel distant, past loves, and faded memories. It also served as inspiration for Joachim Trier’s film Oslo, August 31st, adapted from the same book.

* We would like to thank our main program sponsor, Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi, and the Institut français Istanbul for their support of the program.

** To be screened in 2K restored version.