Hand of Another: The City

Pera Film reaches a finale at Hand of Another with Merlyn Solakhan’s The City, the latest movie of the screening series held in cooperation with Fol. Hand of Another focuses on films that question the gap between people in a society where distances close and opportunities grow. Bringing together a collection of films that challenge the norms of conventional cinema through innovative expression, the program presents works of contemporary cinema that have not been released in Turkey while also reintroducing obscure older films to a new audience.

Merlyn Solakhan’s feature documentary The City offers an unusual narrative on Istanbul. Solakhan roams every inch of the city, witnessing separate instances of standing stones, balloons, kites, cars, roads, and neighborhoods with her camera, whilst looking into the city’s nature, yesterday and today. The city from her perspective is intertwined with history. An essay film as well as a documentary, The City is a daring gaze on Istanbul. The movie goes beyond observation to working through and reflecting on the city, with no hesitation in bestowing a new image on it and seeing it in a new light.

Pera Film will host the Turkish premiere of the film. Director Merlyn Solakhan will be in conversation, moderated by Fatih Özgüven after the screening.

About Merlyn Solakhan
​​Merlyn Solakhan was born in 1955 in Istanbul. She lived in Istanbul until moving to Germany in 1979. There, she studied at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. The movies she made back then included The City (1983), Uhrwald (1984), and the Tongue Twister (1985), her thesis at the Berlin Film Academy. Her career went on as a director of a number of documentaries. She currently works in Germany.

About Fatih Özgüven
He was born in İstanbul in 1957, graduated from St. George's Austrian High School and completed his BA in English Language and Literature at Istanbul University Faculty of Literature. He worked as an editor at İletişim Publishing and taught cinema and literature at İstanbul Bilgi University Department of Film and Boğaziçi University. In addition to having translated works by Borges, Nabokov, Henry James, Karen Blixen, Thomas Mann, Thomas Bernhard, Paul Auster, Flannery O'Connor, Virginia Woolf, Brett Easton Ellis and many more, Fatih Özgüven also published three original short story books: Bir Şey Oldu (2006), Hiç Niyetim Yoktu (2007) and Hep Yazmak İsteyenlerin Hikâyeleri (2010).

This program’s screenings and events are free of admissions. Drop in, no reservations. As per legal regulations, all our screenings are restricted to persons over 18 years of age, unless stated otherwise.