Film Days of the Mediterranean: YURT – DORMITORY

38th Film Days of the Mediterranean 22.1. – 2.2.2025 Karlstorkino, Marlene-Dietrich-Platz 3, 69126 Heidelberg, admission € 10, reduced € 7.50, members Medienforum € 6, advance ticket sales online: www.filmtage-mittelmeer.de or at the Karlstorkino (one hour before the first screening until the last film) or at the Montpellier-Haus (during opening hours). In 1997, tensions between religious and secular Turks are on the rise. Fourteen-year-old Ahmet is sent by his recently converted father to an Islamic hostel, a “yurt”, to learn Muslim values. Ahmet works hard to be the perfect son, but he struggles to fit in with the rough kids at the yurt and feels isolated at the secular day school, where he hides his new home from his classmates. His only solace is his new friend Hakan, a clever boy who knows how the yurt system works. Together they dream of making their own decisions.

Turkey, Germany, France 2023

Director: Nehir Tuna

Cast: Doğa Karakaş, Can Bartu Arslan, Ozan Çelik, Tansu Biçer, Didem Ellialtı, Orhan Güner

118 min. | Turkish. Original language

Nehir Tuna (*1985 in Turkey) is a director, screenwriter and producer. His work combines social commentary and an original visual aesthetic by telling stories about the complex contemporary issues of Turkey, be it masculinity or conservatism. As a Sundance alumni, he participated in two Sundance Screenwriters Labs. He has written and directed seven short films, including THE SHOES, a prequel to YURT, which premiered in Venice in 2023.