My Grandfather's People

Çağan Irmak wrote this out of his own family and dedicated it to the memory of his grandfather, Mehmet Yavaş. The grandfather on screen is not an invention but a man a grandson remembers. The story concerns the long shadow of the 1923 population exchange. Mehmet Bey was torn from Crete at seven and resettled in İzmir. Years later, in a small town, he tells his grandson about his past and the island he left behind; the habit of dropping bottles into the Aegean carries the film's central image. The narrative runs through a ten-year-old's eyes, so the exchange arrives not as a history lesson but as a grandfather's accent and his silences. Çetin Tekindor plays the grandfather, with Hümeyra, Yiğit Özşener and Mert Fırat in support. It opened on 25 November 2011, with particular praise for Tekindor's performance and the score. Who it is for: viewers drawn to family drama about belonging, homeland and the wish to tell a story too late. Who it is not for: anyone who dislikes emotional pressure. Irmak uses music and close-ups generously, and the film is openly out to make you cry.