Pandora's Box

Nusret, an old woman living in a mountain village on the Black Sea, goes missing, and her three grown children set out from Istanbul to find her. When they do, they understand what is wrong: Alzheimer's. They bring her to the city, and the city will not take her, nor will the siblings take each other. Yesim Ustaoglu builds it not as an illness drama but as a reckoning between three people and their own lives, while the bond between the grandmother and her grandson is the only relationship with any truth in it. The French actress Tsilla Chelton plays Nusret. The film won best film at San Sebastián and Chelton took best actress. The opposition between mountain and city is its visual spine. Who it is for: viewers who follow the festival strand of Turkish cinema and like family reckonings. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace, since this moves through long silences.