Sibel

Sibel is co-directed by Çağla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti; it premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and also screened at Locarno. Damla Sönmez won Best Performance of the Year at the Eskişehir International Film Festival for her role and was nominated for Best Actress at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The whistled language in the film is real: used for roughly 500 years in the village of Kuşköy in Giresun, it was added to UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2017. Who it's for: anyone curious about a Turkish drama built around a real, 500 year old whistled language from the Black Sea coast, shown at international festivals. Who it's not for: viewers who assume the whistled language is a fictional device, since it's a real, UNESCO protected heritage.