Catalog - Moon and Stars Project

BENiM SiNEMALARIM / MY CINEMAS
Nesibe (Hülya Avşar) lives with her parents on the outskirts of Istanbul; the family is poor, and her consistently unemployed father
often takes out his frustration on the rest of the family. Nesibe knows that there has to be something more to life, and she finds
it—at the movies. As she recalls her childhood and adolescence, her own memories merge with scenes from the dozens of musicals,
melodramas and romances she saw to fill her days and to escape the desperation of her home life. But as she moves into adulthood,
the contradiction between Nesibe’s cinematic dream life and everyday reality starts to affect her in unexpected ways. Based on
a novel by co-director Füruzan, Benim Sinemalarım (My Cinemas) avoids sentimentality and movie nostalgia to show how, in its
own way, the cinema can become a kind of trap.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
1991 Fajr International Film Festival (Iran): Crystal Simorgh Award (Fürüzan and Gülsün Karamustafa); Jury Special Prize (Hülya Avşar)
GÜLSÜN KARAMUSTAFA
FÜRUZAN
Born in Ankara, Turkey in 1946, Gülsün Karamustafa graduated
from the Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy and opened her premiere
exhibition in 1978. From 1984 to 1990 she drew from her expertise
in art to become an artistic director in the film industry. A well-known
painter, she has mounted exhibitions in Geneva, Montreal, Munich,
Paris, Milan and Torino, among others. Her two books, Create Your
Own Story with the Given Material and Trellis of My Mind, were
both published in 2007 and incorporate her artwork from the years
1990 to 2000. She continues to conduct workshops all over the
world in places such as the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, the
Funen Academy in Odense and the School of Applied Arts (Haute
Ecole d’Arts Appliqués) in Geneva.
FILMOGRAPHY
1984 Bir Yudum Sevgi / A Sip of Love (Art Director)
1986 Asılacak Kadın (Art Director)
1986 Kupa Kızı / The Heart Queen (Art Director)
1990 Benim Sinemalarım / My Cinemas
Born in 1935, Füruzan Yerdelen is an award-winning writer best
known for her short story collection, Sevda Dolu Bir Yaz (A Summer
Full of Love). She loved reading as a child, but left school when
her father died and worked as an actress with the Little Theatre
Company. Her first short story collection, Parasız Yatılı won the
Sait Faik Short Story Award. In 1975, she published her first novel,
47’liler, and received the Turkish Language Association Novel
Award. Although grounded in the literary arts, she has made a
name for herself in the world of film as a writer, director and
actress.
FILMOGRAPHY
1971 Sıra Sende Fıstık (Actress)
1981 Ah Güzel İstanbul / O Beautiful Istanbul (Writer)
1990 Benim Sinemalarım / My Cinemas (Writer and Director)
BENiM SiNEMALARIM/MY CINEMAS 34