Flying Broom
Organized since 1998, with the belief that cinema has an impact on the promotion of gender sensitivity,
the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival uses the ef fective narrative of cinema to
enhance the visibilit y of women and their problems, as well as to create ye t another milieu in an ef fort
to fur ther discussions on gender and gender discrimination, as well as promote the active engagement
of women in the world of cinema. Each May the cultural life of the Tur kish capital Ankara is enriched by
an international festival which grows year after year. In the f irst year feature fiction films, shorts and
document aries were screened, whils t panel discussions and exhibitions were also organized. In its 6th
edition in 2003 an international competition section w as also added to this festival of women’s film,
which is the only one in the world to present a FIPRESCI (International Film Critics Federation) award.
Within cinema, women look at the world from the perspectives of their own lives, experiences, happiness
and sadness; but they can always f ind a way to smile. Despite all the s truggles during our lifetime, we are
always going to laugh. Flying Broom Programme Team
The Play
(Turkey, 2005, document ary, 35 mm, 73’; Turkish, Slovene subtitling)
Directed by: Pelin Esmer; Screenplay: Ummuye, Behiye, Ummu, Fatma K., Cennet, Saniye, Fatma F.
This documentary film portrays the harsh everyday life of women from a mountain village in southern
Turkey. These women want to write and perform a play about their life stories; the camera follows
the development of the play, and the changes these women experience in the course of making the
documentary. The Play has received several accolades, including Best New Documentary Filmmaker
Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as Best Documentary Film in Trieste and at the Créteil
International Women’s Film Festival.
Fat Woman in the Land of the Thin
(Turkey, 2007, short film, beta, 14’; Turkish, Slovene subtitling)
Directed by: Zeynep Arisoy; Screenplay: Ezgi Kizmaz
Every year a screenplay for a short film story is selected by a jury from among a shortlist of ten; the
winning script is made into a film by Filma-cass, one of Turkey’s leading production companies, and
screened at the Flying Broom festival the following year. Winner of the 9th Flying Broom Festival Fat
Woman in the Land of the Thin relates the story of the Tutku* pastry shop, a family business run by
Rüya, a large woman who enjoys baking cakes as much as she and her customers enjoy consuming
them. A succession of patrons - each of whom is even fatter than the previous one - one day find themselves
together enjoying cakes in the pastry shop; however, everything is about to change: a coup is
staged and the new regime proscribes the consumption of high-calorie products, such as cake…
* »Tutku« lit erally means »passion« in Turkish.
Organized by: City of Women
In collaboration with: Flying Broom IFF, Cankarjev Dom
With the assistance of: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Büyükelçiliği
