the philadelphia international gay and lesbian film festival is going on right now. in past years, the gay fest has effected me like a mini version of the regular philly film fest they have in the spring. i don't generally go to quite as many films--the gay fest doesn't take over my life like the non-gay one does, but there's usually a bunch that i really make an effort to see. this year, for whatever reason, when i flipped through the program few films really grabbed me. and i couldn't make it to most of the few that i wanted to see. so even though it's the ninth day of the festival, i saw my first festival film this afternoon.
anyway, i saw 2 girls (or, if you prefer Iki genç kiz). i wanted to see the film for several different reasons: (1) it was turkish
um, that's about it. also it didn't look really bad.
and it wasn't. it was actually a fairly good film. the interesting that was that it really could have taken place in any country in the world. the scenary was not recognizably turkish (some of the music was, but not all of it), nor was anything particularly turkish about the plot. i was wondering going into it if it would develop into a lesbians challenging a conservative culture, but it didn't go that route at all. in fact, there arguably wasn't a single gay relationship in the film. one of the girls clearly had a crush on the other, but the other girl didn't seem to notice. the characters weren't always that sympathetic, but they felt real. and that was enough to make me care and enjoy the film.
