The fifth International Bosphorous Film Festival from Nov.17-26 will focus on the refugee crisis, according to its website on Thursday.
A new category ‘A Long March’ was added to the festival program in an attempt to raise awareness on the refugee crisis, the festival’s organizer Ogun Sanlier said in press conference in Istanbul earlier this week.
Eight films; three feature films and five short films, focusing entirely on the refugee crisis will compete for the category.
Bosnian film director Aida Begic’s ‘Never Leave Me’, which tells the story of three children who fled the war in Syria and sought refuge in southeastern Turkey, will premiere at the festival.
Begic will attend the film screening and take questions from the audience.
Jupiter’s Moon by Hungarian filmmaker Kornel Mundruczo will also compete for the category. It tells the journey of a 19-year-old Syrian girl and her father who are fleeing from Syria to Hungary.
The ‘Taste of Cement’ is a documentary about Syrian construction workers in Beirut, who are building skyscrapers while their houses back home are being bombed.
‘Bunkers’ is a documentary on the living conditions of asylum-seekers in underground nuclear bunkers in Switzerland.
‘Snack Bar’, a documentary, tells the story of a Greek family running a snack bar on the Greek island of Lesbos.
‘Mustafa -- the Imam of Lesvos’ is a documentary based on the life of an Egyptian refugee.
The ‘8th Continent’ tells the story of the only resident on the Greek Lesbos Island, which is overflowing with thousands of life jackets left behind by refugees.
The ‘Nightshade’ documents the life of a child Tarik, who is helping his father to illegally transfer migrants to the Netherlands.
The festival will screen 107 movies from 39 countries.
* Sena Guler contributed to this story from Ankara
