Houston Turkish Film Festival

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston returns with the third edition of its annual Houston Turkish Film Festival. Marian Luntz, MFAH film and video curator, traveled to Turkey last fall and compiled a short list of films in collaboration with colleagues at the Consulate General of Turkey, selecting those that had won awards or had been well reviewed. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.

The newly released Whisper If I Forget is directed by Çagan Irmak, who will be present after the screening for a question-and-answer session. “Through the efforts of Consul General Ferhat Alkan, the film’s director…was confirmed. He is a veteran director whose career is well-known by Houston’s Turkish community,” said Luntz. Irmak’s résumé includes 21 directorial credits and 25 writing credits. He both wrote and directed his 2005 film, My Father and My Son, which won the Turkish Cinema Writers Association awards for best film, screenplay and director. In Whisper If I Forget, an aging former pop star returns to her childhood home and, through flashbacks, costume and song, we see the story of her early climb to fame.

Mix Tape is the first feature film for director Tunç Şahin, who also will be present after the screening for a question-and-answer session. “So festival audiences will get two different perspectives on filmmaking in Turkey,” said Luntz. “Both guests are traveling from Istanbul to Houston specifically for our festival.”

Mix Tape tells the age-old story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl, but with a twist. At the age of 13, Ulas makes a music tape for the object of his desire (Emir), only to discover she already has a boyfriend. Over the next ten years, he continues to pine for Emir, and they eventually reconnect. But romance is never as easy as it seems.

Why Can’t I Be Tarkovsky was directed by Murat Düzgünoglu. It tells the story of a successful director who remains unfulfilled because he hasn’t attained the professional glory of his idol, Soviet and Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, a noted film theorist who delved in the metaphysical.

Jazz in Turkey was directed by Batu Akyol and includes more than 50 interviews arranged chronologically and interspersed with archival footage. Winter Sleep was directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and earned the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. A newspaper contributor and hotel owner converses with guests and locals, doing anything to keep from working on his novel. Events unfold that cause him to reconsider his priorities.

7 p.m. Friday; 7 and 9:15 p.m. Saturday; 3 and 6 p.m. Sunday; 6 p.m. on April 4. Brown Auditorium Theater, 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7515 or visit mfah.org. $10.

Fri., March 27, 7 p.m.; Sat., March 28, 7 & 9:15 p.m.; Sun., March 29, 3 & 6 p.m.; Sat., April 4, 6 p.m., 2015