Istanbul

All of Pialats Turkish films are uniquely interested in the country especially Istanbul as it was not just as it is at the precise moment that Pialat is filming it History informs these films in a big way with the voiceover narration which incorporates excerpts from various authors introducing tension between the images of the modernday city and the descriptions of incidents from its long and rich history Istanbul is probably the most conventional documentary of Pialats Turkish series providing a general profile of the titular city its different neighborhoods and the different cultures and ways of living that coexist within its sprawling borders As the other films in the series also suggest Pialat sees Turkey and Istanbul in particular as a junction point between Europe and the East between the old and the new between history and modernity