Mr. Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit,
Mr. Ambassador Ahmet Acet,
Mr. Özcan Mutlu, member of the Berlin Parliament,
Ms. Kirsten Niehuus, manager of the Media Board Berlin-Brandenburg
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I feel very honoured and pleased to welcome you on the occasion of the opening of the 2009 Turkish Film Festival here at Delphi Filmpalast. For me, it is the first Turkish Film Festival in Berlin, but I am very much aware that this festival meanwhile has become a tradition, thanks to the untiring efforts of the organizing team headed by Mr. Selcuk Sazak and the support by the Berlin Senate. For the seventh time, we will have the opportunity to see a selection of the latest Turkish film productions.

Turkish cinema, in general, has experienced a time of radical and exciting changes in the recent past and it is no exaggeration to say that Turkish films have reached new heights. The new generation of young Turkish film directors is not afraid of approaching political and social problems. Their success tells us that they are right. Meanwhile Turkish films are shown at almost all international festivals and have got numerous awards. Some award-winning films as for instance “GİTMEK”, “ÜÇ MAYMUN” or “NOKTA” will be shown during the festival.

Dear guests, as you know, we are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the partnership between Istanbul and Berlin this year. On this occasion, the Media Board Berlin-Brandenburg for the first time has invited Turkish and German filmmakers to a coproduction meeting in order to bring producers from Turkey and Germany together during the Turkish Film Festival. That is really good news and I fully agree with Media Board manager Kirsten Niehuus who said: “Berlin is the biggest Turkish town outside Turkey. There are many common film stories to tell”. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Media Board for their initiative. Perhaps we will see some results of this cooperation in due course.

The films that will be shown here are a good cross-section of Turkish cinema. This year’s festival films will tell us stories from the West and stories from the East of Turkey. Tonight we are going to watch the opening film “Sonbahar” by Özcan Alper. I hope you will enjoy it. Thank you very much.