The 36th Ankara Film Festival, which will begin on November 13th, also features noteworthy non-competition documentary programs. In the “Time of Memory” section, which blurs the lines between reality and fantasy and invites us to rethink time through memory, Digna Sinke’s latest film “The Key to Paradise,” which premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival, Miro Remo’s “Better to Go Mad in Nature,” which won Best Film at Karlovy Vary, and Stefan Djordjevic’s debut film “Wind, Talk to Me,” which won Best Film at the Sarajevo Film Festival, will have their Ankara premieres. The documentaries for the Ankara Film Competition, organized jointly by the festival and Koç University Vehbi Koç Ankara Research and Application Center (VEKAM), have also been announced.
The 36th Ankara Film Festival, taking place between November 13-21, 2025, brings together the newest and most original productions of documentary cinema.
Three Times of Memory
This year’s special documentary selection, “Three Times of Memory,” brings together three extraordinary films that blur the lines between reality and fantasy, inviting us to rethink time through memory. Tracing hybrid narrative forms in contemporary cinema, these films remind us of the importance of slowing down in the midst of an accelerating age, while also making visible a fragile sense of time where forgetting and remembering intertwine.
Digna Sinke’s latest film, “Key to Heaven” (2025), which premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival, examines the cracks in the memory of a woman documenting the energy transition in the Amsterdam port area. As photographer Lea wanders among industrial structures and cityscapes, she encounters traces of her own past and unfinished relationships. This hybrid film, which connects the personal with the social, past with present, offers a lyrical quest for loss, aging, and reconciliation with life.
This year’s Best Film at Karlovy Vary, Miro Remo’s “Better Go Mad in the Wild” (2025), reveals the extraordinary lives of twin brothers who have never left their home. Praised by Variety as “poetic, bizarre, and captivating,” the film, set in the mountainous Šumava region of the Czech Republic, depicts the brothers’ quiet and rhythmic existence integrated with nature, offering a profound exploration of individual freedom and life philosophy.
Meanwhile, “Wind, Talk to Me” (2025), this year’s Best Film at the Sarajevo Film Festival, praised by the jury for “creating a captivating melancholy and delicate beauty,” transforms the bonds between family and nature in the void created by loss and grief into a universal portrait. Serbian director Stefan Djordjevic, returning to his family and roots after his mother’s death, presents a personal and universal journey of grief through scenes interwoven with old footage and real family members. A meditative film that celebrates the power of life and the cycle of nature even in the shadow of grief.
Ankara documentaries to compete for VEKAM Award
The finalists for the Ankara Film Competition, organized since 2020 in partnership with the Ankara Film Festival and Koç University Vehbi Koç Ankara Research and Application Center (VEKAM), have been announced. This year, three documentaries will compete for the VEKAM Award, which includes 50,000 TL in support, in the competition which accepts Ankara-themed documentaries or short films.
The documentaries “Ankara Tumuli,” directed by Kadir Uluç, which traces the tumuli rising in the steppe of Ankara; “A Story of Passion,” directed by Erhun Altun, which tells the success story of a football team formed at Ankara’s 50th Anniversary High School in the late 1970s that transcended national borders; and “The Lost Knot,” directed by Metin Kaybaki, which depicts the life of a quilt maker struggling to keep his shop afloat in Çankaya, will be presented to the jury as part of the festival. The jury members consist of Kerime Senyücel, Prof. Dr. İpek Çelik Rappas, and İrfan Demirkol. The winning film will be announced at the festival’s closing ceremony and will also be included in the VEKAM Library and Archive, making it available for academic research.
