The marriage of artists Derya and Aziz is tested after they both lose their jobs because of the arbitrary nature of the oppressive Turkish regime. Together with their 13-year-old daughter, they move to Istanbul to live with Aziz's parents and reshape their lives.

Berlin is Hamburg and Ankara is Istanbul. That was director İlker Çatak’s trump card to make his latest film – about a censored Turkish artist couple – without restrictions from the Turkish government. Following the success of his Oscar-nominated Cineville hit _The Teachers' Lounge_, Çatak once again hit the jackpot with *Yellow Letters,* which was awarded the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2026. The film is provocative, critical, and exactly the kind of nail-biting, clever thriller you’d expect from this director.

Hamburg is Ankara; Berlin plays Istanbul, and still reality feels more absurd than this film.

Can art save the world? In the new film by İlker Çatak (_The Teachers' Lounge_), a committed couple from the Ankara theatre scene find themselves backed into a corner when they both lose their jobs to arbitrary state censorship. Celebrated actress Derya (Özgü Namal) has to hand over her starring role overnight, while director and teacher Aziz (Tansu Biçer) is prosecuted for allegedly inciting his students. Left without an income, the couple move with their daughter to Aziz's mother in Istanbul, where they must wait. Wait and wait and wait. Not for Godot, but for a bit of financial support from family, for new taxi clients, and for a court invitation to finally defend themselves. As they wait, they're forced to choose: do they stand proud for their principles, or quietly bow their heads out of self-preservation? The most remarkable thing about _Yellow Letters_ is that the locations themselves act as performers: German Hamburg plays Ankara, and Berlin passes itself off as Istanbul. Because state censorship isn't new, oppression doesn't stop at the border, and if you look a little closer at authoritarian regimes, parallels are everywhere. In _Yellow Letters_, it isn't the theatre that's absurd, but the reality we have to navigate every single day.

The marriage of artists Derya and Aziz is tested after they both lose their jobs because of the arbitrary nature of the oppressive Turkish regime.

Yellow Letters

Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (_Birdman_, _The Revenant_) signed Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons and Sandra Hüller for a 'comedy of catastrophic proportions'. The story: oil tycoon Digger Rockwell (Cruise), who is rolling in money, gives the climate crisis the final push by drilling through the Alaskan ice. After that, things go from bad to worse as Rockwell tries to save his own neck.

Alejandro González Iñárritu signed Tom Cruise for a 'comedy of catastrophic proportions'.

Digger

On the rooftops of Tel Aviv, far from the war zone, Israeli soldiers hold secret late-night conversations. Step by step, it reveals how the military and intelligence services determine who is a target, which technologies and procedures are deployed, and how many civilian casualties an attack is allowed to cost. Tens, sometimes hundreds of Palestinian civilians can be deemed an acceptable price for taking out a single target. _Naza_ thus poses the painful question: how can the killing of innocent civilians become so normalised within a military machine that it's no longer seen as a moral or legal problem?

The title refers to Nezek Agavi, 'collateral damage', the Israeli military term for the expected number of civilian casualties in an airstrike. The term symbolises the dehumanisation baked deep into the system: civilian deaths aren't a tragic side-effect, but a foreseen and accepted part of military operations.

_Naza_, by filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (_No Other Land_), premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize.

24 Israeli soldiers testify on camera for _No Other Land_ filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor about their attacks on Gaza.

Naza

Combining subtle humour with heartfelt drama, director Masayuki Suô uses ballroom dancing as a metaphor for communication, intimacy, and the courage to welcome change.

Shohei Sugiyama (Kôji Yakusho, _Perfect Days_) is a successful but emotionally unfulfilled office worker. One day, he becomes captivated by a dance school run by the mysterious instructor Mai. What starts as a secret attempt to escape the dullness of his everyday life gradually blossoms into a journey towards self-confidence and connection.

Should you and your Cineville card head to this and 37 other films? Well, yes, actually. But don't forget to go dancing every now and then, too.

Office worker Shohei Sugiyama becomes captivated by a dance school and its mysterious instructor Mai.

Shall We Dance? (re-release)

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