The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul Wins Two Awards at the International Bosphorus Film Festival

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Best Film and Best Editing

The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul Wins Two Awards at the International Bosphorus Film Festival


The film The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul won the Best Feature Film Award and Best Editing Award, to Editor Ahmed Hafez, in the National Feature Films Competition of the International Bosphorus Film Festival. The awards ceremony was attended by the film's director Andaç Haznederoğlu and its lead actress and producer Saba Mubarak. This is the film's second screening in Turkey after screening at the Antalya Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award.

The Best Feature Film Award included a monetary prize of $25,000. By this, the film has won its third award in less than a month.

Written and directed by Turkish director Andaç Haznederoğlu, The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul stars Saba Mubarak and child Rawan Skeif, alongside a number of real Syrian refugees who are acting for the first time.

The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul follows the journey of Lena and Meryem during their escape from the war in Syria. Lena is a ten-year-old girl who has lost her family in the war. She finds herself forced to make her way to Turkey with her baby sister and their neighbor Meryem, along with the other refugees. Lena wants to return home, while Meryem's hope is reach Europe.

The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul is a co-production between the Turkish companies; Andaç Film Productions, Istanbul Digital (ID) and Istanbul Film Production (IFP); and the Jordanian company Pan East Media. The film project has received financial support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. MAD Solutions is handling the film's distribution in the Arab world.

Star Saba Mubarak participated in many charity activities related to refugees. She attended a celebration held by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where she delivered a speech about the refugee crisis in the Arab world. In her speech, Mubarak talked about the humane situations she experienced while shooting her new film The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul.