Pandora’nın Kutusu

Pandora’s Box is a story of alienation and isolation, a story of individuals whose lives have been shaped by a sterile, middle-class morality. A story that many people touched by the inevitable combination of capitalism and modernity can identify with. It is a kind of human landscape, both universal and singular at the same time … Two sisters and a brother live in the center of today’s Istanbul. They are in their thirties and forties, and lead very different lives, self-centered in their middle-class preoccupations. One day, a phone call brings them together on a voyage through Turkey’s suburbs and villages to the small town in the Black Sea mountains where they were born. Their aged mother, Nusret, has disappeared. As the siblings start reminiscing about her, the tensions among them quickly become apparent. Attesting to the fact that Alzheimer’s disease is a universal family drama, Pandora’s Box puts an aging grandmother's illness into the context of modern Turkey. Director Yeşim Ustaoğlu, known for her courageous films with political undertones […] shows great sensitivity and an ability to touch the heartstrings in this less controversial subject. (Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter) Yeşim Ustaoğlu’s Pandora’s Box won the San Sebastián Golden Shell for Best Picture as well as the Silver Shell for Best Female Lead in 2008.