ArtInternational's (AI) third edition, involving 87 galleries representing 27 countries and thousands of artistic works, launched its third edition in the Haliç Congress Center in İstanbul on Sept. 4. The fair showed over 400 artists and presented performances, artistic programs and specially commissioned installations through Sunday. The modern and contemporary art fair's participants came from Europe, North America, South America, the Midd

ArtInternational's (AI) third edition, involving 87 galleries representing 27 countries and thousands of artistic works, launched its third edition in the Haliç Congress Center in İstanbul on Sept. 4.

The fair showed over 400 artists and presented performances, artistic programs and specially commissioned installations through Sunday.

The modern and contemporary art fair's participants came from Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, Central Asia, India and China. Making their debut at the fair were Sakshi Gallery and Rukshaan Gallery from Mumbai, Aspan Gallery from Almaty, Galerie du Monde from Hong Kong and Aicon Gallery from New York and London.

Turkish galleries making their AI debut were Kuad, Öktem&Aykut and the Empire Project, joining previous participants artSümer, Dirimart, Galerist, Gallery Nev Ankara, Pi Artworks, Pilot, Sanatorium, Rampa, x-ist and Galeri Zilberman. Through generous support from the Catalan government, 11 galleries from Barcelona were also able to participate for the first time.

ArtInternational's co-founders Sandy Angus and Yeşim Avunduk joined AI's director Dyala Nusseibeh, artistic director Stephane Ackermann and curators Basak Şenova and Paolo Chiasera to announce this year's programs at the press launch on Sept. 4.

“Today, we're not living in a good situation,” stated Şenova, referring to the many political and sociological crises in the daily news. “Art works aren't necessarily [the best] solutions, but they can reflect perspective on these things. In addition to all the art here, there will be three chapters of videos shown every day in the auditorium. I believe in these works.” She was referring to her curated program of 12 “Videos on Stage,” which trace roadmaps of personal histories, stories, memories and dreams about wounds and ruins. “Some wounds heal and leave nothing behind,” she added. “But a scar and some wounds stay with a pain that lingers.”

Originality, sociopolitical perspective

Among the hundreds of artworks, several stood out for enlightened originality and sociopolitical perspective. Girjesh Kumar Singh's “Look at You,” represented by Mumbai's Rukshaan Gallery, is 88 mini-busts of imaginary people, carved with astonishing detail on red brick pieces attached to mortar shards from demolished buildings and mounted in three formations on three walls. They are looking either at each other or outward, wherein lies Singh's philosophy: “If we can look at ourselves instead of others, there is hope. This is where I can find the real [person].”

Also from Mumbai, the Sakshi Gallery offered a single piece: El Anatsui's “Alter Ego,” which won him the Venice Biennale Golden Lion Award. The stunning wall-sized collage is composed of bottle caps and labels from the alcohol that the British imported to Ghana and Nigeria as a stratagem to subdue and subjugate the populace.

Another wall installation, from Stockholm's Cecilia Hellstrom Gallery is Matthias van Arkel's eye-candy, “Painting WR,” which is entirely silicone rubber shapes resembling a swarm of giant deflated balloons. Its shiny color riot is an appealingly amusing take on minimalist decor.

Nikita Kadan, who has become the poster boy for the ongoing Ukrainian conflict and is represented by London's Waterside Contemporary, delivers torture on a plate in his series of eight ceramic dinner plates, each with a graphic method of government repression.

Belgium's Deweer Gallery offered an eloquent sculpture with a universal message in Enrique Marty's “Random Scene,” six life-sized men who wear only neutral-colored suits and stand equidistant from each other as they cover their eyes with their hands.

Grayson Perry's works made a return appearance in İstanbul (his works were featured in Pera Museum earlier this year) here through the auspices of London's Miro Gallery, who showed two of his new wall-size woven tapestries. The textural wonder of his highly detailed modern mythology in vivid color traverses the line between pop art and fine art, but is nevertheless unforgettable, and ultimately collectible.

Thought-provoking correlative programs

In addition to the commercial gallery booths, AI offered a number of art initiatives and programmatic activities to broaden visitors' horizons. Similar to Şenova's example, Chiasera curated “Alternatives,” a section dedicated to independent art initiatives that brought together local and international non-profit spaces, independent institutions and artist collectives. Among them were the David Roberts Foundation, 5533, Masa, Near East, Nesin Art Village, Protocinema, Spot and Torun.

A 26-meter painted canvas evoking a nocturnal garden marked a gathering place for artists, institutions and curators during the fair. An interactive real-time game called “Hunter-Gatherer” engaged visitors on a citywide treasure hunt to help people connect with non-profit institutions. Three examples of the seven projects that further illuminated issues surrounding art and artists were Burçak Konukman's performance “I Am an Artist,” Ali Taptık's series of photos that commented on the art profession “It's Not Fair” and Nevin Aladağ's “Move,” in which performers mingled with the fair attendees.

An expansive sculpture exhibit, “By the Waterside,” studded the shoreline of the Haliç waterway with nine installations by artists from Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Italy, Austria, Turkey, Spain and Indonesia. Javier Perez' “Rosario (Memento Mori),” an arresting floor arrangement of bronze skulls on a 600-centimeter chain resembling a rosary, attracted well-deserved attention. Its end-piece was a prisoner's ankle clamp.

While the correlative conceptual programs offered thought-provoking diversions alongside the purely commercial aspects of the fair, the deficit of adequate cuisine purveyors detracted; the paltry selections of food for purchase guaranteed near-starvation for day-passers. But the biggest detriment on the waterfront was the decibel level: The outdoor DJ had set the volume so high as to obliterate any possible conversation about art.

The organizers of Antalya's annual international film festival announced they are dropping the name of its award statuette, Altın Portakal (Golden Orange), from the event's title, emulating the world's prestigious film festivals that “are often known by the name of the city they're held in,” including Venice, Cannes, Berlin and Toronto. Antalya Mayor Menderes Türel, who is also the president of the film festival, announced the change

The organizers of Antalya's annual international film festival announced they are dropping the name of its award statuette, Altın Portakal (Golden Orange), from the event's title, emulating the world's prestigious film festivals that “are often known by the name of the city they're held in,” including Venice, Cannes, Berlin and Toronto.

Antalya Mayor Menderes Türel, who is also the president of the film festival, announced the change in a news release issued on Sunday, the Doğan news agency reported.

The move came less than 48 hours after the Antalya Municipality issued a press release on Friday in which it said the 2015 festival was postponed to late November, a decision it said was based on the fact that the city would be hosting a G-20 summit mid-November and the impending snap election, set for Nov. 1.

This is the second time this year's festival has been postponed. The municipality had announced last month that the city's piano and film festivals were rescheduled to form an uninterrupted month-long program that is expected to attract both music lovers and cineastes to the southern city from late September to late October. The film festival previously used to take place in early October, followed in November by the piano festival.

The 52nd Antalya International Film Festival will now run from Nov. 29 through Dec. 6, preceded by the 16th Antalya International Piano Festival, which is set for Nov. 17-29.

The mayor had also announced on Friday that the national documentary and national feature-length competitions of the film festival would be merged starting with this year's edition. The festival will start accepting film submissions to its competitions on Sept. 11.

A weekend screening of “Steve Jobs,” a biopic about Apple's famous co-founder, drew high praise from some reviewers and suggestions that actor Michael Fassbender could be an Oscar contender for his portrayal of Jobs. While the positive views were not unanimous, Variety.com was impressed. Its reviewer said that Fassbender, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, gave Jobs “the brilliant, maddening, ingeniously designed and monstrousl

A weekend screening of “Steve Jobs,” a biopic about Apple's famous co-founder, drew high praise from some reviewers and suggestions that actor Michael Fassbender could be an Oscar contender for his portrayal of Jobs.

While the positive views were not unanimous, Variety.com was impressed. Its reviewer said that Fassbender, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, gave Jobs “the brilliant, maddening, ingeniously designed and monstrously self-aggrandizing movie he deserves.”

It described the movie as a “terrific actors' showcase and an incorrigibly entertaining ride that looks set to be one of the fall's early must-see attractions.” The website also listed Fassbender as a “no-brainer best actor Oscar contender.”

Hollywood Reporter said the movie is “clearly positioned as one of the prestige titles of the fall season and will be high priority viewing for discerning audiences around the world.”

A New York Times blog said the audience “responded warmly” to the film when it aired at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado on Saturday.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said he was impressed with the movie, according to Deadline Hollywood. It cited Wozniak saying he felt he was “actually watching Steve Jobs and the others” rather than actors and that he gave “full credit to Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin for getting it so right.”

Indiewire.com said the movie would “factor in the Oscar race,” and that Fassbender and Kate Winslet, who plays Macintosh marketing chief Joanna Hoffman, “dazzle with their fleet-tongued performances, unlike anything they have done before.”

The Guardian, however, gave a more mixed review, suggesting it would mostly appeal to “the Apple geek.” It said “Steve Jobs” was “Boyle's best film in years” and that “Fassbender excels.” But it said that while the movie “appears to be admirably unsentimental in its portrayal of Jobs, by the end we're getting close to Apple-sponsored hero iWorship.”

The movie is expected to be shown at the New York Film Festival. Indiewire said Boyle would return to the editing room to put the finishing touches on the movie before the New York screening. The festival screening occurred a day after the opening of “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine,” a widely reviewed documentary about Jobs directed by Alex Gibney.

Filmmaker Amy Berg says she felt that the late blues and rock singer Janis Joplin “guided” her in making the documentary “Janis,” which contains footage never seen before of the troubled teen from Texas who rose to world fame. The film, shown out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, follows Joplin, who is portrayed as being an outsider while growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, through her meteoric rise as the lead singer of the San Franc

Filmmaker Amy Berg says she felt that the late blues and rock singer Janis Joplin “guided” her in making the documentary “Janis,” which contains footage never seen before of the troubled teen from Texas who rose to world fame.

The film, shown out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, follows Joplin, who is portrayed as being an outsider while growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, through her meteoric rise as the lead singer of the San Francisco-based Big Brother and the Holding Company, to her death at age 27 from a heroin overdose in October, 1970.

“There were many times when I wanted to do something a little bit more creative that wasn't guided by the archive, by what exists, and it backfired every single time,” Berg told a news conference on Sunday. “I feel like Janis guided me through this edit. Her voice really guided me through it.”

Unlike the recent documentary “Amy,” about the late British soul singer Amy Winehouse, which made extensive use of personal videos, Berg had to rely largely on archive materials to reconstruct Joplin's life.

Despite that, she said there are moments in the film that even ardent Joplin fans would not have seen or heard. “There is 12 minutes of new footage and audio. It was challenging,” the American filmmaker said. “There are people who have just little remnants of being on tour with her, like there is this great reaction to her Royal Albert Hall gig in London and she did speak to David Dalton from Rolling Stone [magazine] often when they were on the road.

“We have excerpts from that throughout the film and there is some footage that somebody uncovered, and beautiful silent footage that we used.”

The usually decorous Ralph Fiennes dances wildly around a swimming pool to a Rolling Stones tune while Tilda Swinton mostly whispers in the offbeat French-Italian film “A Bigger Splash,” which had its premiere in Venice on Sunday. Italian director Luca Guadagnino's remake of the 1969 French film “La Piscine” (The Swimming Pool), about a vicious love triangle set on the Cote d'Azur, transfers the action to the Italian Mediterranean isl

The usually decorous Ralph Fiennes dances wildly around a swimming pool to a Rolling Stones tune while Tilda Swinton mostly whispers in the offbeat French-Italian film “A Bigger Splash,” which had its premiere in Venice on Sunday.

Italian director Luca Guadagnino's remake of the 1969 French film “La Piscine” (The Swimming Pool), about a vicious love triangle set on the Cote d'Azur, transfers the action to the Italian Mediterranean island of Pantelleria.

The setting is a cue for Fiennes' character Harry, a record producer, to unleash his inner satyr. He flies unannounced into Pantelleria with his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson) and barges in on his rock-star ex-girlfriend Marianne (Swinton) and her filmmaker lover Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts).

Cast here as a motor mouth, know-it-all extrovert, Fiennes is called upon to do a scene where he dances around a pool, solo and without speaking a word.

“I received this fantastic screenplay ... and about 20 minutes into the film it's written that he [Harry] gets up and dances and expresses himself completely through dancing,” Fiennes told a news conference. “I've never been asked to do that in a film before so I said, ‘Yes, thank you',” Fiennes, who also danced briefly for photographers, said.

Swinton, who was directed by Guadagnino in “I Am Love” (2009), said at first the timing was not right for her to do “A Bigger Splash.” When it became possible, she suggested her part should be a mostly non-speaking role, which is why her character Marianne is convalescing from a throat operation. “It was a moment in my life when I really didn't want to say anything, even less than I do now, but I sort of figured [it] out against wanting to be with Luca in pretty much any circumstances, wanting to go to Pantelleria and wanting to play with these extraordinary performers,” Swinton said.

The film received mixed notices from the trade press. The Hollywood Reporter said it benefits from a “cool and desirable cast” but “feels empty and intellectualized at the core, where it should feel powerfully emotional.”

Variety praised Fiennes, even though it said viewers might want to strangle his character the minute he shows up on screen. “Sustaining such obnoxiousness is a harder feat to pull off than one might imagine, and though this isn't a typical awards-seeking performance from Fiennes, it certainly ranks among the actor's best,” Variety said.

The film is among 21 competing for the Golden Lion prize to be awarded on Saturday.

“Göle Yas / Songs for the Lake,” a documentary feature about the drying-up Lake Burdur in southwest Turkey, is headed to Austria next month, the Doğan news agency reported. Directed by M. Şafak Türkel, the 80-minute documentary is among 11 finalists in the environment documentaries competition at the 15th Innsbruck Nature Film Festival, set to take place on Oct. 6-9.

“Göle Yas / Songs for the Lake,” a documentary feature about the drying-up Lake Burdur in southwest Turkey, is headed to Austria next month, the Doğan news agency reported.

Directed by M. Şafak Türkel, the 80-minute documentary is among 11 finalists in the environment documentaries competition at the 15th Innsbruck Nature Film Festival, set to take place on Oct. 6-9.

Moving Image İstanbul, the digital art fair that originated in New York and London, concluded its second edition in İstanbul as a satellite fair alongside ArtInternational (AI), Sept. 4-6 at the Haliç Congress Center. Moving Image's founders, New York gallerists Edward Winkelmann and Murat Ozorobekov, announced record attendance of 6,500 people in three days -- exceeding their best-ever attendance for the New York editions. Moving Image İstanbu

Moving Image İstanbul, the digital art fair that originated in New York and London, concluded its second edition in İstanbul as a satellite fair alongside ArtInternational (AI), Sept. 4-6 at the Haliç Congress Center.

Moving Image's founders, New York gallerists Edward Winkelmann and Murat Ozorobekov, announced record attendance of 6,500 people in three days -- exceeding their best-ever attendance for the New York editions.

Moving Image İstanbul 2015 featured a selection of international commercial galleries and non-profit institutions presenting single-channel videos, single-channel projections, video sculptures and other larger video installations. Upstairs from AI's 87-gallery show below, Moving Image displayed 23 examples of digital art from around the world, and on the evening of the first day, announced the winner of the Borusan Contemporary Prize for best digital artwork.

Kalliopi Lemos's 16 millimeter short film “At the Center of the World,” which was represented by London's Gazelli Art House, captured the prize, which, rather than a cash award, is acquisition by the Borusan Contemporary museum into its extensive digital art collection.

Kathleen Forde, Borusan Contemporary's artistic director-at-large, made the announcement: “It's exciting to be embarking upon the second year of the prize with Moving Image. The video by Kalliopi Lemos is such a strong work and incredibly relevant to the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection which, in addition to other interests, has a tradition of supporting video that blurs the line between performance and moving image media.”

Lemos's film, directed and produced by Hannah Beadman, featured the sculpture “Iron Sphere” made by Lemos in 2015. The steel ball-shaped grid functioned as a container for an actress to perform throughout the film. “It was inspired by Victorian prison windows,” Lemos told Today's Zaman. “For this, it was made to fit a human being. It symbolizes the restrictions you feel in life. You cannot breathe; it's like trying to manage our lives -- the everyday struggle to find balance and freedom.”

Dr. Marilena Zaroulia, senior lecturer in cultural politics and performance at Winchester University in the UK, further explains the film's essence: "Lemos's new piece expands her ongoing exploration of bodies in unnatural positions, diverse scales and the quest for balance, and she asks from the visitor to find ‘the center,' their own compass for this universe.”

The only sounds on the track were made by the actress (Louiza Zourias) trapped in the sphere -- her sounds of panic and extreme effort. “I like making things you can feel physically,” said Lemos, who was visibly moved by her accolade of the evening. “Belonging now to the Borusan Collection is amazing. It's beyond money.”

More videos to remember

Highlights from the other videos and films included Rosa Menkman's kaleidoscopic 3D interactive environment, "Xilitla," whose format she invented. “I didn't want to get stuck in a four-corners format, so I thought I'd make my own, including the sound,” she told Today's Zaman. With a handset, a player can manipulate a genderless, double-faced central character who travels through space: “Moving fractals, actually,” she explained. “It's also game you don't win or lose. It has some analogue patches which aren't normally compatible with digital.” She considers it “algorhythmic art, for which the calculations are infinite.”

The largest installation was Michael Nyman's “NYman with a Movie Camera,” which uses 12 screens set up in a semi-circle in one room. The work is based on Dziga Vertov's 1929 film “Man with a Movie Camera,” which is shown, intact, on the 12th screen. Nyman coordinated his version directly with Vertov's, reframing and updating actual scenes shown in the original. Nyman's own post-minimalist style music serves as his soundscape, an outgrowth of the fact that Nyman was originally commissioned to write a new score for the Vertov film in 2003 by the British Film Institute. Through his own unique editing involving the old and the new together, Nyman has created “a post-modernist essay on experimental documentary film making through the bias of cinematographic collage,” according to the program notes.

Nevin Aladağ's fun “Top View” placed the camera waist-level on dancers to photograph feet (and fancy footwear) as they danced on various city terrains. Kon Trubkovich's “House of the Rising Sun” was a five-screen essay with several YouTube videos of Russians attempting to sing, phonetically, the title's popular song, interspersed with late Communist-era videos, like former American President Ronald Reagan's speech about the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Nur Akalın's “Fener” is a 14-minute film from 1994, whose transfer to digital format gave it (intentionally or unintentionally) a blurry image to the point of being almost unwatchable. The action focused on the formerly Greek community of Fener on the Golden Horn, and included scenes of sacred services inside the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate as well as everyday life on the streets. The sound score was predominantly a solo clarinet that recalled the feeling of the rembetiko folk music style.

The most visually mesmerizing was Leslie Thornton's “SNAP: Tar” which was nothing more than five-and-a-half minutes of watching hot tar bubble. Even though, or perhaps because of its extreme simplicity, coupled with the high definition of colors within a limited range, it was surprisingly rivetingly beautiful.

ArtInternational sets new record in 3rd year

İstanbul's ArtInternational modern and contemporary art fair wrapped up a record-setting year on Sunday night with artwork sales totaling $30.2 million, its organizers announced on Monday. Eighty-seven art galleries from 27 countries displayed work by over 400 artists at the three-day fair, attended by 32,383 visitors, according to Monday's press release. Organizers said the number included over 2,000 collectors from around the world. Last year's fair, its second edition, was attended by approximately 20,000 visitors. İstanbul, Today's Zaman

He's a hero and he's great at his job, but "Star Trek's" Captain Kirk did abandon his son. That's one of the conclusions of author and TV writer David A. Goodman in a first of its kind book for a "Star Trek" character that imagines new details about the life of the man who captained the starship Enterprise. Often taking one-line references from episodes of the iconic TV and movie science-fiction franchise and building entire storylines, Goodman paints Kirk as

He's a hero and he's great at his job, but “Star Trek's” Captain Kirk did abandon his son.

That's one of the conclusions of author and TV writer David A. Goodman in a first of its kind book for a “Star Trek” character that imagines new details about the life of the man who captained the starship Enterprise.

Often taking one-line references from episodes of the iconic TV and movie science-fiction franchise and building entire storylines, Goodman paints Kirk as a driven, sometimes insecure, absent father, a man who “left his son, for his job,” yet was destined to be a Starfleet hero.

“Almost everything that's new came out of something that we already were familiar with,” Goodman said.

“The Autobiography of James T. Kirk - The Story of Starfleet's Greatest Captain,” was published by Titan Books on Tuesday -- 49 years to the day after “Star Trek” premiered on TV in 1966.

It comes with illustrations, including Kirk's Starfleet Academy class graduation photo and an unsent letter he penned to his son.

Fan fiction plays a popular role in the “Star Trek” universe and interest has been building since actor William Shatner, the best-known embodiment of Kirk, appeared at July's Comic-Con International with Goodman and read excerpts from the book. A Shatner-signed copy of the book can be found on the Internet selling for $150.

According to the autobiography, Kirk passed over the Vulcan Mr. Spock to be his first first officer of the starship Enterprise; 20th century social worker Edith Keeler, not the mother of his son, was the great love of his life; and Kirk may have another son on a distant planet -- who makes what suspiciously looks like "Star Trek" movies.

The book also tells how Dr. McCoy got the nickname “Bones,” and why Kirk would regret saving history “for the rest of my life.”

With the fall of legendary lawyer Atticus Finch, in Harper Lee's novel “Go Set A Watchman,” will fans of “Star Trek” also suffer disappointment learning new details about their favorite starship captain?

“Real heroes are still human beings,” Goodman said. Spock and McCoy are certain his legacy is safe. In the book's foreword, McCoy makes the case that Kirk is “the greatest hero who ever lived,” and Spock in the afterword writes “his work and accomplishments make him one of the greatest men who ever lived. That is objective fact; as a Vulcan, I am incapable of hyperbole.”

The fictional character who captained the starship Enterprise is the subject of a new book, “The Autobiography of James T. Kirk - The Story of Starfleet's Greatest Captain,” published on Tuesday. (Photo: Reuters)

Directed by Baran bo Odar, the German hacker thriller “Who Am I – No System Is Safe” provides a completely fresh take on the world of information technology, and its vigor and puzzle-like structure will come as a treat for those looking for something different from typical Hollywood genre fare. Judging from its international success, though, it might be bound for a Hollywood remake. There is something human and heartwarming about “

Directed by Baran bo Odar, the German hacker thriller “Who Am I – No System Is Safe” provides a completely fresh take on the world of information technology, and its vigor and puzzle-like structure will come as a treat for those looking for something different from typical Hollywood genre fare.

Judging from its international success, though, it might be bound for a Hollywood remake.

There is something human and heartwarming about “Who Am I – No System Is Safe,” a film with a relatable protagonist. Much resembling the hacker stereotype we all have, young Benjamin (rising German star Tom Schilling) is a social outcast and misfit who lives in the basement of his grandmother's house. His father abandoned him and his mother committed suicide, so his feelings of rejection are rooted deep.

He might not understand the real world, but the guy is a whiz at the virtual. Every night he logs in to a portal called “Darknet” under the alias “WhoAmI” to socialize virtually with other hackers, but even in this world, being accepted is not as easy as it seems. Benjamin's ultimate goal is to impress legendary hacker MRX. In order to do that, he has to hack either a big, evil corporation or the government to prove his anarchist orientation.

Benjamin, meanwhile, attracts the attention of extroverted social charmer Max (Elyas M'barek), another hacker, who introduces him to his two buddies: Stephan (Wotan Wilke Möhring) and Paul (Antoine Monot Jr.). They form a group called CLAY and start hacking away at any big-time corporate player or evil institution they can access through their laptops. Their endeavors become legendary among the youth and underdogs of society, as, through virtual heists, they aim to become modern Robin Hoods. Indeed, these sequences are delightful and cheeky in their execution. For instance, one hack involves the belittlement of a neo-Nazi league.

For the first time in his life, Benjamin feels like he belongs to a social group and even thinks he might actually have a shot with the girl of his dreams, Marie. Max plays a key role in increasing his confidence, telling him that if he acts like he believes in himself, others will as well. But the good life becomes questionable when the group gets power-hungry, and their activities blip onto the radar of Interpol. Things get even worse when their name is associated with a terrorist organization that uses the exchange of information to kill. Benjamin finds himself as their target and must come forward to Interpol agent Handberg (Trine Dyrholm) to tell his side of the story -- a rather self-loathing confession during which he nearly pulls off a Keyser Söze.

Is Benjamin a manipulative schizophrenic who has lost himself in a vortex of anarchy and crime (the poster of “Fight Club” in his bedroom is not a coincidence) or is he just a lonely boy who wants to belong? Isn't this the ultimate question for any nerd living an extreme digital existence?

There's a wonderful twist to the end of “Who Am I – No System Is Safe” that toys with our expectations at every turn, never allowing for a simple answer or explanation. Hack-tivism is the main theme of the film, constantly reminding us of a larger population of angry youth who seek to avenge the cruelty and profiteering of capitalism with technological genius. Yet the main question is never fully answered: Ultimately, do these angry young people aim to make a difference in the world, or are they just seeking attention? There's a difference between being rebellious and revolutionary, and the film never fully offers answers, though it does provide a great character study of a young man who is tired of being pushed around.

Nevertheless, with every scene, through dialogue and kinetic editing, the film carries off suspense easily and delivers a cutting-edge thriller that is enjoyable and up-to-date. If it achieves any type of reflection on the world, it serves to remind us that no data or information stored by us or collected about us is secure. Welcome to the 21st century.

Jesse Eisenberg may be known for his starring role in "The Social Network," but his writing resume is equally notable. He has written three plays and a myriad of short stories that have been featured in The New Yorker. It makes perfect sense that Eisenberg's next project would be writing a compelling work of fiction to add to his long list of accomplishments. "Bream Gives Me Hiccups" is a fascinating look into the minds of misfits. Eisenberg forces his cast of

Jesse Eisenberg may be known for his starring role in “The Social Network,” but his writing resume is equally notable.

He has written three plays and a myriad of short stories that have been featured in The New Yorker. It makes perfect sense that Eisenberg's next project would be writing a compelling work of fiction to add to his long list of accomplishments.

“Bream Gives Me Hiccups” is a fascinating look into the minds of misfits. Eisenberg forces his cast of characters to tackle an array of social situations. They must negotiate the choppy waters of family dynamics, learn the art of self-help and create the ultimate pickup line. Whether it's Alexander Graham Bell bumbling through his first phone calls or Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks pacifying a fan, Eisenberg's ability to create interesting and entertaining dialogue as if the exchange actually occurred is impressive.

This includes an entire section dedicated to a 9-year-old boy who writes reviews of the fancy restaurants that his divorced mother insists on experiencing. Through an elaborate 2,000-star rating system, Eisenberg's wit jumps off the page. Yet the emotional pull of a boy reeling with the reality of his broken home is equally engaging.

The same can be said for a young man's email exchange with his girlfriend that's quickly commandeered by his overbearing sister. Only Eisenberg could take an entire opening paragraph detailing the drama of high-school teenage angst and morph it into a history lesson on the Bosnian genocide.

“Bream Gives Me Hiccups” is a delightful collection of awkward scenarios twisted into humorous, witty and sometimes poignant life lessons. It's simultaneously smart, clever and creative. In one moment, we feel sorry for the sad plight of the outsider. In the next, we completely relate to the empathetic scene unfolding before us. With each of these touching moments, it's easy to conclude one thing -- we are all misfits.

“Bream Gives Me Hiccups” by Jesse Eisenberg is published by Grove Press.

Madonna kicked off her “Rebel Heart” tour in Montreal on Wednesday night, belting out a mix of her iconic hits and new music from her recently released album, also titled “Rebel Heart.” The show opened with a video featuring Mike Tyson, Chance the Rapper and Madonna, where she addressed topics ranging from censorship to dictatorship. The tour is set to wrap in Australia in March 2016.

Madonna kicked off her “Rebel Heart” tour in Montreal on Wednesday night, belting out a mix of her iconic hits and new music from her recently released album, also titled “Rebel Heart.”

The show opened with a video featuring Mike Tyson, Chance the Rapper and Madonna, where she addressed topics ranging from censorship to dictatorship.

The tour is set to wrap in Australia in March 2016.

Five words sum up this year's Venice Film Festival: “Based on a true story.” Movie screens exploded with the forces roiling our world: war, terrorism and the vast migration bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the shores of Europe. Displaced people were onscreen in “A Bigger Splash,” where refugees plucked from the Mediterranean were background players to the story of a rock star (Tilda Swinton) and her emotional entanglements. Lu

Five words sum up this year's Venice Film Festival: “Based on a true story.” Movie screens exploded with the forces roiling our world: war, terrorism and the vast migration bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the shores of Europe.

Displaced people were onscreen in “A Bigger Splash,” where refugees plucked from the Mediterranean were background players to the story of a rock star (Tilda Swinton) and her emotional entanglements. Luca Guadagnino's film drew boos at its press screenings from some viewers, who found the juxtaposition crass. But Swinton said the Italian director was simply showing reality.

Reality was hard to avoid at the 11-day festival, which ends on Saturday with the presentation of the Golden Lion prize. Many of the movies told stories that seemed to come straight from the news. There were African child soldiers drafted into a brutal civil war in Cary Fukunaga's “Beasts of No Nation,” Afghan civilians caught between the Taliban and Danish troops in Tobias Lindholm's “A War” and Turkish brothers trapped in escalating political violence in Emin Alper's “Frenzy.”

Several films depicted real-life criminals and the social forces that made them: The assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, incited by extremist rabbis in Amos Gitai's “Rabin: The Last Day”; Johnny Depp's Boston gangster in league with corrupt cops in Scott Cooper's “Black Mass”; kidnappers protected by a military dictatorship in Pablo Trapero's Argentine thriller “El Clan.”

Festival director Alberto Barbera said the lineup reflected a feeling among filmmakers that “we seem to have lost control of our world.” “They feel that they need to face reality, to reflect on reality,” he said.

“The political atmosphere in the Middle East is horrible,” said “Frenzy” director Alper, whose film premiered amid rising violence between Turkish troops and the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). “It's getting more and more horrible these days, and of course Turkey is [affected] because it has a border with Syria,” he said. “Now you can see in every city there are refugees coming from Syria and they're begging on the streets and some of them are trying to go to Europe and you see these horrible, terrible pictures.”

Those pictures -- a drowned boy on a beach, a distraught father with his baby in his arms -- have moved and troubled people around the world, including the filmmakers in Venice.

Canadian director Atom Egoyan attended the festival with “Remember,” a thriller about the Holocaust and the way even the most traumatic events can be forgotten. He said images of migrants getting a hostile reception in a European nation like Hungary were chilling. “Did you think that you would find in Europe that people would still be pushed into a train and taken to a place where there would be police waiting for them?” Egoyan said. “That just seems horrifying and shockingly insensitive. How can that happen again? How can that image happen again?”

The Turkish film “Ana Yurdu” (Motherland) was treated to a lengthy standing ovation at its world premiere this week at the Venice International Film Festival, where it is in the running for the prestigious Lion of the Future “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for first-time directors. Directed by female filmmaker Senem Tüzen, the drama -- which follows the troubled relationship between a young woman and her mother -- premiered on Monday at the

The Turkish film “Ana Yurdu” (Motherland) was treated to a lengthy standing ovation at its world premiere this week at the Venice International Film Festival, where it is in the running for the prestigious Lion of the Future “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for first-time directors.

Directed by female filmmaker Senem Tüzen, the drama -- which follows the troubled relationship between a young woman and her mother -- premiered on Monday at the Sala Perla as part of International Critics' Week, an independent section of the Venice festival that is dedicated solely to debut features.

Director Tüzen was joined by her leading cast members Esra Bezen Bilgin and Nihal Koldaş as she presented “Motherland” during its sold-out premiere, which was also attended by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who is on the panel of judges for the festival's official competition, Venezia 72, Tüzen's publicist said on Thursday.

“Motherland” is the story of an urban, middle-class, recently divorced woman (played by Bilgin) who relocates to a village in Anatolia to live out her childhood dream of becoming a writer. When her conservative and increasingly unhinged mother turns up uninvited and refuses to leave, the young woman's writing stalls and her fantasies of village life turn bitter.

The fact that “Motherland” is a female director's debut effort and has a story with two female leads was the film's main draw for festivalgoers and critics alike, Tüzen's publicist told Today's Zaman in emailed comments.

Mariella Cruciani of the Italian National Union of Film Critics wrote that “Motherland” was “a female portrait of rare intensity.” In her review posted online on CineCriticaWeb, Cruciani called “Motherland” a “complex and brave” film “with uncommon depth.”

A review published in the Italian film periodical Quinlan called Tüzen's film “a wonderful surprise.” In his review posted Wednesday, Massimiliano Schiavoni wrote that “the intelligence of ‘Motherland' lies in its disturbing ambiguity.”

Film critic Luca Pellegrini called the film a portrait of “today's Turkey in its most profound sense,” adding, “It is this sense of ancientness terribly clashing with the present that the film [depicts] in an unforgettable way.”

“Motherland” was shown for a second time in Venice on Tuesday. The 72nd Venice Film Festival wraps up Saturday with the announcement of the awards.

The organizers of Europalia Arts Festival, an annual multidisciplinary program that will be hosting Turkey as guest country in its 2015-2016 edition, have cancelled talks by two deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in a last minute change in the scheduled program so as not to be an instrument to government propaganda. According to the info-turk.be news website, the previously planned literature talks by AK Party deputies Markar Eseyan an

The organizers of Europalia Arts Festival, an annual multidisciplinary program that will be hosting Turkey as guest country in its 2015-2016 edition, have cancelled talks by two deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in a last minute change in the scheduled program so as not to be an instrument to government propaganda.

According to the info-turk.be news website, the previously planned literature talks by AK Party deputies Markar Eseyan and Muhsin Kızılkaya was taken out of the festival program after a request by the Brussels-based association Maison Du Livre, one of the partners of the festival. Speaking to the Cihan news agency, Christian Hublau from the association said Europalia officials responded positively to their request and the talks by the two deputies were cancelled.

Elements of Turkish culture, old and new, will be featured extensively in Belgian cities -- as well as in several other European locations -- this fall thanks to the Europalia Arts Festival.
The festival, starting with its 25/45 jubilee edition, will focus on four elements: heritage projects; contemporary projects; exchange; and new creations. The Europalia Turkey program, put together under these guidelines, will feature hundreds of events in a diverse range of artistic fields. They include historical exhibitions, photography exhibitions, dance performances blending tradition and modern, concerts by classical music ensembles, rock bands and DJs, film screenings, talks with famous Turkish authors and puppet theater shows.
The program will get under way on Oct. 7 with an exhibition titled “Anatolia. Home of Eternity” at the Center for Fine Arts in Brussels, which, a few days later, will also unveil “Imagine İstanbul,” a photography exhibition with a special focus on work by Ara Güler, who is billed as “the Eye of İstanbul.”
Contemporary authors Ahmet Ümit, Enis Batur and Hakan Günday are among the guests of the literature section of the festival, which will also feature dozens of conferences and seminars about Turkish culture.
 

A new exhibition titled “Collaborative Archives: Connective Histories” in a New York gallery looks at state-led violence around the world via examples. Co-curated by Katherine Cohn and Işın Önol and on display until Sept. 18 at Columbia University's Leroy Neiman Gallery, the exhibition is part of a project called “Women Mobilizing Memory,” which delves into politics of memory through gender and social difference with a group of artis

A new exhibition titled “Collaborative Archives: Connective Histories” in a New York gallery looks at state-led violence around the world via examples.

Co-curated by Katherine Cohn and Işın Önol and on display until Sept. 18 at Columbia University's Leroy Neiman Gallery, the exhibition is part of a project called “Women Mobilizing Memory,” which delves into politics of memory through gender and social difference with a group of artists, scholars and activists from the US, Chile, Argentina and Turkey.

Emphasizing the power of memory through which several traumatic events can be stored in individuals' minds, the exhibition questions how these memories can be used to enable solidarity against different kinds of violence.

“Memories are the very fabric from which we are woven. They are intimate, bodily, internal. They enable us to perceive the world, build our coherent selves,” the curators write in the exhibition's catalogue. “But they are also contained in the objects we touch, use and produce; they are mediated through public images and tropes. They can be shared, exchanged and transmitted in familial and communal settings. In the process and the aftermath of oppression, persecution, war and genocide, when personal coherence is threatened and intimacy evacuated, memories can weigh us down, repeating themselves in traumatic re-enactment.”

The exhibition seeks to answer whether memories of political violence and atrocity can become the occasion for solidarity across space and time.

The works in the show aim at uncovering state-sponsored violence through archives. “Whether creating an archive to document the history of the Kurdish population that has experienced mass displacement, or assembling the fragmented archive of a family that experienced homelessness for over a decade in the US, or documenting women's protest actions in dictatorship Chile, or collecting testimonies of women whose husbands have forcibly disappeared in contemporary Turkey, these works juxtapose intimate experiences of loss with official memorial tropes in the media or in public imaginaries,” the curators explain.

One of the works in the show by artist and activist Aylin Tekiner centers on three important massacres that have taken place in Turkey and Syria during the past three decades: the Halabja massacre of 1988, a chemical attack that targeted Kurds in the area and killed around 5,000 and injured more than 9,000 people; the Sivas massacre of 1993, in which more than 35 people were killed when an ultraconservative mob set fire to a hotel where Alevi intellectuals had gathered; and the more recent Roboski (Uludere) airstrike of 2011, in which two Turkish military jets, acting on information that a group of terrorists was crossing the Iraqi-Turkish border, killed 34 civilian Kurds. Titled “Scent/Sorrow/Exile,” Tekiner's work focuses on the “official” language through which these incidents are recounted in news reports and textbooks.

Another work from Turkey in the exhibition documents stories of women whose husbands disappeared under detention. According to a 2013 report by Hafıza Merkezi (the Center for Truth, Justice and Memory), 1,353 persons disappeared by forces directly or indirectly connected with the state since the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup. The work in the exhibition, a three-channel video installation titled “Holding up the Photograph,” presents intimate memories about these people.

Artist Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, whose works are also part of the show, looks at atrocities against Anatolian Armenians in 1915. The artist invited Armenian families who were forced to leave their home and properties, to weave an Anatolian carpet out of their photos. The stitched photos are a metaphor for a now non-existent possibility. A video of the performance accompanies the photographs, underlining the dynamic aspect of memory.

The exhibition also features work by artists Paz Errázuriz, Simone Leigh, Susan Meiselas, Lorie Novak and Kameelah Janan Rasheed.

The 14th İstanbul Biennial presents contemporary art exhibitions under the conceptual framework “Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms” in over 30 venues around the city, including major museums and on the Princes Islands, until Nov. 1. Admission is free. For further information, see http://14b.iksv.org/ “İFSAK Arşivi Aralanıyor” (İFSAK Archive Unveiled), an exhibition presenting work by around 50 renowned photographers from Turkey, continues

The 14th İstanbul Biennial presents contemporary art exhibitions under the conceptual framework “Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms” in over 30 venues around the city, including major museums and on the Princes Islands, until Nov. 1. Admission is free. For further information, see http://14b.iksv.org/

“İFSAK Arşivi Aralanıyor” (İFSAK Archive Unveiled), an exhibition presenting work by around 50 renowned photographers from Turkey, continues until Sept. 28 at the Beyoğlu-based İFSAK gallery, run by the İstanbul Association of Amateurs of Photography and Cinema (İFSAK).

The Pera Museum in İstanbul hosts the exhibition “Images of Our Time” until Nov. 1. The selection features works by the students and graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo.

The Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art in İstanbul hosts work by 34 contemporary sculptors in “Skyline,” the seventh in the Maslak-based museum's Terrace Exhibitions series, which is scheduled to continue until Nov. 7.

The Akbank Art Center in İstanbul's Taksim hosts “Louise Bourgeois: Larger than Life,” a major exhibition of works by the late French-American contemporary artist Louise Bourgeois, until Nov. 28.

“How Did We Get Here,” a group exhibition that aims to explore Turkey's political and cultural climate during the 1980s, is on display until Nov. 29 at SALT Beyoğlu and SALT Galata art spaces in İstanbul.

“Lost Shadows,” the newest solo exhibition by Turkish conceptual artist Vahap Avşar, continues until Sept. 27 at the Forum section of SALT Beyoğlu.

The Sakıp Sabancı Museum in İstanbul presents the exhibition “Zero. Countdown to the Future” until Jan. 10, 2016, showcasing a selection of work by artists who were part of the 20th-century art movement Zero.

The Borusan Contemporary Office-Museum in İstanbul is currently home to two new exhibitions: “What Lies Beneath,” a collection of four large installations, and “Desire,” which features a selection from the Borusan contemporary art collection. Both shows will continue until Feb. 21, 2016. The office-museum is open only on weekends.

The İstanbul Modern's permanent exhibition, recently updated with new acquisitions and renamed “Artists in Their Time,” is on display at the museum's main floor, featuring 186 works of art in various disciplines by 115 artists from Turkey and around the world.

“Urartian Jewelry Collection,” a historical exhibition that brings together a selection of objects dating back to the ancient kingdom of Urartu, continues until Jan. 31, 2016 in an extended run at the Rezan Has Museum in İstanbul.

The CerModern museum in Ankara opens the new art season with the exhibition “Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences,” which runs from Sept. 11 to Nov. 8. An exhibition of photos by the “Afghan Girl” photographer Steve McCurry is set to open on Wednesday at CerModern, bringing together a selection of McCurry's most recognizable works from the past 30 years.

The Fourth İstanbul International Clarinet Festival runs from Sept. 10 to 20 in various locations across the city, including metro stations and ferries, featuring live performances by the New York Gypsy All Stars, Trilok Gurtu, Ivo Papazov and George Dalaras. Tickets for the festival are available for purchase via Biletix.

Antalya's annual Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival continues until Sept. 24 in its 22nd edition, presenting four opera productions and two concerts at the ancient Roman theater Aspendos. For the full program, see www.aspendosfestival.gov.tr.

İstanbul's Tamirane club, which recently reopened in its new venue in Maslak Uniq İstanbul, continues hosting its weekly series “Morning Jazz Sessions” every Sunday afternoon. The Jazz Matiz Quartet is this weekend's act in the series. Concerts begin at 3 p.m.

The Uniq İstanbul entertainment complex in Maslak hosts Başka Sinema independent film screenings twice every week in its outdoor theater until the end of September. Showings are held every Thursday and Sunday.

Rome was first ruled by kings, then became a republic. But in the end, after conquering the world, the republic collapsed. So terrible were the civil wars that the people finally came to welcome the rule of an autocrat who could give them peace. “Augustus,” their new master called himself: “The Divinely Favored One.” A portrait of Rome's first imperial dynasty. by Tom Holland Published by Little, Brown 25 pounds

Rome was first ruled by kings, then became a republic. But in the end, after conquering the world, the republic collapsed. So terrible were the civil wars that the people finally came to welcome the rule of an autocrat who could give them peace. “Augustus,” their new master called himself: “The Divinely Favored One.” A portrait of Rome's first imperial dynasty.

by Tom Holland
Published by Little, Brown
25 pounds in hardcover
History

Spy legend James Bond returns to his heyday: It's 1957 and the Soviet counter-intelligence agency plans to sabotage a grand prix race at the most dangerous track in Europe. But it's Bond who finds himself in the driving seat and events take an unexpected turn when he observes a suspicious meeting between a driver and a sinister Korean millionaire. Bond uncovers a plan that will bring the West to its knees. by Anthony Horowitz Published by

Spy legend James Bond returns to his heyday: It's 1957 and the Soviet counter-intelligence agency plans to sabotage a grand prix race at the most dangerous track in Europe. But it's Bond who finds himself in the driving seat and events take an unexpected turn when he observes a suspicious meeting between a driver and a sinister Korean millionaire. Bond uncovers a plan that will bring the West to its knees.

by Anthony Horowitz
Published by Orion
18.99 pounds in hardcover
Fiction: thriller

12th book in the “How to Train Your Dragon” series. It is the Doomsday of Yule. At the end of this day, either the humans or the dragons will face extinction. Alvin the Treacherous is about to be crowned the King of the Wilderwest on the island of Tomorrow. His reign of terror will begin with the destruction of dragons everywhere. The fate of the dragon world lies in the hands of one young boy. by Cressida Cowell Published by Hodder

12th book in the “How to Train Your Dragon” series. It is the Doomsday of Yule. At the end of this day, either the humans or the dragons will face extinction. Alvin the Treacherous is about to be crowned the King of the Wilderwest on the island of Tomorrow. His reign of terror will begin with the destruction of dragons everywhere. The fate of the dragon world lies in the hands of one young boy.

by Cressida Cowell
Published by Hodder
12.99 pounds in hardcover
Fiction: youth

The fourth and final book of the Neapolitan novels. A dazzling saga of two women -- the brilliant Elena and the fiery, uncontainable Lila. Life's great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses suffered. But, throughout it all, their friendship remains the gravitational center of their lives. The memorable finale of a great literary achievement. by Elena Ferrante Published by Europa Editions 11.99 pounds in paperback Fi

The fourth and final book of the Neapolitan novels. A dazzling saga of two women -- the brilliant Elena and the fiery, uncontainable Lila. Life's great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses suffered. But, throughout it all, their friendship remains the gravitational center of their lives. The memorable finale of a great literary achievement.

by Elena Ferrante
Published by Europa Editions
11.99 pounds in paperback
Fiction