Skip to main content
Rosinante film image; three people on a motorcycle going down a road

Rosinante

Panorama

This event has passed

North American Premiere

When thirty-something husband and father Salih (Fatih Sönmez) loses his job, his middle-class life with wife Ayşe (Nilay Erdönmez) and six-year-old son Emre (Can Demir) is thrown into jeopardy. In the face of mounting bills and a string of job rejections, he takes the unusual step of joining an app-based motorcycle taxi driving service. But when his bike, named Rosinante, one day goes mysteriously missing, the family starts to run out of options.

Directed by first-time filmmaker Baran Gündüzalp, Rosinante charmingly updates Vittorio De Sica’s classic Bicycle Thieves to modern-day Istanbul, with the harsh realities of post-war Italy traded for the crippling cost-of-living crisis in Erdoğan’s Turkey. Featuring a deft mix of domestic drama and absurdist comedy, not to mention a welcome emphasis on everyday finances, the film is at once a touching portrait of a family under pressure and a joyous but realistic exploration of contemporary urban life.

 

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Nilay Erdönmez, Fatih Sönmez, Can Demir

Credits
Country of Origin

Turkey

Year

2023

Language

In Turkish with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
104 min
Drama Family Relations
Alkali Film Istanbul

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Producer

Deniz Yeşilgün, Baran Gündüzalp

Screenwriter

Deniz Yeşilgün, Baran Gündüzalp

Cinematography

Arda Yıldıran

Editor

İsmet Araç

Art Director

Levent Uçma

Baran Gündüzalp headshot; Rosinante director

Baran Gündüzalp

Baran Gündüzalp graduated from the Communication Arts Department of Anadolu University in 2004. His short films were shown in Turkey’s most prestigious festivals between 2008 and 2018. His debut feature Rosinante had its world premiere at the 36th Tokyo Film Festival in 2023. It won the Best Screenplay Award at the 4th Annaba Film Festival and the Best Film Award at the 22nd Ischia Film Festival held in Italy.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

The Gleaners and I

Dir. Agnès Varda
82 min

This lovely essay film about the art of foraging is also a self portrait of the artist at 72.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Miracle Worker

Dir. Arthur Penn
107 min

Academy Awards went to Best Actress Anne Bancroft and Best Supporting Actress Patty Duke for their moving portrayals of Annie Sullivan and her remarkable blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller. "A film that storms where most biopics respectfully tiptoe."

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

In the Mood for Love

Dir. Wong Kar-wai
107 min

Wong Kar-wai's most acclaimed and popular film is a love story about two neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who are drawn together by the long absences of their respective spouses + a newly released short companion piece from 2001.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

In the Heat of the Night

Dir. Norman Jewison
110 min

Sidney Poitier in an indelible role a Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs, pulled in as a murder suspect when changing trains in Mississippi. He allies with bigoted local sheriff (Rod Steiger) to solve the case.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Rachel, Rachel

Dir. Paul Newman
101 min

The story of a shy schoolteacher whose sexual awakening in her mid-30s leads to a deeper re-evaluation of her life, the film is sensitive and sympathetic, as well as a surprising directorial debut from Paul Newman.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Ghosts of the Sea

97 min

Imagine an especially poetic true crime podcast about a sailor who built his own sailboat and lived on the high seas, but lost not one, but two wives along the way... Now imagine it told from the vantage point of his daughter: Ghosts of the Sea.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema