The Hoop makes Turkey premier at Bosphorus Film Festival

By Fatih Turkyilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Hoop, a 2021 Turkish film and candidate for the national and international feature film award at the Bosphorus Film Festival, has made its premier at the ninth Bosphorus Film Festival.

Director and screenwriter Ahmet Toklu attended the screening on Monday at the Atlas 1948 Cinema in Istanbul, along with actors Bahar Hacibektasoglu, Mert Erdogdu, Alp Akar, and other team members.

The movie relates the story of a boy, Ahmet, who takes up an after-school job at a mini-market in a luxury gated community near his own run-down neighborhood after his father is unable to send money back from Russia, where he went to work.

Falling in love with a classmate, Ahmet decides to learn how to play basketball when he finds out about her interest in Erhan, who came to school one day with basketball equipment and clothes.

However, there is nowhere in his neighborhood where Ahmet can practice the sport -- a setback that he seeks to overcome throughout the movie.

In his speech after the screening, Director Toklu said the starting point for the film was his own childhood experience trying to make hoop with his friends.

Hacibektasoglu, who plays Ahmet's mother, said The Hoop was an emotionally moving film about children and expressed hope that its success would encourage children's films in the future.

* Writing by Dilara Hamit