Fest offers the best of the best from Turkey
She promised to come back but never did. Or maybe she was never really there in the first place. Lonely Zebercet can't stop thinking about the beautiful and mysterious woman who checked into his hotel. He becomes obsessed with waiting for her, turning away customers and shutting himself up in the place, which seems more like the Bates Motel as this chilling psychological thriller progresses.
''Motherland Hotel" is just one of the many gems worth seeing in this year's Boston Turkish Film Festival, which starts Friday at the Museum of Fine Arts. The program showcases the 10 best Turkish films of all time, according to a poll done by the Ankara Cinema Association. The diverse, highly appealing lineup offers social realism, comedy, and drama.
''It's approximately 40 years of Turkish cinema in one shot," says Erkut Gomulu, the festival's director and founder. ''It's a visual treat for film lovers."
The four-year-old festival presents classics such as ''Hope" and ''Dry Summer," previously screened films ''Distant" and ''Innocence," and a new film called ''What's a Human Anyway?" In this raucous comedy, a taxi driver claims to have lost his memory, but his family and friends are suspicious of his condition.
''The important thing is to get the attention of film critics in the US. We don't want to be limited to the ethnic audience," Gomulu says.
For more information on the festival, go to www.bostonturkishfilmfestival.org.
STRONG SURVIVORS: Israeli director Orna Ben Dor has made her career telling captivating stories of her country's women, and her latest, ''Widowed Once, Twice Bereaved" continues that tradition. The documentary, making its US premiere, follows five women whose husbands and children were killed in a suicide bombing in Haifa.
Ben Dor will be on hand Sunday to discuss her work as part of Brandeis University's Jewishfilm.2005: From Auschwitz to America and Israel. The festival is presented by the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis and runs from Thursday through April 10. The extensive program includes appearances by six filmmakers as well as several films making their Boston or US debuts. For more information, go to www.jewishfilm.org or call 781-899-7044.
GOING UNDERGROUND: For a look at up-and-coming filmmakers, the Boston Underground Film Festival kicks off April 6. The Somerville Theatre is home to the event, which highlights the work of New England filmmakers and runs through April 10. Award categories include best feature, best short, and ''most effectively offensive."
On the schedule are animated satire ''Hair High," from Oscar nominee Bill Plympton, and ''Neo-Con: The Age of Treason." Also, David Kleiler and Eran Lobel will talk about their forthcoming documentary on seminal punk band Mission of Burma and present a rough cut of the film. For more information, go to www.bostonundergroundfilmfestival.com or call 617-975-3361.
EXCLUSIVE CIRCLES: Music of a different kind will be the focus at Arlington's Regent Theatre for a benefit screening of ''Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly." Boston-born director Beth Harrington's film blends interviews and performances by rockabilly musicians such as Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee.
Proceeds will help fund the completion of Harrington's current work in progress, a feature-length documentary on roots music pioneers the Carter Family called ''The Circle Still Unbroken." Harrington will show clips from this film at the screening, which takes place April 7 at 7 p.m. For more information, go to www.regenttheatre.com.
SHORT TAKES: This week the Brattle Theatre and Harvard Film Archive continue their series about Los Angeles. ''The Big Sleep" (2 p.m.) and ''Los Angeles Plays Itself" (4:30 and 8 p.m.) screen today at the Brattle, and ''Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession" (7 p.m.) and ''Mayor of the Sunset Strip" (9:15 p.m.) are at the HFA. The two series continue through April 3. For more information, go to www.brattlefilm.org and www.harvardfilmarchive.org.
Director Hiroshi Teshigahara captures the man behind the landmarks with ''Antonio Gaudi." The acclaimed film celebrating the Spanish architect returns to the Museum of Fine Arts today at 2.
Animators Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt have described ''The Animation Show" as ''an alternative to the gross-out packages that seem to be the only short animation shown in theaters nowadays." See for yourself Friday night at the Brattle Theatre, with shows at 8 and 10. It also plays midnight Fridays and Saturdays at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
Rhonda Stewart can be reached at rstewart@globe.com.
