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“Like a Limbless Tree,” an intimate social drama directed by Tunç Davut, has been selected as Turkey’s entry for the Academy Award for best international feature film.
Davut, whose previous works include the 2015 drama
“Entanglement and TV series “Serçe” and “Kinali Kuzular,” delves into the fragility of human existence against a backdrop of the theme of immigration in “Like a Limbless Tree.” The film is produced by Istanbul-based Tekhne Film and stars Ali Ipin, Fayyaz Duman and Selen Kurtaran.
Davut’s drama – which won an award at the Bosphorus Film Festival and was selected for the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and the Ankara Film Festival – is about a retired engineer named Refik whose life changes forever after being diagnosed with a terminal disease just as his Syrian caregiver disappears while attempting to flee to Europe, leaving him in charge of her two children.
Refik “searches for a form of atonement he cannot fully understand,” the Turkish filmmaker said in his director’s statement. “His acts of kindness may be sincere, but they are also attempts to reconcile himself with the person he has become,” Davut added.
Turkey will be pursuing its first Oscar nomination, and victory, in 2026 after having made the shortlist once in 2008 with Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Three Monkeys.”
The 99th Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 14. The submission deadline for the international feature film category is Sept. 30.
