The Pain is an award-winning 2009 Turkish drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

, written, produced and directed by Cemal Şan, which looks at generation gaps through the story of an old man and his granddaughter. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on , has been screened at numerous international film festivals. It is dedicated to Engin Çeber

Engin Ceber

Engin Çeber was a Turkish human rights activist who was tortured and killed while in police custody. Mehmet Ali Sahin, Turkey's justice minister apologized and announced that 19 officials had been suspended pending investigation....

 who died while he was in custody.

Plot

Nesrin is a young girl fighting for freedom, while the grandfather Hıdır defends the family values. Through the story of Hıdır and Nesrin, the film brings forward the issues of identity, toleration, leniency, cultural differences and ethics. “Pain” is a universal story on the necessity of saying “no!” for a humanely life.

General release

The film opened in 25 screens across Turkey on at number twenty-eight in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of $3,067.

Festival screenings

• 2009
  • Dadaş Film Festival
  • 4th Bursa International Silk Road Film Festival
  • 3rd STEPS International Rights Film Festival
• 2010
  • 28th International Fajr Film Festival
  • 21st Ankara International Film Festival
    21st Ankara International Film Festival
    The 21st Ankara International Film Festival is a film festival held in Ankara, Turkey that ran from March 11 to 21, 2010.This edition of the Ankara International Film Festival, organized by The World Mass Media Research Foundation and accredited by FIPRESCI, opened with a gala on the evening of...
    
    

Box Office

The film reached number twenty-seven in the Turkish box office chart and has made a total gross of $27,488.

Awards

• 2009 Dadaş Film Festival
  • Best Film (Won)
  • Best Director: Cemal Şan (Won)
  • Best Actress (Won)

• 3rd STEPS International Rights Film Festival
  • Best Screenplay: Cemal Şan (Won)
  • Best Music: Nail Yurtsever, Cem Tuncer & Engin Arslan (Won)

• 28th International Fajr Film Festival
  • Firuze Award (Won)