Pandora's Box

An estranged family is brought together upon the news of their mother’s worsening illness. But the tough-minded mother is not so keen on spending time with her bickering adult children. With her teenage grandson she meets for the first time, she will develop a profound bond.

Nusret’s adult children – daughters Nesrin, Güzin and son Mehmet – live separate lives in Istanbul and have all come to terms differently with the monotonous void in their urban existence. After hearing that their mother is not well, they trek to their hometown near the Black Sea. Finding Nusret unconscious yet physically fit, they take her back to Istanbul, the city that Ustaoglu regards as a ’Pandora’s Box’. The burdensome situation reawakens old conflicts between the siblings. They quickly notice that Nusret is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Nesrin and Güzin first take care of their mother. But the task proves to be too difficult for the quarrelsome sisters: they not only can’t cope with their mother’s decline, they can’t deal with their own alienated lives. The headstrong Nusret abhors the concrete city with its insincere modern relationships and just wants to return home. But unexpectedly she forms a close bond with her rebellious pothead grandson Murat. The film is a profound study of loss, estrangement and familial tensions, but above all it is a critique of a contemporary society that has de-familiarized itself from its roots, its ‘Mother Nature’. Pandora’s Box won several prizes in 2008, including the San Sebastian Best Actress Award for protagonist Tsilla Chelton. The film, like some previous ones, was supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. –IFFR