Turkish star Duzyatan for Ajyal 2017 opening night

Famous Turkish actor Engin Altan Duzyatan will be gracing the openingnight of the Fifth Ajyal Youth Film Festival on November 29, Doha FilmInstitute (DFI) CEO and festival director Fatma al-Remaihi hasannounced. “We have a very special guest attending the opening night,the Turkish actor Engin Altan Duzyatan, who is the main actor in thefamous TV series Dirilis: Ertugrul, now showing on Qatar TV,” she toldreporters yesterday.The actor started his acting career when he was in high school, andjoined Dokuz Eylul University to study theatre. After completing hiscourse, he moved to Istanbul to start his professional acting career.Duzyatan appeared in the series Sevgili Dunurum with Nevra Serezli,Haluk Bilginer and Sumru Yavrucu before appearing in films Cennet in2008 and Mezuniyet in 2009.Al-Remaihi explained that the festival will feature 103 films from 43countries, including the Middle East premiere of The Breadwinner(Canada/Ireland/Luxembourg, 2017) by Nora Twomey and executive producedby Angelina Jolie. The festival is scheduled to take place at Katara – the Cultural Village from November 29 to December 4.Ajyal 2017 will also witness more than 550 jurors from over 45 countriesaged eight to 21, who comprise the Ajyal Competition Jury, watching andanalysing films under three competitive sections: Mohaq, Hilal, andBader.These include 29 international jurors from Armenia, Bosnia andHerzegovina, Georgia, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman,Tunisia, Turkey and the UK. The festival will also offer a diverse slateof 36 short films in competition from Qatar and around the world,representing a wide range of perspectives and cinematic approaches.According to DFI, this year’s line-up of 36 short films in competitionpresents a rich showcase of inspiring tales from 28 countries.Collectively, the programme will help raise awareness on global issuesamongst the youth and stimulate their creativity and thought process.“Short films are an extremely refined form of cinematic expression,requiring very precise focus, where each shot and frame is measured,weighed and shaped to ensure its effectiveness,” al-Remaihi said in astatement. “We sourced films from across the world to present our jurors a vividcross-section of movies that present new perspectives on life,transcends borders and provides fresh insights into communities andpeople,” she added.