Golden Shell goes to Pandora's Box in San Sebastian

Pandora's Box by Yesim Ustaoglu won two awards in San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, including the top award, Golden Shell. The best actress prize award went to Tsilla Chelton, famed with her role in the 1990 French movie Tatie Denielle. She learned Turkish for her part in Pandora's Box, an Alzheimer's afflicted mother of three mid-aged siblings who decide to bring her into the city from the Black Sea village she lives after learning about her developing condition. Chelton, whose performance had already received praises in early reviews is accompanied by Derya Alabora, Ovul Avkiran and Osman Sonant.

Pandora's Box recently has been shown in North America, in the Toronto International Film Festival. Below is the synopsis from the film's page on TIFF web site. A collection of clips from the movie can be found at San Sebastian Film Festival's site, linked below.

Pandora's Box is a story of alienation and isolation. It is a story of individuals whose lives have been shaped by a sterile, middle-class morality, a story that many people touched by the inevitable combination of capitalism and modernity can identify with. It is a kind of human landscape, both universal and singular at the same time…