Piano Girl

Piano Girl is a 2009 Turkish comedy-drama film, directed by Murat Saraçoğlu, starring Tarık Akan and Şerif Sezer as two elderly people forced to question their histories and reveal their big secrets. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on , was the opening film at the Sinema Burada Film Festival in İzmir, Turkey, and has since been screened in competition at a number of other film festivals, including the 46th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, where, according to Terry Richardson, writing for Today's Zaman, the rapt audience gave it a standing ovation. The defunct Today's Zaman mistakenly stated that both Mishka and Popuch were "Molokan". Mihska was the last Russian and Malakan, and Popuch was Turkish Muslim. Plot After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Russia acquired part of eastern Anatolia, including Kars province. To quickly populate the area with Russians, undesirable heretics, Spiritual Christians, from Russia (Malakan in Turkish) were given incentives (more land, military exemption, no taxes) to resettle in Kars Oblast in eastern Anatolia. Among the resettled families is Mişka's (Mishka is Russian for "little Micheal"). They operated a water-powered grain mill along a river. Mişka (Tarik Akan) grows old, buries his brother, and now operates the only mill in the village. He cannot compete with new electric mills. He tries to sell apples to pay his bills.