Emin Alper, a filmmaker who has consistently pursued a coherent set of themes, received this year’s Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. His latest film Salvation, inspired by a true story, portrays the tension that arises between two tribes over land. His films have steadily explored the tragedy born from the combination of excessive attachment to land and territory alongside exclusionary hatred. Also worth noting is how he has pursued a widescreen aesthetic in service of expressing these themes. Beyond that, Salvation ventures into a momentary nightmare fueled by religious fanaticism and pagan revelation. In this inverted tale of Cain and Abel, who among the people of the upper village and the lower village is Cain? The devil exists inside the mind, so even in obeying its commands, anxiety and fear do not disappear. Because Alper’s films are mostly set in confined rural spaces, they might seem to depict the problems of a premodern society. But he also seems to be suggesting that this is, in fact, a common and longstanding problem that modernization has failed to overcome.
Emin Alper studied economics and history at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul and holds a master′s and doctorate in modern Turkish history — a scholar-turned-director who, alongside filmmaking, also serves as the artistic programmer of Cinematheque Istanbul. His feature debut, Beyond the Hill (2012), screened in the Berlinale Forum, where it won the Caligari Film Prize and received a Special Mention from the Best First Feature Award jury, while Frenzy (2015) won the Special Jury Prize at Venice. He made his first appearance in the Berlinale′s main competition with A Tale of Three Sisters (2019), and Burning Days (2022) was invited to Cannes Un Certain Regard. His latest film, Salvation, which follows two village communities torn apart by a long-standing land dispute as they′re swept into a spiral of fear and violence, had its world premiere in the main competition at the 2026 Berlinale, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize from a jury led by Wim Wenders.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
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