My Only Sunshine 2008

Hayat lives with her father and her sick grandfather in a riverside shack near the dangerously dark but breathtakingly beautiful waters of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Her father is busy striving for the family’s survival through a miscellany of not always lawful ventures. What Hayat yearns for most is simply love and attention. At times her father seems as if he has a genuine wish to connect with her, but these are only occasional fleeting glimpses, she just seems to be incidental to other people's lives. Hayat's life is harsh and unrelenting. But she is a survivor, eternally optimistic and determined.