“Rahma”, the third feature by director Faysal Soysal, will have its world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), where it has been selected for the Critics’ Picks Competition.
A co-production between Türkiye, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy, the film follows Meryem, an archaeologist working at and around Göbeklitepe in Şanlıurfa. Struggling to have a child, Meryem crosses paths with Rahma, a nine-year-old Syrian girl fighting to survive; what begins as an act of kindness turns into a mystical bond when Rahma’s secret comes to light.
Parallel storylines follow an Iranian mother forced to flee to Türkiye and Nidal, a Syrian smuggler trying to get her to Europe. Deniz Işın, Uğur Aslan and Feyyaz Duman lead the cast, while Rahma is played by Nagam Bireç, herself a migrant, in her first screen role.
During development the project won the TRT 12 Punto Pre-Purchase Award (2023), the Best Project Award at the Troya Project Development Platform (2023), the Special Jury Prize at the Hanoi International Film Festival (2024) and Best Screenplay at the SR Socially Relevant Film Festival in New York (2025). It was made with support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Bulgarian National Film Center and Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality.
Date and Venue
- Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival: 6–22 November 2026, Tallinn (Estonia)
- “Rahma” screening: evening of 14 November, Apollo Cinema
