The 2008 Turkish film Pandora’s Box won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
Directed by Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Pandora’s Box is a family drama about three siblings searching for their elderly mother after she disappears from her home in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The journey exposes tensions between the siblings and challenges their assumptions about family responsibility, aging, and modern life.
The film received the Golden Shell, the festival’s principal competition prize, at the 56th San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2008. Tsilla Chelton, who played the mother, also received the festival’s award for Best Actress.
This film is distinct from the 1929 German silent film of the same English title. The two productions share the Pandora reference but have different stories, languages, directors, and historical settings.