In the film Pandora’s Box, director Yesim Ustaoglu made the film in Turkey.
Pandora’s Box is the English title of Ustaoglu’s 2008 Turkish film, which is also known by its Turkish title, Pandora’nin Kutusu. The drama follows three adult siblings who search for their missing elderly mother in the Black Sea region.
The film uses the title as a metaphor for family tensions and difficult memories that are opened by the search. Its story is separate from the ancient Greek myth and from the 1929 silent film Pandora’s Box starring Louise Brooks.
Ustaoglu’s film won the Golden Shell for Best Film at the 2008 San Sebastián International Film Festival. The director is Turkish, and the film’s setting and language place it within Turkish cinema, even though its international title refers to a Greek mythological image.