Pandora’s Box is the 2008 Turkish film directed by Yeşim Ustaoğlu that won the San Sebastián Golden Shell.
The film follows three adult siblings who search for their missing elderly mother in Turkey’s Black Sea region. When they find her, family tensions and different ideas about responsibility, independence, and care come to the surface. The title evokes a container of unresolved personal and family troubles rather than presenting a direct retelling of the ancient Greek myth.
Tsilla Chelton played the mother, Nusret, and received the Best Actress award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Ustaoğlu’s drama was recognized internationally for its restrained treatment of ageing, family conflict, and social change.
The Golden Shell is the festival’s top prize for the best film in the official competition. The film should not be confused with G. W. Pabst’s 1929 German silent film, which has the same English title but a different story, country, period, and source material.