40 is the story of a CITY. A city that unwittingly influences the lives of 3 strangers as their worlds weave, waltz, connect and collide on its chaotic streets. Shot entirely on location in Istanbul, Turkey, ‘40’ combines intense story telling with documentary style cinematography embarking on a synchronistic journey dealing with faith, love, luck, destiny, human trafficking…and a briefcase full of money that falls from the sky.

Metin is a 30 year old kid from the village who fled a horrific home life for the promise of “more” in the city. To survive, he uses his cab as a front to deliver drugs to Istanbul’s elite. But like a bad Turkish film, no matter how hard he tries to change his luck, things always seem to go from bad to worse.

Godwill, a naïve Nigerian immigrant, is a man of miracles. His birth was deemed the will of God by the village elders and this faith guides him and colors his view. It eventually leads him to human traffickers who promise to take him to Paris where he plans on proposing to his one true love. Instead… he winds up in Istanbul, one of the thousands of illegal Africans, using the city as a launching pad to Europe. But God won’t leave him half way…

Sevda, born an Istanbullite from bi-cultural parents, can’t seem to find her place. She’s dabbled in Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and now she’s using the science of numerology to chart her course. A nurse by trade, she dreams of breaking free of the self imposed monotony of her life for the sake of her young daughter, Pinar.

40 revolves around the bizarre events that unfold during one strange and stormy week in November. After Godwill’s hard earned money to Paris is stolen, his God sends down another money filled bag from the sky. At the same time, Allah is cursing Metin, whose own money bag, and only hope to rise above his shitty situation, mysteriously goes missing. Metin gets in his cab to find it– nearly killing a man. That man is Godwill who just moments before was sure his next stop would be Paris, not Istanbul’s state hospital. Sevda, the nurse on duty, is drawn to Godwill’s room number. 40 signifies her destiny…which she quickly finds in the bag of money, now ‘rightfully’ hers, under Godwill’s hospital bed.

Metin, Godwill and Sevda are just 3 people in a city of 12 million – yet, like a magnetic force, something more powerful has taken hold, inextricably linking their fates and causing us to question the sacrosanctity of numbers, faith, destiny and just plain luck.

40 is the first Turkish film to be shot on the Red Camera.

http://www.red.com/