It all started on Fireworks Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. Sauntering among Iranian friends, who were observing the occasion at a coastal area in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, I saw Peter Scarlet, director of the Middle East International Film Festival (which will be called Abu Dhabi International Film Festival from this year on), who was accompanied by his Iranian wife. He told me that he was going to Turkey to judge films at International Istanbul Film Festival. Turks had apparently decided to make up for Scarlet's favor in allocating a section in last year's Middle East Film Festival to Turkish films. Since I had never been to Turkey before; I found the combination of spring in Istanbul and an international film festival too tempting to resist especially since Istanbul had been announced "the European Capital of Culture" in 2010.