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Movies like I Saw the Sun

Key Features:
War, Family drama, Migration, Cultural conflict, Political conflict, Refugee experience, Social issues, Survival, Turkish cinema, Poverty
Tone:
serious, dramatic, gritty
Target Audience:
Drama enthusiasts, Social issue films, Political drama fans, Cultural stories
Emotional Arc:
Struggle → Displacement

I Saw the Sun

2009-03-13
I Saw the Sun Poster - Find Similar Movies

In the southeast region of Turkey, the Kurdish family of Altun lives in a small mountainside village plagued by a 25-year war that makes their daily lives a hellish struggle. As the war intensifies, the family is forced to migrate west to the city of Istanbul.

Genres
Drama
Cast
Mahsun Kırmızıgül, Demet Evgar, Murat Ünalmış, Altan Erkekli, Erol Demiröz, Cemal Toktas, Menderes Samancılar, Emre Kınay, Ayta Sözeri, Buğra Gülsoy
Crew
Mahsun Kırmızıgül, Mahsun Kırmızıgül
Rating
6.4(95 votes)
I Saw the SunI Saw the Sun
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My Grandfather's People

A feature film that tells the story of the director's grandfather who was forced to leave Crete in the 1920s during the Greek-Turkish population exchange.



Clouds of May
6.9

An aspiring filmmaker visits his parents and begins to devise a movie. Amidst creating and casting for the film, he encounters with family & friends who struggle with their own problems, dreams and life.



My Father and My Son

A left-wing journalist whose wife died while giving birth to his son during a military coup returns to his family's farm. Estranged from his father for turning his back on the family and wasting his life with political activism instead, he tries to reconnect with him so that his son will have a place to live as his health is deteriorating due to the extensive torture he had to endure.



The Small Town
6.5

A story in four parts is told from the perspective of two children, showing life in school, in nature, with family and at home. All of this unfolding along with the seasons. The Small Town depicts life in the village, while also portraying the relationships between members of a small-town family, in a long centerpiece scene around a campfire with family members talking about the past, life and its disappointments. Both brother and sister witness the complexities and darkness of the adult world, as well as the mysteries of nature and wildlife.



The Wild Pear Tree
7.536

Fresh out of university, a Turkish young man with literary aspirations returns to his home village, and to his father, a debt-ridden man with a gambling problem.



Winter Sleep
7.5

Aydın is a hotel owner and a retired actor in rural Turkey. As winter emerges he begins navigating the conflicts within the relationships with his wife, sister and existence.



Distant
Distant(2002)
7.1

A young man from rural Turkey arrives in Istanbul with dreams working on a ship and stays with a cousin while he searches for work. Over time, the former’s struggles to find employment and the latter’s troubles and disappointments strain their relationship and living situation.



Propaganda
6.6

Based on a true story set in 1948, customs officer Mehti is faced with the duty of formally setting up the border between Turkey and Syria, dividing his hometown. He is unaware of the pain that will eminently unfold, as families, languages, cultures and lovers are both ripped apart and clash head on in a village once united.



The Road
The Road(1982)
7.3

When five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.



The Miracle
7.089

1960s Turkey countryside. A newly assigned teacher finds out that the solitary village is missing a school. He gets fond of the village people and especially a disabled man. The teacher helps the village to build a new school and educate the children and the disabled man.



The Mountain
6.9

The heroic story of two soldiers trapped in an ambush, fighting for their lives.



A Sun
A Sun(2019)
7.7

A family of four fractures under the weight of unmet expectations, unexpected tragedy, and uncompromising pride.



Mustang
Mustang(2015)
7.727

In a Turkish village, five orphaned sisters live under strict rule while members of their family prepare their arranged marriages.



In the Family
6.704

The neurotic Fikret and tavern singer Solmaz, whose 21 year long relationships end on the same day, meet through a funny coincidence. When Solmaz's daughter Zeynep decides to marry her lover from Adana, the ever-fearful Fikret ends up having to play the role of his life. Intended at first to be kept in the family, the wedding becomes a much bigger event upon the insistence of the groom's relatives. Can our heroes come to terms with the traditional Adana family who carry guns and own a kebab restaurant chain, and see the wedding through without mishaps?



Times and Winds
7.136

In a small, poor village leaning over high rocky mountains, the villagers are simple and diligent people who struggle to cope with a harsh nature. They earn their living off the earth and a few animals they feed. Fathers always prefer one of their sons. Mothers command their daughters ruthlessly. Ömer, the son of the imam, wishes hopelessly for the death of his father. When he understands that wishful thinking does not have any concrete results, he begins to search for childish ways to kill his father. Yakup is in love with his teacher, and one day after seeing his father spying on the teacher he dreams too, like Ömer, of killing his father. Yıldız studies and tries to manage the household chores imposed by her mother. She learns with irritation about the secrets of the relationship between men and women.



Almanya: Welcome to Germany

After living 45 years in Germany, the Turkish Hüseyin Yilmaz, seventy, announces to his family that he has bought a house in Turkey and they should return to make the necessary reforms. The idea is unwelcome and causes very heated discussions. In addition, Canan, a granddaughter of Hüseyin, announces she is pregnant and the father is her English boyfriend, and no one knew anything.



Our Family
7.7

A love story between a poor man and a rich girl. The rich girl's father tries to prevent their marriage and he declares a war against the poor boy's family.



The Edge of Heaven
7.208

The lives of six German-Turkish immigrants are drawn together by circumstance: An old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.



Steam: The Turkish Bath

Francesco and Marta run a husband-and-wife design company in Rome. When Francesco's aunt dies in Istanbul he travels there to sort out the hamam Turkish steam bath that she left him. He finds a love and warmth in his relatives' Istanbul home that is missing from his life in Italy.



Meraklı Köfteci
6.6

Zuhtu, a nosy hawker who sells meatballs, one night finds a young girl escaping from her cruel relatives. He intends to help the girl but this costs him too much.



My Dear Brother
8.3

Two poor men try to find a television as a last wish for the terminally ill brother of one of them.



Butterflies
6.854

Three strangers with one thing in common — the same father — come to a Turkish village to bury him, and learn about him and each other.



Cocoon
Cocoon(1995)
5.963

The three human characters are an old man, an old woman, and a young boy, who wander among the natural wonders and give the camera soulful looks.



Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

A group of men lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's location. As the group continues looking, its members can't help but chat among themselves about everyday life, as the conversations turn more and more profound and existential.



Water and Fire
7.9

A pretty young girl falls for an enigmatic, shy man who sweeps her off her feet. She becomes pregnant but is not allowed to tell him. His advisers are adamant. Back home, they have set up a wedding with the daughter of an antagonistic family and marriage will put an end to the blood feud between them.



Alcarràs
Alcarràs(2022)
6.78

In a small village in Catalonia, the peach farmers of the Solé family spend every summer together picking fruit from their orchard. But when plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees, the members of this tight-knit group suddenly face eviction – and the loss of far more than their home.



Cholera Street
6.8

Salih is a mechanic and the son of a respected barber named Ali. A woman named Tina arrives at Cholera Street, where she takes up residence and works as a prostitute.



The Cut
The Cut(2014)
5.9

In 1915 a man survives the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, but loses his family, speech and faith. One night he learns that his twin daughters may be alive, and goes on a quest to find them.



A Tale of Three Sisters

A stagnant and gloomy village in the 1980s. Reyhan, Nurhan, and Havva, three sisters were sent to town as 'besleme' (foster child and maid). Since they fail their foster parents for different reasons, they are sent back to their father's house in their poor village. Deprived of their dreams of a better life, they try to hold on to each other.



Brother's Keeper
7.2

Yusuf and his best friend Memo are pupils at a boarding school for Kurdish boys, secluded in the mountains of Eastern Anatolia. When Memo falls mysteriously ill, Yusuf is forced to struggle through the bureaucratic obstacles put up by the school's repressive authorities to try to help his friend. But by the time the adults in charge finally understand the seriousness of Memo's condition and try to get him to the hospital, the school has been buried under a sudden, heavy snowfall. With no way out and now desperate to reach help, teachers and pupils engage in a blame game where grudges, feelings of guilt and hidden secrets emerge, as time ticks mercilessly on and threatens to run out.



Three Monkeys
6.8

A family battles against the odds to stay together when small lies grow into an extravagant cover-up. In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities that would otherwise be impossible to endure, the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?



Climates
Climates(2006)
6.8

Man was made to be happy for simple reasons and unhappy for even simpler ones – just as he is born for simple reasons and dies for even simpler ones... Isa and Bahar are two lonely figures dragged through the ever-changing climate of their inner selves in pursuit of a happiness that no longer belongs to them.



Red Istanbul
5.7

Orhan who lived in London for years and did not come back to Turkey agrees to help Deniz -a famous director- edit his first book. Deniz has been living in a mansion with his family which started to lose its old brightness and power. Orhan finds himself in the middle of Deniz's complicated relationships, mysterious friends and stange family members. This is the first movie of Ferzan Ozpetek which is shot in Turkey after a long time. It is also based on his own book which has the same name with the movie.



Chokehold
Chokehold(2023)
5.605

Evading a scandal, a couple from Istanbul starts over in a town on the Aegean coast — but quickly discover the locals are determined to get rid of them.



My Brother
5.9

Two resentful, singer brothers Hakan and Ozan who can't get along well. Meet again in their father's funeral. Even though they want to get back to their daily lives after the funeral, their father's will won't allow it. They will take a journey with their dead father's old car in order to carry out his bequest which is to sing at a wedding in Urla.



Crossing
Crossing(2024)
7.488

Lia, a retired teacher from Georgia, learns from her young neighbor, Achi, that her long-lost transgender niece, Tekla, has crossed the border into Turkey. In search of Tekla, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi, where they explore the hidden depths of the city.



Toss-Up
Toss-Up(2004)
6.9

Two soldiers return home from their military service in southeastern Turkey with disabilities.



Paper Lives
8

In the streets of Istanbul, ailing waste warehouse worker Mehmet takes a small boy under his wing and must soon confront his own traumatic childhood.



Mr. Muhsin
8

An ingenuous countryman Ali Nazik migrates to Istanbul and meets producer Mr. Muhsin to have his first album.



Ayla: The Daughter of War

In 1950, amidst the ravages of the Korean War, Sergeant Süleyman stumbles upon a a half-frozen little girl, with no parents and no help in sight and he risks his own life to save her, smuggling her into his army base and out of harm’s way.



The Painted Bird
7.079

After losing his parents, a young Jewish boy wanders Eastern Europe, seeking refuge during World War II.



Last Summer
5.932

During summer vacation in a beachside town, 16-year-old Deniz seeks the affection of his childhood crush and navigates a love triangle.



Burning Days
6.853

With the mayoral election approaching, the newly-appointed state prosecutor of a small town suffering from a water supply crisis gradually descends into trouble after a young local woman is raped.



The Sun Also Rises
7.344

A polyptych of interconnected stories in different time-zones, shifting between a Yunnan village, a campus, and the Gobi Desert.



Rebel
Rebel(2022)
7.9

Kamal resolves to change his life for the better, and so leaves Belgium to help victims of the war in Syria. But when he arrives, he is forced to join a militia and is left stranded in Raqqa. Back home, his younger brother Nassim quickly becomes easy prey for radical recruiters, who promise to reunite him with his brother. Their mother, Leila, fights to protect the only thing she has left: her youngest son.



Benim Dünyam
7.6

At 2 Ela lost her ability of seeing and hearing because of a severe illness. And then she became a total disappointment of her family due to her untamed behaviors. But everything changed after an unorthodox teacher stepped into their lives to educate Ela while healing himself.



When We Leave
6.9

Umay is a young woman of Turkish descent, fighting for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against the resistance of her family. Her struggle initiates a dynamic, which results in a life-threatening situation.



Vizontele Tuuba
6.2

Guner Sernikli is a government official who, with his wife and their wheelchair bound daughter, has been assigned as the head librarian to this isolated province, virtually an exile since there is no library in the village. The family is warmly welcome, but these are the years of political anarchy and leftist/rightist clashes in big cities and the youth of the village inevitably follow the tides. They arrive in Vizontele, just as the situation is becoming really absurd. Guner brings wisdom; his daughter Tuba brings beauty, innocence and love. Some like the Mayor, Nazmi Dogan and crazy Emin appreciate these things but they are in the minority and confusion continues to reign. The story is based on the memories of writer-director Yılmaz Erdoğan of the last summer of his childhood in Hakkâri, Turkey in 1980.



Destiny
Destiny(2006)
7.4

Bekir loves Uğur, who loves Zagor, who is about to get out of jail. An already tense love triangle is thrown into turmoil on a hot summer night, when Zagor kills someone, and Uğur disappears.



Sibel
Sibel(2019)
6.7

25-year-old Sibel lives with her father and sister in a secluded village in the mountains of Turkey’s Black Sea region. Sibel is a mute, but she communicates by using the ancestral whistled language of the area.



Landscape in the Mist
7.621

Two Greek children embark on a journey to search for their father, who supposedly lives in Germany.



Iftar Soda
7.1

In early 1970s, Adem is a boy living in an Aegean village with his family. He just finished the primary school and he wants to work while he's on summer holiday. He gets permission from his family to work for a soda pop seller named Ciber Kemal. But the Ramadan has just came and Adem wants to do his fast while he's working. But he starts seeing hallucinations because of the hot summer day. It seems it's going to be the longest day of Adem.



About Dry Grasses
7.605

A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.



Hunting Season
7.058

Veteran homicide cop Fermanand his hot-headed partner İdris team up with rookie cop and anthropology major Hasan to investigate the murder of a young woman. The suspects include her conservative family, who might have killed her for honor, her drug-dealing boyfriend and aged billionaire Battal who had taken the victim as his second wife.



Behzat Ç.: Ankara Is on Fire

In the absence of Behzat Ç., a superintendent named Himmet gets replaced as the president of the murder Bureau. When the murder of minister of Interior makes a big impact, Himmet decides to take advantage of it and he makes his team help the fight against terrorism bureau.



Sunshine
Sunshine(1999)
6.5

The fate of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.



Vavien
Vavien(2009)
7.4

Celal, lives an unhappy family life with his wife Sevilay and his child in a small town. Celal and his brother Cemal, running an electrician shop which doesn't go well. They are in debt. The only fun they have is going to the night clubs in Samsun. Celal's love for Sibel Ceylan who works in the night club, will cause him trouble. Celal's wife, Sevilay, saves her money, sent by her father who lives in Germany. She is unaware of the fact that Celal knows her secret.



America America
6.9

A young Anatolian Greek, entrusted with his family's fortune, loses it en route to Istanbul and dreams of going to America.



Vizontele
Vizontele(2001)
7.3

The story takes place in the small town of Hakkari in Turkey at the beginning of the '70s. The time has come to bring technology to that small town. The first Television (called Visiontele by the citizens) arrives and the chaos begins.



The Breath
7.3

A small task force of the Turkish army have to defend a relay station in the middle of nowhere against a possible terrorist raid.



Sijjin 5
Sijjin 5(2018)
5.6

Hale attracted attention with its different appearance and strange behavior. She lives in a historical and eerily house in Nevsehir with her mother, a depressed grandmother and her aunt Azra. Hale's father had disappeared before she was born and was never seen again. Hale sees a nightmare of a terrible night; her father, whom she never saw, invites her to an old and uncanny home.



Mortal World
7.1

Mermer family, who has been managing a restaurant called “Anatolian flavors” in Haydarpasa train station for generations, consist of 8 members. Even though this family leads a quiet simple life, they will end up finding themselves in complicated situations. Moreover, this family has been keeping a secret for a long time and it just can’t come out at any cost..



Baskin
Baskin(2015)
5.8

A squad of unsuspecting cops go through a trapdoor to Hell when they stumble upon a Black Mass in an abandoned building.



Stuck Apart
6

Entrenched in a midlife crisis, Aziz seeks solace from his mundane job, lonesome friends and rowdy family while pretending to have his act together.



Turtles Can Fly
7.748

Turtles Can Fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iraq border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.



Dry Summer
7.5

A scheming tobacco farmer sets out to ruin his competition by diverting the local water to his own property.



The Butterfly's Dream

In a small Turkish town, two young tuberculous poets try to survive while publishing their poems. As they both fall in love, their life would never be the same.



Honey
Honey(2010)
6.8

In the remote and undeveloped eastern Black Sea region, a six-year-old boy (Yusuf) wanders through the woods searching for his lost father, trying to make sense of his life.His father is a beekeeper whose bees have disappeared unexpectedly, threatening his livelihood. A bizarre accident kills the father.There is little dialogue or music in the film. The three main characters (Yusuf and his parents) are all fairly taciturn, and the soundtrack is filled out with the sounds of the forest and the creatures that live there.The environment is a recurring theme.



Love Likes Coincidences

Year 1977, a September morning in Ankara... Yilmaz tries to rush his pregnant wife Neriman to the hospital and he crushes into Omer's car. This accident causes Omer's pregnant wife Inci, who was in the back seat, to have a pre-term labor. The babies are born on the same day. They see each other for the first time... This accident is the threshold of the coincidences that bring Ozgur and Deniz together.



Black Rain
7.5

Shigematsu Shizuma, who lives with his family in a village near Fukuyama, was in Hiroshima with his wife and niece just after the devastating atomic bombing, a tragedy that cruelly took the lives of thousands of people and forever marked the harsh existence of the survivors.



Milk
Milk(2008)
5.9

A high school graduate, Yusuf could not pass the university entrance exam. Writing poetry is his greatest passion and some of his poems are being printed in various obscure literary journals. But neither these poems, nor the rapidly falling price of the milk they sell, are being of any benefit to Yusuf and Zehra's lives. When Yusuf finds out about Zehra's secret affair with the town's stationmaster he gets disconcerted. Will he find the way to cope with his anxiety for the unknown future, the rapid change that he is going through and the pain of taking a step into adulthood and leaving his youth behind



El Sur
El Sur(1983)
7.7

A woman recalls her childhood growing up in the North of Spain, focusing on her relationship with her father.



Innocence
Innocence(1997)
7.708

Yusuf is released from prison after serving a ten year sentence. Because of unexpected problems at his sister’s house, he finds himself in a cheap hotel where he meets a man, a woman, and a child who will change his life in unexpected ways…



Girls of the Sun

Bahar, the commanding officer of the Daughters of the Sun, a battalion made up entirely of Kurdish female soldiers, is on the cusp of liberating their town, which has been overrun by ISIS extremists.



Thou Gild'st the Even
7.321

In a small town in Anatolia, whose inhabitants possess various supernatural powers but still have to deal with ordinary problems, Cemal helps out in his father’s barbershop and, in his free time, acts as a football referee.



The Water Diviner
6.8

In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor travels to Turkey to discover the fate of his three sons, reported missing in action. Holding on to hope, Joshua must travel across the war-torn landscape to find the truth and his own peace.



Neşeli Günler
8.2

Years after a divorce divides their family in half, six siblings encounter each other by chance and try to get their parents back together.



Sour Apples
7

In an eastern Turkish town, suitors knock on the door of the mayor and father of three beautiful daughters who choose to follow their own paths.



UFO
UFO(2022)
6.1

When aspiring musician and student Deniz falls for a rough-hewn motorbike racer, tragedy and family opposition obstruct their path to love.



The Mountain II
7.6

In a desolate war zone where screams of the innocent echo, on the very line between disaster and valor, 7 Maroon Berets will dance with death.



The House by the Sea

By a little bay near Marseille lies a picturesque villa owned by an old man. His three children have gathered by his side for his last days. It’s time for them to weigh up what they have inherited of their father’s ideals and the community spirit he created in this magical place. The arrival, at a nearby cove, of a group of boat people will throw these moments of reflection into turmoil.



In Syria
In Syria(2017)
6.469

A mother attempts to keep her family safe as war rages and a sniper lies in wait outside her home.



Pather Panchali
7.846

Impoverished priest Harihar Ray leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work. His wife, Sarbojaya, looks after their rebellious daughter, Durga, and young son, Apu. The children enjoy the small pleasures of their difficult life.



Wolf
Wolf(2018)
7.2

Picking up from the explosive cliffhanger of the sixth episode of the miniseries, the film follows the harrowing coup attempt night of July 15th, and the Police Special Operations and Special Forces heroes who put everything on the line to prevent a cultist takeover of Turkey.



Love Me Instead
6.5

Accompanied by a ward, a prisoner travels to his hometown to reconnect with his daughter and make amends, but a tragic truth mars his journey.



Adú
Adú(2020)
6.9

In a desperate attempt to reach Europe and crouched before an airstrip in Cameroon, a six-year-old boy and his older sister wait to sneak into the holds of an airplane. Not too far away, an environmental activist contemplates the terrible image of an elephant, dead and fangless. Not only do you have to fight against poaching, but you will also have to meet the problems of your newly arrived daughter from Spain. Thousands of kilometers to the north, in Melilla, a group of civil guards prepare to face the furious crowd of sub-Saharan people who have begun the assault on the fence. Three stories linked by a central theme, in which none of its protagonists know that their destinies are doomed to cross and that their lives will no longer be the same.



Smiling Eyes
8.1

A couple who dreamed of having a son had five daughters in a row. When girls reach the age of marriage, there are moments that make them laugh and sometimes make them sad.



Life and a Day
7.87

Somaieh, the youngest daughter of an indigent family, is getting married and fear is overwhelming each and every member of the family regarding how to overcome their difficulties after she's gone.



The International
6.398

It is 80's Turkey, local musicians of Adiyaman are hired by the military and trained to welcome one of the forceful generals of coup regime.



Bliss
Bliss(2007)
6.924

A young woman of about 17 years old, named Meryem (Ozgu Namal), has been raped, and her village's customs call for her to be killed to restore honor and dignity to her family and village. The eldest son of the village leader, Cemal (Murat Han), is ordered to take Meryem to Istanbul and kill her, but at the last minute he cannot complete the task.



Lemonade
Lemonade(2015)
6.88

So begins an entertaining road story where we witness two brothers with different cultural backgrounds, who don't even know each other, have similarities, differences and even their fights.



Horses of God
7.223

The film follows two brothers over the course of a decade. While they begin as kids in search of thrills in the sprawling slums of Morocco’s Sidi Moumen, we witness their gradual, and ultimately shocking, radicalisation.



At the Bar
6.375

A group of drug-influenced lumpen teenagers from the suburbs of the city descends into the center where they do not belong, where they are excluded. They adopted a brutal method to seize rights that were not granted to them. Unaware of what will happen to them, cheerful and well-to-do university students are helpless in the face of this gun-wielding mob that suddenly raids the bar where they are having fun.



Twenty-Four Eyes
7.685

From 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village are profoundly affected by historical events and personal circumstances.



That Evening Sun
6.579

An aging Tennessee farmer returns to his homestead and must confront a family betrayal, the reappearance of an old enemy, and the loss of his farm.



Korkusuz Korkak
7.6

He is a civil servant in the bland state office. His whole life changes when his reports get mixed up in the hospital and he gets news that he's going to die very soon.



Dheepan
Dheepan(2015)
6.8

Three war-torn strangers posing as a family flee Sri Lanka’s civil war to start over in a troubled Paris suburb, but their past traumas resurface as they struggle to survive in their new environment.



Behzat Ç.: I Buried You in My Heart

An aggressive police officer tries to solve the mystery behind consecutive murders. While doing so, he must fight against his inner demons.



One-Way to Tomorrow
5.524

Two strangers meet on a journey from Ankara to Izmir. Although having a rough start, their relationship takes a different path when they realize they have to confront themselves and would like to clean the slate as they get to know each other.

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