‘In Flames’ tackles tough issues

Director Murat Saraçoğlu’s ‘Yangın Var’ (In Flames) tackles the Turkish-Kurdish conflict in a comedy that does not aim for cheap laughs but shows the nonsensical nature of prejudices and ignorance

 When the Turkish government made known that the Turkish-Kurdish conflict was no longer a taboo subject and it was open for discussion for a peaceful resolution less than a decade ago, Turkey’s filmmakers were quick to jump on the bandwagon and contribute to the resolution.

History was made two years ago when the biggest cinema event in Turkey, the Golden Orange Film Festival, included in its lineup of films for the National Competition two films in Kurdish, İki Dil Bir Bavul (On the Way To School) and Min Dit: The Children of Diyarbakır.

The government’s undertakings to include greater cultural rights and freedom for Kurds and put an end to separatist notions took two different directions in Turkish cinema. While mainstream cinema was less condemning and more sympathetic toward the past, an independent Turkish cinema by Kurdish filmmakers promised fresh cinema, with distinctive voices, aiming straight at the heart of problems.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

‘Ecotopia’ unites villagers against eco-villagers

In ‘Entelköy Efeköy’e Karşı’, residents of an Aegean village come face to face with eco-villagers, tired intellectuals from the city. Yüksel Aksu’s anticipated follow-up to ‘Dondurmam Gaymak’ (Ice Cream I Scream) is fun and provides laughs throughout even if some of the characters are caricatures. 

The 1975 novel Ecotopia – or Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston as the full name goes – by American writer Ernest Callenbach describes one of the very first ecological utopias, where people established their alternative society as a reaction to consumption, food full of chemicals and polluted air.

The Ecotopia in the novel was an inspiration to counterculture and the green movement in 1970s America. And it’s also an inspiration to a bus full of city intellectuals, so-called eco-anarchists, who are hoping to establish their own Ecotopia in a village in Turkey’s Aegean region in director Yüksel Aksu’s second feature, Entelköy Efeköy’e Karşı (Ecotopia).
 
Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

'Zenne Dancer' stirs controversy on taboo subject

Still two months away from its release date, the award-winning feature ‘Zenne’ (Zenne Dancer) has already managed to stir controversy. The film has scared off one film festival, but another will screen it.

Still two months away from its release date, the award-winning feature Zenne (Zenne Dancer) has already managed to stir controversy. The film has scared off one film festival, but another will screen it.

The award-winning Turkish feature Zenne (Zenne Dancer) will hit screens in mid-January. For the handful of people that have seen advanced screenings of the movie, however, it is already promising to be yet another litmus test of mainstream Turkish attitudes toward a prominent taboo: homosexuality.

The film’s controversial nature arises from its blunt tackling of homosexuality in its relation to traditions, family, state and the military. Co-directed by M. Caner Alper and Mehmet Binay, the film won five Golden Oranges at the recent Golden Orange Film Festival, Turkey’s most prestigious film event. Zenne took home the Best Film Award, the Turkish Cinema Critics Guild’s Best Debut Feature Award, as well as honors for cinematography and best supporting actor and actress.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Searching for elegies in ‘Future Lasts Forever’

Having impressed the audience with his debut feature, director Özcan Alper shows that waiting is worth while with his second feature. ‘Gelecek Uzun Sürer’ (Future Lasts Forever) is a harrowing journey into the heart of the war in southeastern Turkey, not through political propaganda but through powerful human stories. 

 
For those who had watched Sonbahar (Autumn), the inspiring debut feature from director and writer Özcan Alper that was released two years ago, his next feature had become the source of some true anticipation.

In Sonbahar, Alper took the audience to the Black Sea region, where his hometown is, and told the heartbreaking tale of a political prisoner released after a sentence of 10 years. The film was beautifully shot with real characters, some played by local amateurs, grasping the audience at once from the screen.

For some, Alper was already a promising name with two bizarrely-titled documentaries: Tokai City’de Melankoli ve Rapsodi (Melancholy and Rhapsody in Tokai City) and Bir Bilimadamıyla Zaman Enleminde Yolculuk (Travels On Time Continuum with a Scientist), as well as the critically-acclaimed short film Momi.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Behzat Ç: Maverick TV detective makes screen debut

The protagonist (or more likely the antagonist) of the cult detective novels and the subsequent TV series, Behzat Ç., returns with a film adaptation. Although ‘Behzat Ç. Seni Kalbime Gömdüm’ (Behzat Ç. I Buried You In My Heart) plays like an extended episode, it will more than satisfy the devoted fans

 Behzat Ç. Seni Kalbime Gömdüm (Behzat Ç. I Buried You In My Heart) might just be the most anticipated Turkish movie for quite some time, filling in movie theaters since last Friday. The film is attracting not just the moviegoers, but followers of Turkish TV and some devoted readers.

Behzat Ç. first won the hearts of little more than a handful readers as the protagonist (or more like the antagonist) in novice writer Emrah Serbes’s detective novel, Behzat Ç. Her Temas İz Bırakır (Every Touch Leaves A Trace), published in 2006. The book was promoted as “an Ankara crime story,” and featured a maverick homicide detective, the Behzat Ç. in the title, an unlikely anti-hero who immediately earned his own cult followers among modern Turkish literature.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

When a ‘Turkish Passport’ saved thousands of lives

The recent documentary movie ‘Turkish Passport’ is the unlikely story of Turkish diplomats who helped save tens of thousands of lives by issuing passports to Jews during World War II. The new documentary contains extensive research and an impressive production, which hits the right nerves, especially in these trying times. 

The Holocaust might have been an accurate indicator of how low humanity could go and of the atrocities humans were capable of. Great tragedies make good stories, and the Holocaust has been an unfaltering source for storytellers for decades.

Jewish and non-Jewish filmmakers alike have turned to World War II for real stories that were more often than not more gruesome than the sickest mind could imagine. First came the stories of war. Then came the human stories of tragedies of families fallen and families forced to break apart, none spared for the sickest game the modern world has seen.

Schindler’s List, Spielberg’s magnum opus to many, was one of the first in exercising hope and praise for unsung heroes of WW II. It was the story of one powerful man who had clung to his humanity and saved over a thousand Jewish lives.

Just when one thinks that every story about the Holocaust has already been told, an unlikely tale of hope, optimism and heroism, or “the only Holocaust story with a happy ending,” enters our lives.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

'The Son' looks harrowingly at fathers and sons

Director and writer Atilla Cengiz’s ‘Oğul’ (The Son) tackles war in southeastern Turkey through two fathers’ tragedy. While the story feels half-baked at times, the film reflects the grim atmosphere of war. 

As the deliberate attempts to remove taboo status from the guerilla war in the southeast Turkey brought new rights and initiatives for the freedom for the Kurds, Turkish cinema immediately jumped on the bandwagon.

Mainstream cinema, exemplified most famously by Mahsun Kırmızıgül’s Güneşi Gördüm (I Saw the Sun), opted for the safe road of being more sympathetic and less condemning towards the past. A number of Kurdish filmmakers, on the other hand, offered an independent Turkish cinema, more fresh and aiming straight at the heart of the issues. Hüseyin Karabey, Kazım Öz and Özgür Doğan are notable filmmakers coming from a background of documentary and docu-drama.

This week’s Oğul (The Son) falls closer to the second category, offering a uniquely heartbreaking story and a promising new director, despite the shortcomings of the film. Oğul is director and writer Atilla Cengiz’s debut feature. Aficionados of the Turkish TV series will know some of Cengiz’s work as director and assistant director from TV in projects like Hayat Apartmanı (The Apartment of Life) and Aşk Yeniden (Love Again).

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Mothers, daughters and real women on Turkish TV

The boom in Turkish TV series might have created a whole new economy, but they continue to rely on the cardboard female characters of the soap opera tradition, victims or vixens.

Turkey’s growing economy and its newfound role as a political powerhouse in near regions might be up for dispute, but it sure is moving headstrong in becoming a global superpower in one area: the popularity of its TV series.

The boom in TV series in Turkey the last couple of years has definitely gone out of control. It is almost impossible to find a TV channel not running a series when you sit down with the remote control, save for football. The productions are becoming bigger by the day with their cast ensemble, flashy costumes and set decorations, as well as safe scripts that border on soap opera-like.

The popularity of nearly 100 TV series has crossed borders to the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and some other Arab countries. Old and new favorites like Yaprak Dökümü (Fallen Leaves), Bir Istanbul Masalı (An Istanbul Tale), Gümüş (Silver) and Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves) have found their way into primetime TV in such countries like Iraq, Iran, Bulgaria, Greece, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Loneliness and urban decay take center stage at ‘Eylül’

‘Eylül’ brings yet another male protagonist with a mid-life crisis. Cemil Ağacıkoğlu’s award-winner film features lonely characters against the backdrop of the decaying city

Hot on the heels of winning four awards at the recent Golden Boll Film Festival just little more than a week ago, Cemil Ağacıkoğlu’s Eylül hit theaters this week. While "Eylül” means September, there is no direct link to the month nor the Sept. 12 coup of 1980, a favorite topic of Turkish filmmakers.

Eylül is Ağacıkoğlu’s debut feature. Like the internationally renowned filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ağacıkoğlu’s foray into cinema began after a long career in photography. The photographer within the director is heavily felt throughout the film with long sequences, minimum dialogue and some beautiful cinematography, drawing the viewers into stillness.

The film tells the story of a man’s quest to deal with his wife’s sickness as he falls into the arms of another woman. When Yusuf’s wife, Aslı, is taken to hospital for a serious illness, he meets with Elena, a sex worker from one of the ex-Soviet countries staying in the same hospital room as his wife.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

‘Dream and Reality’ celebrates a century of Turkish famale artists

The works of women artists from Turkey who have left their mark on the last century are being celebrated with an exhibition and a lineup of events in the coming months. You can catch ‘Dream and Reality – Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey’ at the groundbreaking Istanbul Museum of Modern Art until Jan. 22

For an exhibition of influential, yet largely forgotten women artists, you couldn’t pick a much more symbolic name than Hayal ve Hakikat (Dream and Reality).

The title first belonged to an 1891 novel co-written by acclaimed writer and journalist Ahmet Mithat and Fatma Aliye Topuz, a lesser-known figure even though she was one of the first female novelists in Turkey. The first part of the romantic story, Dream, was written by Topuz, while Reality was penned by Mithat, a division of labor not reflected in the credits: The book’s cover listed its writers as Ahmet Mithat and “A Woman.”

Today, Hayal ve Hakikat is the name of a new exhibition at the groundbreaking Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (also known simply as the Istanbul Modern) that celebrates the works of 74 women artists who have left their mark on Turkey over the past century. As Levent Çalıkoğlu, Istanbul Modern’s chief curator and one of the curators of the exhibit, puts it, Dream and Reality – Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey is “a comprehensive anthology from early beginnings to the present day.”

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Turkish cinema had its share of cowboys and aliens as well

While the much anticipated Hollywood movie ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ hits the movie theaters, we remember the cowboys and aliens of Turkish cinema..

Westerns and science fiction are two of Hollywood’s defining genres. Bringing together two action heroes of two generations, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, Cowboys & Aliens blends two genres as it lands a spaceship into the Wild West of the 19th century.

It might come as a surprise to those not familiar with the history of Turkish cinema that these two genres had their moments here as well. The 1960s and 1970s witnessed an uncanny period, when movies flew high with everything from westerns and science fiction to adaptation of European comic books and American superheroes.

The movie researchers Giovanni Scognamillo and Metin Demirhan cite the release of the very first Turkish space movie in 1955 and the first western in 1963. When Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood made the spaghetti westerns a worldwide phenomenon in the 1960s, not only Hollywood but cinemas of many countries were inspired. Turkey was quick to jump on the bandwagon, which eventually saw at least 15 western movies produced per year in the 1970s.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

The lonely male lead returns in 'Saç'

Minimalist writer and director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu’s award-winning ‘Saç’ (Hair) is the latest in a string of Turkish movies featuring a dysfunctional and lonely man at its center. It is the final film in the director’s trilogy exploring death and conscience

The row of shops with wigs and hair extensions in their windows is a familiar sight for many who pass through Tarlabaşı on their way to the heart of Istanbul, Taksim. For many, wigs are synonymous with Tarlabaşı, a run-down neighborhood where migrants, Turkish and non-Turkish, live in what is a hostile atmosphere for many.

Many pass by the shops riding in a taxi, catching a quick glimpse of the wigs and hair extensions, then forget the bizarre scene once the stores are out of sight. Writer and director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu’s award-winning Saç (Hair), however, takes one of these shops and puts it front and center.

Using his now-trademark minimalist style, Pirselimoğlu delves into one of those small shops marked by decay and gloom, as well as the life of the man who seems to be one with the shop. Hamdi (Ayberk Pekcan) is a lonely man who doesn’t seem to tire of silently staring out his window at the prostitute on the street and chain smoking. It’s highly probable that she’s one of his regular customers.

Click here for full review (Hürriyet Daily News)

Two weeks to film a short about 'conscience'

For the second year, the Hrant Dink Foundation is asking amateur and professional filmmakers to upload short films on ‘conscience.’ The Hürriyet Daily News talked to Films about Conscience project coordinator Dença Kartun about the project’s message

What is it like to be a lonely woman walking on a roadside, or to be a physically challenged person on a “normal” street? What is it like to be a little boy watching his father’s hand rise to strike a blow?

What is it like to be a young girl who dares to wear a headscarf in high school? To be a woman imprisoned in her own home, trying to survive perpetual violence? To be homosexual or transsexual in a world that imprisons sex and sexuality in sealed boxes?

These are some of the questions raised by Films About Conscience, a short film project being organized by the Hrant Dink Foundation for a second year that asks anyone with a camera to “take a look at the world through our conscience.”

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Film festivals celebrate once-censored films in Turkey

This year’s International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival will hand out awards cancelled three decades ago in two consecutive years. One, as a reaction to Censorship Committee. The other, because of a military coup. In another traveling event, US and Canadian cities get a taste of once-banned filmmaker Yılmaz Güney

The upcoming International Antalya Orange Film Festival, the biggest movie event in Turkey, in September will be a memorable one, and one that will literally rewrite history. The 48th Golden Oranges will have three national competitions for feature films this year. This year’s competition, and two that were never given.

In 1979, the festival was cancelled as a reaction to the Censorship Committee, and the next year, it coincided with the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup. This year, the awards of three decades back, The Latecoming Golden Orange Awards, will be announced on Sept. 12, coinciding with the anniversary of the coup.

When the Censorship Committee decided to ban or cut three films back in 1979, Yavuz Pağda’s Yolcular (Passengers), Yavuz Özkan’s Demiryol and Ömer Kavur’s Yusuf ile Kenan (Yusuf and Kenan), all of the directors and producers competing that year withdrew from the competition.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Turkish celebrities waking up to Twitter’s potential

Long-forgotten singer Hilal Cebeci’s ploy to become popular by sharing intimate pictures of herself through Twitter seems to have worked. Within days, thousands started following her on Twitter

Last month nobody remembered Hilal Cebeci, who hit the pop charts more than a decade ago. Today, she is one of the most popular names once again, thanks to a cleverly-planned social media attack.

Cebeci had little more than a handful of followers on Twitter, the micro-blogging platform, until she recently shared some revealing photos of herself with followers; one showed her in a nightgown, another pictured her wrapped in a towel just before taking a shower, and the final bomb revealed her with much less than a towel. Within days, thousands started following her on Twitter, and today Cebeci has nearly 300,000 followers.

It seems it wasn’t really a naive move to please her limited number of fans, but a more cleverly-devised ploy to increase her popularity – not unlike American model Adrianne Curry’s attempts to rescue herself from obscurity by sharing nude or semi-nude pictures of herself via Twitter. But Cebeci went a step further, showing glimpses of a social media strategy on her part by immediately giving her fans a name, Panpiş – not unlike Lady Gaga, who calls her fans Little Monsters. Now, Cebeci has more followers than Curry.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Will the Oscar ever go to a Turkish film?

The release date for director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ‘Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da’ (Once Upon A Time in Anatolia) has been moved to ensure eligibility for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars

Last week, newspapers and movie blogs ran a story on a change in the release date of director and writer Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest film Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon A Time in Anatolia). The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival will now be released on Sept. 23.

Nearly two months to its new release, why was it such an important piece of news? Because the Oscar race has begun, even here in Turkey. For a film to be eligible for the Best Foreign Language Film in the Academy Awards, it needs to be screened at least one week in movie theaters throughout the year. And the deadline is Sept. 30. Hence the rush, hence the news value.

Turkey has been working toward being one of the contenders of the Best Foreign Language Film race since 1964. To no avail. The closest a Turkish film has come to being nominated was back in 2008 when Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys), again by Ceylan, was among the shortlist of nine films, eventually not making it to the five nominated movies.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

#TrueBlood sosyal medyaya taze kan getiriyor

Bu başlığı koymazsak ayıp olurdu. True Blood bir yaz dizisi. Yani seksi vampir karakterleri gibi derin bir uykuya yatıyor ve yaz başında dünyanın dört bir yanındaki kana susamış izleyicisiyle buluşuyor.

Dokuz aylık bir uyku uzun bir süre. Hayranları soğutmamak gerekiyor. Burada da işin içine sosyal medya giriyor. Her televizyon dizisinin kendine özgü bir fanatik online hayran kitlesi var. Televizyon kanalları, her dizi için sosyal medyada iyi kötü bir şeyler yapıyor. True Blood ise, en başından beri sosyal medyayı kullanmada bir numara.

Blog yazarlarına Tru Blood

Dördüncü sezonunu izlediğimiz True Blood, 2008 yılında daha izleyiciyle tanışmadan sıkı bir sosyal medya kampanyasına başlıyor. Dizinin ev sahibi HBO kanalı, vampirler, doğaüstü, korku sineması gibi alanlarda popüler olan blog yazarlarına dizinin çıkış noktası olan sentetik kan Tru Blood’dan gönderiyor. Dizi başlamadan birçok web sitesi ve online bir oyun internette yerini alıyor. True Blood, daha televizyonda gösterilmeye başlamadan internette hayran kitlesini oluşturmaya başlıyor. İlk bölüm gösterildikten sonra da web siteleri alıp başını gidiyor.

Yazının devamı GaGa bloG'da

British women example of celebrities under pressure

The aftermath of Amy Winehouse’s death, a recent exhibition in the Buckingham Palace and a Tracey Emin retrospective, all show that it’s becoming even harder to succumb to the pressures of public scrutiny on perceptions of the ideal woman

What with twittering and video sharing and the paparazzi culture symbolized by massive telephoto lenses, fame and celebrity have turned into something altogether different than what it was two decades ago.

It’s becoming harder each day to believe in the magic and sparkle of being a celebrity. The boundaries between the public personae and the private lives have intertwined. It’s more and more difficult to distinguish what truly makes a person famous – what makes that person admired, or in most cases, frowned upon.

The burdens of being a celebrity are doubled when you are a woman, exemplified recently through two distinctively British women.

Singer-songwriter and all-around tabloid favorite Amy Winehouse’s shocking and untimely death was the pop culture news that rocked the media last week. With only two albums to her credit in the last decade, Winehouse was a one-woman force in British music, single-handedly opening the way for contemporary female soul musicians.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Talent shows dominate TV summer ratings

Filling in the gap caused by the summer hiatus of hit Turkish TV series, talent shows are making a comeback with famous names dominating the jury. While awkward, offhand remarks seem to be the norm in two popular shows while another one without a jury hopes to judge real talent


There was a time on Turkish TV when talent shows were the go-to programs, when they rocked pop culture and drew millions of viewers. This was in the early 2000s, before dozens of TV series replaced talent shows as a ratings generator.

That time has unexpectedly come again as a plethora of talent shows are appearing on TV one after another. It’s summer, which means that hit TV series have all taken their vacations, leaving their slots mostly to mediocre summer series.

As ratings go, talent shows are hitting the roof. As talent goes, not so much. Two hit shows are running on private channels; both are similar in format as well as the make-up of the jury in terms of its celeb-o-meter. And both shows promise to be “schools” for talents as evidenced by their titles: Star Akademi and Artiz Mektebi (Actors’ School).

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Young director Şahin impresses with '40'

Director and writer Emre Şahin’s award-winning debut feature, ’40,’ features three strangers whose destinies intertwine around a bag full of money. The fast-paced drama is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise dull movie season

The lives of three people are about to change dramatically, when a bag full of money stirs up the streets of Istanbul in the debut feature of director and writer Emre Şahin, 40. The subject in a nutshell seems to be very similar to the 2005 short film Çanta (Briefcase). That award-winning short, in fact, was directed by Şahin as well.

Şahin’s fascination with Istanbul, his admiration for Quentin Tarantino and his background as a documentary director mix and match in this fast-paced movie that defies any genre.

40 features three strangers who are brought together by the mysterious bag full of money. Metin (Ali Atay), like many others, has come to Istanbul from Anatolia with big dreams, only to end up being a taxi driver and a drug dealer on the side, continuously cursing his luck.

Click here for full review (Hürriyet Daily News)

Harry Potter ve sosyal medyayı yakalama çabaları

Facebook ve Twitter’dan çok önce okuyucularla tanışan Harry Potter, son filmin heyecanı sönmeden Pottermore ile sosyal medya trenine atlamayı hedefliyor…

Harry Potter’ın en büyük şanssızlığı ne ana babasını bebekken kaybetmiş olması, ne de dünyanın tüm büyücülerinin yükünü ergen omuzlarında taşıyor olması. Harry’nin en büyük bahtsızlığı, yedi kitap ve sekiz filmle giderek büyüyen hikayesinde sosyal medyanın hayatımızın bir parçasına dönüşmesini ancak ucundan yakalayabilmesinde.

İlk Harry Potter kitaplarını okuduğumda Mugglenet ve The Leaky Cauldron web sitelerini bulduğum için ne kadar şanslı hissettiğimi hatırlıyorum. Sonra kitapların (ve filmlerin) ortasında bir yerde Facebook hayatımıza girdi. Şimdiki Facebook sayfalarından daha farklı bir işleve soyunan gruplarla tanıştık. Grup oluştururken, Facebook üyeleri istedikleri gibi uçabiliyorlardı. Benim seçtiklerim, All of those who died for Harry Potter… We will remember you ve Cedric Diggory anısına kurulan bir gruptu.

Yazının devamı GaGa bloG'da

Remembering the ‘Hundredyear- old Sycamore:’ Rıfat Ilgaz

The centennial of late Turkish literary giant Rıfat Ilgaz’s birth was celebrated last week in his hometown of Cide with the annual Rıfat Ilgaz Sarıyazma Culture and Arts Festival. There was a surprise documentary by director Önder Uygun, chronicling Rıfat Ilgaz’s life that was spent with much suffering, courage and writing

The northern town of Cide is one of the few places in Turkey that truly owns up to its legacy. The residents of Cide are proud their town is home to one of the greatest literary names in modern Turkey, Rıfat Ilgaz.

Last Thursday, July 7, was the 18th anniversary of Ilgaz’s death, coinciding with the annual Rıfat Ilgaz Sarıyazma Culture and Arts Festival, held in Cide for the past 16 years. Last weekend witnessed a string of events celebrating the life and works of Ilgaz, a striking being captured in the premiere of the first documentary featuring Ilgaz.

Çınar Publishing House has been honoring Ilgaz’s legacy for years, co-publishing the master’s complete works with İş Bankası Culture Publications, another publishing company responsible for the most comprehensive website on Ilgaz, Rifatilgaz.net, and part of the festival’s organization. Kadir İncesu told Hürriyet Daily News this year was the centennial of Ilgaz’s birth, and “that’s why it was important to have the documentary ready to mark the occasion.”

İncesu recited one of Ilgaz’s most famous poems to summarize the sentiments of the work they have been doing for the centennial: “I split my century into four parts. / Each part, a season, / One left, three gone. / Summer has gone, so has autumn, / Winter, with its snow and blizzard, has gone, / There is only the evergreen spring left!” İncesu and a group of devoted fans, including his son Aydın Ilgaz, are making sure that they are able to create the spring Rıfat Ilgaz was never able to have.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Photo: İsa Çelik

Yazarlar Twitter'da neler yazıyor?

Oscar Wilde yaşasaydı, o ölümsüz sözlerini Twitter’dan paylaşır mıydı bilemeyiz ama her gün Oscar Wilde’ın bir özlü sözünü Twitter’da görmek mümkün.

Herkesin söyleyecek bir şeyleri olduğu Twitter dünyasında, ilginç bir şekilde yazarlar ya Twitter’a girmemeyi tercih ediyorlar ya da ürkek ürkek ilerleyip, bu sosyal alandaki kimliklerini temkinli bir şekilde oluşturuyorlar.

Twitter mesajlarını takipçileriyle paylaşan yazarlardan bazıları ve 140 karakteri nasıl kullandıkları…


Neil Gaiman

Twitter öncesi de inanılmaz bir hayran kitlesi olan, The Sandman çizgi romanlarının yazarı Gaiman, takipçileriyle her şeyini paylaşıyor. Romanları, çizgi romanları ve filmleri hakkında sorulan soruların çoğuna kişisel cevaplar veriyor, özel hayatını paylaşmaktan çekinmiyor.

Takipçi sayısı: 1.605.082



Elif Şafak

Uluslararası yazarlarımızdan Şafak, listemizde hiç kimseyi takip etmeyen tek kişi. Twitter’ı doğru bir platform olarak yazma sürecini, kitapları hakkında yazılanları, programını ve inandığı sosyal konuları paylaştığı bir alan olarak kullanıyor. Türkçe yazdığı Twitter mesajlarını hemen İngilizce’ye çevirerek paylaşan Şafak, genelde tutuk ve tek taraflı bir mesaj kaygısında.

Takipçi sayısı: 185,092

Yazının devamı GaGa bloG'da

Football film from promising Turkish director scores big

Award-winning actor Volga Sorgu takes the role of writer and director this time with his football film ‘Kaledeki Yalnızlık’ (Loneliness in the Goal). Starring Numan Çakır, Tolga Sarıtaş and Nur Sürer, Sorgu’s debut feature proves to be a promising foray into storytelling as he uses football as a powerful and subtle metaphor for all things in life

When a football team loses 8-0 in director and writer Volga Sorgu’s debut feature Kaledeki Yalnızlık (Loneliness in the Goal), we know the film will not be about the team but the goalkeeper. The eight goals also show the audience the film will be about the protagonist’s despair and his sense of loss, with football being the metaphor for life with all its ups and downs.

In a perfect case of art imitating life, ex-goalkeeper Numan Çakır, who had to quit his two-decade career following a traffic accident, plays Nurettin, a goalkeeper who loses his wife and a bright future in football after a traffic accident. Left with his teenaged son Feyyaz (Tolga Sarıtaş), he continues playing in an amateur team, led by the shady club chair (Erkan Can), hoping to climb up to the bottom of the professional ranks, the third tier.

From the very first minutes, the film touches on diverse subjects such as coping with death, dysfunctional family relations, class differences, the decay of urban life, poverty, fraud and even touches on the lives of third-generation migrant Turks in Germany. Football as a metaphor nearly brushes all of these themes, the major one being the heavy burden of being a goalkeeper in a team game.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Sarkozy, Prenses Diana'yı dürttü

Prenses Diana, Facebook'ta olsaydı...

GaGa bloG'dan

Herotürk: Truth, justice and the Turkish way

The marriage of pop culture and Turkish nationalism continues with the new book ‘Hero Türk’ featuring adventures of all-Turkish child hero. Hürriyet Daily News talks to one of the key names behind all of these projects, journalist Fehmi Demirbağ.

Whether it is the Turkish vigilantes fighting against evil Israelis in today’s Middle East, or “Hunnic Turks” killing giant man-eating dragons in the 4th century, Turkey’s pop culture is devouring Turkish nationalism, repeating a cycle seen half a century ago.

While social media is fuelling and organizing demonstrations for human rights and democracy in recent history, pop culture seems to be taking the safe side with the status quo. The rising voice of the conservative Turkey is hoping to cash in on the sensitivities of young Turks rediscovering their nationalistic streaks.

The latest example of pop culture meeting with Turkish nationalism came in the form of HeroTürk, a book of the adventures of an all-Turkish child hero, which hit the book stores last week, to be followed with a comic book version due to be published next month. Created by journalist Fehmi Demirbağ and novelized by another journalist Hasan Taşkın, the full package includes a children’s book and a comic book, as well as two upcoming films and a cartoon.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Şirinler'in köyünde internet bağlantısı zayıf mı?

Bugün Dünya Şirinler Günü olmasına ve The Smurfs filminin gösterimine bir ay kalmasına karşın, Şirinler’in sosyal medya yolculuğu pek de gösterişli gözükmüyor..

Komunizm çöktü. Ama Şirinler’in komunal hayat modeli sapasağlam işlemeye devam ediyor. Şirinler’in ‘köyden indim New York’a’ macerasını anlatan The Smurfs filmi bir ay sonra sinemalarda. 80’lerde küçük TV ekranından izlediğimiz Şirinler’i 30 yıl sonra 3 boyutlu izleyeceğiz.

Bugün ise Şirinler için önemli bir gün: Dünya Şirinler Günü. Bu özel günde sevdiğimiz Şirin’e hediye almaktan başka ne yapabiliriz bilemiyoruz ama hiç olmazsa küçük mavi yaratıkların sosyal medyada neler yaptığına bir bakalım.

Filmin Facebook sayfası henüz ciddi bir atağa geçmiş durumda değil. 50 bin hayranı olan sayfadan farklı ülkelerin filmle ilgili kendi dillerindeki sayfalarına gidebiliyorsunuz. Buradaki 10 ülkeden birisi de Türkiye, ama henüz sayfanın 25 hayranı var. Filmden bağımsız Türkçe Şirinler Facebook sayfaları da var. Bunlardan birisinin duvarı Şirinler’in politik kimliği ve sembolize ettiği şeylere odaklanıyor. 50 yıldır komunizmi övdüğü iddia edilen Şirinler’in bu sayfada ilginç bir şekilde “emperyalist amerikayı temsil” ettiği savunulmuş.

Yazının devamı GaGa bloG'da

Istanbul becoming proud of Pride Week

Turkey’s LGBT communities and their supporters will be flying the rainbow flag high as Istanbul’s 19th Pride Week kicks off Monday. A week of events will be capped by next week’s Pride Parade, during which thousands will march against discrimination. The Hürriyet Daily News talks to event organizer Rüzgar Gökçe Gözüm about the week’s history

It’s that time of the year for many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, people to put on their high heels, get their rainbow flags out of the closet and strut their stuff on the street to Lady Gaga’s anthem on acceptance, Born This Way. June is Pride Month in many countries as LGBT communities the world hold events in time with the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots that kick-started the gay rights movement in the United States.

While the colorful, often stereotyped, and mostly marginalized photos of Pride parades around the world are splashed over the pages of newspapers in Turkey, not much is seen or read about the country’s very own Pride Week, which began nearly two decades ago and returns this year on Monday.

The very first Pride Week goes back to 1993 when the organization of the events opened the way for the establishment of lambdaistanbul, the biggest LGBT organization in Turkey.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

German cinema coming to an Istanbul screen soon

Istanbul Modern Cinema and the Goethe-Institute Istanbul bring together a selection of recent, award-winning German films for the mini-festival, 'Till Death Do Us Part.' Take a look at five of the unique and unpredictable films from young German directors as they tackle love, death and the meaning of family for 10 days between June 9 and 19

As the movie season draws to a close, occasional film festivals and screenings are popping up to offer unexpected treats to movie enthusiasts. Istanbul Modern Cinema and the Goethe-Institute Istanbul are collaborating for a mini-festival of recent, award-winning German films. The selection of 10 films will be screened under the title Till Death Do Us Part and will run June 9-19. Here is a look at five of the award winners from new directors, with offerings running the gamut from bizarre coming-of-age tales to heartbreaking love stories and chilling mysteries.

The festival will open on June 9 with Sophie Heldman’s debut feature Satte Farben vor Schwarz (Colors in the Dark). The film, which wowed audiences and critics at last year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival, stars Bruno Ganz and Anita Berger as a couple in their 70s who have been together for half a century. The film, following the final days of Fred’s life as the couple try to deal with his terminal illness, takes a uniquely fresh approach to the themes of love and death.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

'The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream'

'Türkan' conquers pop culture with a biopic

Having devoted her life to battling leprosy and promoting girls’ education in Turkey, the late Türkan Saylan’s final days were a trying affair following a much-publicized police raid on her home. Now, following a short-lived TV series on her life, a feature film about the activist’s unflinching persona as a fighter is set to hit screens across the country

It sounds quite far-fetched to see a girl who was about to fall victim to an honor killing in southeastern Turkey turn up years later as a representative of UNICEF, or someone suffering from leprosy become a nurse. But perhaps it is even more far-fetched to see that one woman was responsible for these and hundreds of similar stories.

That woman is Türkan Saylan, the leading character in a short-lived TV series, and now, a feature film. That woman, however, is not a fictitious character; instead, she is arguably the equivalent of Mother Theresa for modern Turkey.

A university professor and a doctor specializing in leprosy, Saylan battled the disease for decades. She was also the founder of a secularist association devoted to educational grants for girls from the poorer areas of Turkey. Throughout the years, her name became synonymous with the Association for the Support for Contemporary Living Association, or ÇYDD.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Tollbooth clerk on the verge of a nervous breakdown

In ‘Gişe Memuru’ (Toll Booth), director Tolga Karaçelik sends his protagonist, a tollbooth clerk, to a remote highway, making his humdrum existence even more pronounced. Serkan Ercan’s award-winning performance breathes life into a character on the verge of insanity

With thousands of jobs being just variations on the assembly lines of the Industrial Revolution, Kenan’s job might top the list with its painfully boring repetitive nature and lack of breathing space. Kenan, the leading character in Tolga Karaçelik’s debut feature Gişe Memuru (Toll Booth), is a clerk in a tollbooth connecting the endless highways spread throughout Turkey. Day in and day out, his job is to collect the money from the vehicles and raise the guard fence, letting cars and trucks continue along their route.

Serkan Ercan’s Kenan is a character who keeps his frustration under a composed expression and a poised attitude. With a permanent frown upon his face, he never smiles. But what tollbooth worker smiles? As he drops in the tollbooth plaza at the start and end of his shift, he has minimal exchanges with his colleagues.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

KÜF Project brings subversive street art to Ankara

A urinal over the ugly tiles of one of Ankara's underpasses, 'No Parking' signs turned into peace signs, sidewalk barriers transformed into Pac-Man's 'pac-dots' - all are the work of Ankara's street art collective, the KÜF Project. The Hürriyet Daily News talks to members of the movement that makes Turkey's capital city a little more colorful each day

There were more smiles than usual in Ankara when the round sidewalk barriers on Cinnah Street, one of the capital’s main roads, turned into yellow “pac-dots” from the Pac-Man video game. Cut outs of Pac-Man and his nemesis Blinky face off over a line of dots that Pac-Man surely would like to gobble right up.

The guerilla installation was the work of Ankara’s collective street art movement, the KÜF Project, which has also turned “No Parking” signs into peace signs and “No Entry” street signs into the jerseys of the Turkish national football team, replicating the 4-4-2 formation of the team in the match against Bosnia in 2009, which led Turkey to be disqualified from the World Cup.

The idea, the group says in its manifesto, is “not to pollute the streets,” but “to color them with dormant energy.”

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Kraliyet düğünün mimarı Prenses Diana

Gelinle, gelinlikle ve baldızla ilgili tüm Twitter mesajları, Facebook yorumları ve haberlerin arkasında gizlenen iki büyük soruyu unutmamak gerekiyor. Monarşi değişen dünya düzeninde ne anlama geliyor? Ve Diana olmasaydı, kraliyet düğünü bu kadar sempatiyle karşılanabilir miydi?

İki bine yakın davetlinin İngiliz bahçelerini hatırlatan yeni dekorasyonuyla Westminster Kilisesi’nde, bir milyon kişinin Londra sokaklarında, iki milyar kişinin de televizyondan izlediği kraliyet düğünü sonrası konuşulanlar genelde aynı yerde noktalanıyordu. Bir masal düğününe tanık olmuş, en şüphecilerimiz bile bu mükemmel organizasyonu suratlarında kocaman tebessümlerle izlemiştik.

Monarşinin çağın gerisinde kalmış bir kurum olduğuna inananların artık Cambridge Düşesi olan Kate Middleton’un gelinliğinden heyecanla söz etmesini, ya da tarihinin en kötü ekonomilerinden birini yaşayan İngiltere’nin vatandaşlarının gelin ve damadın bir kez daha öpüşmeleri için çığlık çığlığa bağırmalarını anlamak zor.

Gelinle, gelinlikle, baldızla, damadın mahcup bakışlarıyla ve o rüküş şapkalarla ilgili tüm Twitter mesajları, Facebook yorumları ve haberlerin arkasında gizlenen kocaman bir soru duruyor aslında. Monarşi değişen, karmaşık ve modernitenin yeni bir boyutuna geçmiş dünya için ne anlama geliyor?

Yazının devamı British Council Blog'da

‘Filedelfiya’ stories unmask small town life

Yeşim Erdem’s collection of stories, ‘Filedelfiya Hikayeleri’ (Filedelfiya Stories) is an honest, and at times brutal, look at small-town life, the comfort and burden of families, and remembrance for times and places left behind over the course of someone’s life. The Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review asks Erdem whether one can ever go back home

Photo: Burcu Çağlayan

With a collection of four stories on the comfort and burden of families, and nostalgia for childhood and all things lost – or never gained in the past – Yeşim Erdem’s Filedelfiya Hikayeleri (Philadelphia Stories) is an exploration on small-town life.

Filedelfiya here is not the city that once was the symbol of colonial America, and now one of the largest cities in the U.S. The stories have no relation either to the 1940 movie that made Katharine Hepburn a box office name, The Philadelphia Story. Filedelfiya here is an Aegean town in Turkey that no longer bears that name from antiquity and the Middle Ages.

One of the first ancient cities in the world, Filedelfiya is now a small town, known for its dried raisins and vineyards. And the town was also once home to writer Erdem, who prefers to refer to her hometown as Filedelfiya, not Alaşehir, perhaps to emphasize the transcendent nature of her stories that could come from any place in Anatolia, and who thinks the most distinctive quality of the town was simply the grape vines.

Filedelfiya Hikayeleri features four stories that are seen through the eyes of four people, spanning a period of four decades. The story of a little girl’s foray into the reality of stigmas attached to a certain kind of small-town woman is followed by a young man’s brush with unrequited love in the most unlikely place. The third story features a “bad guy,” who refuses to accept any responsibility in a life that would make him feel good and worthy, while the final and the longest story centers around a woman who returns to her town and to her family for one final visit upon her mother’s death.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Royal wedding: Long live the social media

Nobody can say the British royal family isn't keeping up with the times. With an official website, Facebook and Flickr pages, Twitter account and YouTube channel, the royal family has used social media to its advantage in publicizing the much-hyped wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. There is one mention of the nuptials every 10 seconds

When Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer married in 1981, 750 million people around the world tuned in to watch the fairytale wedding, which eventually did not have a very happy ending. Fast forward 30 years to Friday and Prince William, the son of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is getting married to Kate Middleton in a much publicized ceremony.

A fairytale princess, a fashion icon and a heart-broken single mother, Diana was the embodiment of her age at the turn of the century. Sadly, her death was also very much in tune with her age when a group of paparazzi on motorbikes hunted her down in Paris.

It is no surprise that her son William is following in her mother’s footsteps, working popular culture to his advantage whenever he can. He is the president of the England Football Association and organized a concert with his brother Prince Harry in 2007 for what would have been Diana’s 46th birthday, gathering such stars at Wembley Stadium like Sir Elton John, Kanye West and Andrea Bocelli.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Two men, a young woman and Ankara

In his second feature ‘Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz’ (Our Grand Despair), director Seyfi Teoman takes the capital city of Ankara as a central character and asks the city to heal the wounds of a delicate relationship among three people

Ankara is not the average go-to city when you want to make a film about the urban middle class, the people of big cities in Turkey. The capital city is much bigger and more populated than most European cities. But for the Istanbul elite, Ankara still is a small town with no hint of the chaos that drives Istanbul and inspires artists of all kinds.

That is why it was not a big surprise when Ankara was featured as the antithesis to Istanbul a couple of months ago in director Ömer Faruk Sorak’s Aşk Tesadüfleri Sever (Love Likes Coincidences). It was also no surprise when one of the characters said, “Have you seen anyone who moved to Istanbul, go back to Ankara?”

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Gelin ve damat şerefine İngiltere sokaklarında bayram

İngiltere’de neredeyse yüzyıllık bir gelenek olan sokak partileri, kraliyet düğününe hazırlanıyor. İngiltere’nin her köşesinde, toplam 5500 yerde insanlar sokaklarını bir günlüğüne parti mekanlarına dönüştürecekler…

Kraliyet düğününe birkaç gün kala saray ayrı bir telaş yaşarken, İngiltere’nin dört bir yanı da kendi partilerine hazırlanıyor. Özel günleri bahane edip, kendi mahallelerini parti mekanına dönüştürmek İngilizler için yüzyıllık bir gelenek. Birinci Dünya Savaşı sonrası Barış Çayları olarak başlayan, moral yükseltmek için düzenlenen sokak sosyalleşmeleri zaman içerisinde sokak partilerine dönüşmüş.

Devlet içerisinde kendi birimi olan, web sitesinde parti planlama tüyolarından sokakların kapanması için özel izin formlarına her türlü ayrıntıyı bulabileceğiniz sokak partileri, bu sefer de Prens William ve Kate Middleton’ın şerefine mahalle sakinlerini sokaklara taşıyor.

Yazının devamı British Council Blog'da

Kraliyet ailesi kitaplık raflarında

Kapsamlı araştırmaları, kraliyet ailesinin yakın çevresine sızmaları (hatta Prenses Diana’nın da katkıda bulunması) ile basıldıkları zaman ortalığı karıştıran, İngiliz kraliyet ailesiyle ilgili beş kitap…

The Royals – Kitty Kelley
Frank Sinatra ve Oprah biyografileriyle ortalığı karıştıran yazar Kelley, 1997 yılında İngiliz kraliyet ailesiyle ilgili yazdığı kapsamlı araştırmasıyla da zamanında birilerini epeyi bir kızdırmıştı. Kral V. George’dan günümüze Windsor hanedanını kraliyet araştırmacıları ile Prens Charles, Prens Philip ve Prenses Margaret’in yakın çevresiyle yaptığı görüşmelerle ayrıntılandıran Kelley’nin kitabı yeni eklemelerle 2010 yılında yeniden piyasaya çıktı.

Diana: Her True Story – In Her Own Words – Andrew Morton
Prenses Diana ve Prens Charles’ın evlilik problemlerini ve Diana’nın kraliyet ailesindeki mutsuzluğunu tüm ayrıntılarıyla anlatan kitap, 1992 yılında piyasaya çıktıktan sonra çiftin boşanmalarını da tetiklemişti. Diana’nın ölümünden sonra Morton, asıl kaynağının Diana’nın kendisi olduğunu açıklamış ve kitabı Diana’nın kendi yorumlarını da ekleyerek yeniden çıkarmıştı.

Yazının devamı British Council Blog'da