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.

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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

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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...

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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)