‘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.

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‘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).
 
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'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.

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