Turks and Greeks come together, even if on TV screens

The unprecedented popularity of the Turkish TV series ‘Yabancı Damat’ (Foreign Groom), featuring an intercultural love affair between a Greek man and a Turkish woman, seems to have opened the way for more intercultural stories on TV

“Greeks learn Turkish by watching TV series,” was the headline of a recent article in Hürriyet Daily News, alluding to the increasing popularity of Turkish series in Greece in the recent years. Muhteşem Yüzyıl (Magnificent Century), the historical drama about the court of Süleyman the Magnificent that is broadcast with the title The Magnificent Suleiman in Greece, and “Sıla” have been the most popular series in Greece this fall.

Another indication of the popularity of Turkish series in the neighboring country are the dozens of Facebook pages and groups with names like Greek fans of Turkish series or Turkish series on Greek TV, with pictures of Turkish heartthrobs like Kenan İmirzalıoğlu and Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ splashed over the pages. But perhaps the extent of the popularity of Turkish series can best be seen in some of the backlash in Greece. Thessaloniki Metropolitan Bishop Anthimos recently warned his followers, saying “No one should watch Muhteşem Yüzyıl,” the metropolitan said, according to daily Hürriyet. “By watching Turkish series, we tell them that we have surrendered.”

Similarly, Greek TV actress Nikoleta Karra sent an angry Twitter message last month to Greek channels for broadcasting Turkish series instead of Greek Cypriot ones. The popularity of Sıla was the object of Karra’s outrage. “’Sıla’ in the morning, ‘Sıla’ in the afternoon. ‘Sıla’ 24 hours a day. Enough! We’ve made so many shows in Greek Cyprus. Why won’t Greek channels air Greek Cypriot shows?” read her Twitter message.

While there may be some animosity against the ubiquity of Turkish series in Greece from a few nationalistic voices, the popularity is not fleeting given the similarity of two cultures. In fact, TV producers in Turkey seem to be well-aware of the fact that including Greek culture and some Greek characters into their shows might be a way to delver further into the Greek market.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Highly effective ways of self-help books in Turkey

Publishing industry have been feeding on the frustrations of middle class, leading to a meteoric rise of self-help and personal development books


A recent Turkish movie playing in theaters follows the adventures of a hapless guy trying desperately to better his luck to no avail. In Kamil Çetin’s Oğlum Bak Git (Dude, Move It), protagonist Orhan finds the ultimate solution to finding happiness and luck in consulting a self-help guru.

As a comedy hoping to appeal to a mainstream audience, it’s fair to say that the discourse of self-help, or personal development, has become an integral part of pop culture in Turkey. One look at the top 20 best-selling books on the bookseller D&R’s website shows as many as six books that offer advice, solutions and inspiration to readers who are presumably leading frustrating and unfulfilling lives.

Beki İkala Erikli’s Meleklerle Yaşamak (Living with Angels) asks its reader to open their heart to the miracles of their guardian angels. İskender Pala’s Aşka Dair (On Love) talks about the different stages of love and in Mesnevi Terapi (Masnavi Therapy), Nevzat Tarhan offers ways to apply Rumi’s teachings and wisdom to everyday life.

In fact, the self-help and personal development genre takes the biggest slice of the publishing pie in Turkey, with more than 20 percent of all sales. There are around 2,000 books published within the genre in Turkey to date, with publishers like Dharma, Optimist and Elma specializing only in the self-help and personal development books. The Turkish translation of Robin Sharma’s international bestseller The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari reached one million readers a decade ago.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Incest: The last taboo in Turkish cinema and TV

The recent controversy around a Turkish film dealing with incest reminded many of a similar brouhaha over another film on incest two years ago, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç’s warning to TV producers to keep incest away from screens

Red flags were raised amid media delirium last week when the head of the jury for a national film festival openly condemned a movie on moral grounds, allegedly threatening to ban the movie from entering the national competition.

The festival was the Golden Orange Film Festival, the biggest one in Turkey. The head of the jury was the ever-controversial Hülya Avşar, who had made headlines in the summer when a member of the jury resigned in protest over her selection, questioning her judgment and knowledge of film.

The film, which became the most talked-about film of the festival, was director Çağatay Tosun’s sophomore feature Derin Düşün-ce (a word play that could mean “Deep Thought” or “When Derin Falls,” referring to the little protagonist’s name). And the controversial subject matter was incest, a no-go area in Turkish cinema, television, literature and pop culture.

At the film’s center is the 8-year-old girl, Derin. Growing up in a broken, dysfunctional family, Derin knows nothing about being a child. After her mother’s death, she tries connecting with her father in every possible way, which includes encounters with sexual undertones. At the film’s premiere, some of the audience apparently went berserk, with some accusing Tosun’s film of “bordering on child porn.”

Click here for the article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Turkish documentaries expose environmental mishaps

As Turkish-German director Fatih Akın’s anticipated environmental documentary, ‘Polluting Paradise,’ hits the theaters, we take a look at other recent Turkish documentaries that hope to expose potential ecological disasters in Turkey

Following a special screening at this year’s Cannes, another one at the recent Golden Boll Film Festival and a showing in front of a Turkish audience at the hip film fest Filmekimi, Turkish-German director Fatih Akın’s anticipated documentary, Polluting Paradise (Der Müll im Garten Eden), hits theaters this week.

The paradise in question is Akın’s hometown, Çamburnu, a small mountainous town along the eastern shores of the Black Sea. The beautiful environment and its nature were threatened when the former copper mine right above the village was turned into a garbage landfill for the entire province of Trabzon by the government in 2007.

Akın learned about the potential environmental disaster when he was filming scenes for his 2007 feature Auf der Anderen Seite (Edge of Heaven). In Polluting the Paradise, he documents the struggles of the residents and those working in the landfill over a period of five years, as well as the impact of the garbage on the streams, not to mention an overpowering stench in the area.

The film is less an objective documentary and more a passionate plea to stop the impending environmental catastrophe for the town and its people. And it seems that Akın’s plea seems to be working.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Surge of films on Gallipoli Campaign


This week’s release of ‘Çanakkale Çocukları’ (The Children of Gallipoli) is just the beginning of a surge of films focusing on the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915

The Gallipoli Campaign, or the Battle of Çanakkale, is at once one of the most tragic battles of the 20th century and one of the greatest victories of modern Turkey. The attack of the Allied Forces in World War I to capture the Dardanelles, (the Çanakkale Strait), resulted in a huge defeat and lead to the death of more than 130,000 Turkish, British, French, Australian, New Zealand and Indian troops in eight months.

The campaign helped the Turks regain a confidence that would eventually inspire the Turkish War of Independence and the founding of modern Turkey eight years later. The centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign is just around the corner, and moviemakers look set to cash in on the nationalist tendencies invading Turkish cinema and TV screens in recent years.

Most of the recent historical dramas are examples of crude nationalism, most clearly seen in the recent box office smash Fetih 1453 (Conquest 1453) - an epic tale of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople - or the hit TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl (Magnificent Century), depicting the power games in the 16th century court of Süleyman the Magnificent. Even the upcoming adaptation of the 1960s comic book Karaoğlan features a young Turkic hero during the reign of Genghis Khan in 12th century Central Asia.

It is therefore no surprise that a big production on the Gallipoli Campaign is hitting theaters this week and another is on its way in less than a month. Çanakkale Çocukları (Children of Gallipoli) is directed by popular filmmaker Sinan Çetin. More a one-man-show than an auteur, Çetin directs, produces, writes and is the cinematographer of the war drama, while his wife and two sons star.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Neşet Ertaş, 'Plectrum of the Steppe' passes away

An inspiration to generations of musicians and music-lovers thanks to his fresh take on the centuries-old Anatolian musical tradition, Turkish folk master Neşet Ertaş loses his battle with cancer

The message welcoming visitors to the official website of legendary folk singer and poet Neşet Ertaş seems even more heartbreaking today. “Dear beloved fans,” reads the message, originally from his Twitter account dating Sept. 18. “Rumors of my passing have been circulating once again. These rumors are making me very upset.”

Sadly, the rumors are now no longer rumors. Fans and lovers of Ertaş’s music woke yesterday morning to the sad news that he had lost his battle with cancer. He had been in the intensive care unit of a hospital in İzmir for the last two weeks. Ertaş was 74.

Ertaş’s inviting voice, accompanied by the strings of his bağlama, had made him a modern-day “aşık,” the traveling bard of Anatolian Alevi tradition of centuries, a historic image personifying Anatolian folk music.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Remembering the ‘Sun of Art’


On the 16th anniversary of his death, Zeki Müren continues to stand tall as a legendary figure in pop culture. A career of over 200 records, films, concerts, spanning over 45 years, is only the tip of the phenomenon

It’s been 16 years today since Zeki Müren, Turkey’s “Sun of Art” and the “Paşa of pop culture,” died in İzmir at the TRT studios, the very institution that had kick-started his musical career half a century earlier.

Müren might just be the most interesting figure modern Turkey has seen in its short history. He was a singer, a songwriter, a composer, a published poet, a performer, an actor, a designer and an illustrator. He was also a visionary, an innovator and a revolutionary. Whatever Müren was, he sure was always larger than the sum of his parts.

Müren’s career in music began in 1951, when he recorded his first album and began performing on the state radio station Istanbul Radyosu. In 1955, he became the first Turkish singer to win a Gold Disc for a record that included the famous song Manolya. Having been chosen as Artist of the Year for many years, Müren made over 200 records and composed over 100 songs in the 45 years of his artistic career. His acting career began around the same time, with his debut feature of 1953, Beklenen Şarkı (Anticipated Song), starring opposite the legendary actress Cahide Sonku, becoming an instant success, and opening the way for a movie career of 18 films, Müren writing the score for some of them as well.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Islamist salvation makes way to prime time with TV series

The popularity of the new TV series, ‘Huzur Sokağı (Serenity Street), adapted from a ‘salvation novel,’ is reviving a four-decade old Islamist narrative in Turkey’s pop culture: salvation stories

Tune in to Turkish TV channel ATV’s popular new series, Huzur Sokağı (Serenity Street), to get a taste of how the never-ending debate over the public presence of Islam is reflected in pop culture. Read some of the comments made about the series by prominent columnists and writers, and you’ll get a feel of how the debate has evolved (and continues to evolve) in the last four decades.

Huzur Sokağı is an adaptation from Şule Yüksel Şenler’s bestselling novel of the same name, published first in 1970 and has been reprinted more than 100 times since then. The novel is one of the most popular examples of the “hidayet romanları,” or the salvation novels, that brought a new impact onto the literary scene in the 1980s.

The common theme of the salvation novel was a journey from the debauched ways of a secular/Western life style to salvation through the acceptance of Islam. As in many of the salvation novels, Huzur Sokağı features a young man idealized by his display of Islamic values, a perfect specimen of the hard-working, honest and loving family member.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

1980 coup, in the eyes of filmmakers

It is over three decades since the military overthrow of the Turkish government on Sept 12, 1980, but the repercussions have been inspiring filmmakers ever since

This week marks the 32nd anniversary of the 1980 coup, which kick started a military regime that would put 7,000 people in prison, execute 50, and have all opposition silenced for a long time to come.

The Sept. 12, 1980 coup also inaugurated a period when Turkish cinema was silenced almost into non-existence, even going as far as to the burning of rolls of films. Arrests and imprisonments were common, with movie stars such as Tarık Akan and filmmakers such as Şerif Gören and Ömer Uğur serving their fair share of prison time.

Featuring the coup and its aftermath as the subject of a movie was unthinkable in the early 1980s. However, with filmmakers living through the direct consequences of the oppressive regime, the coup eventually became a regular subject. Now, a new movie exploring the coup and its aftermath hits the theaters every couple of years.

The first feature film to deal directly with the haunting effects of the coup was Zeki Ökten’s Ses (The Voice) of 1986. The film starred Tarık Akan as a young man who moves to a coastal town to start a new life after spending years in prison. Akan himself became familiar with prison life in the years following the coup.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Orhan Kemal’s works still in demand decades later

Orhan Kemal was a modernist pioneer of the Turkish novel whose works continue to be relevant more than half a century on. Producers cannot seem to get enough of his works, with two new adaptations

The frustrations of the working class, the changing face of feudal Turkey, the crippling effects of patriarchy over women and men, the ever-fascinating appeal of untamed chemistry between the sexes. All of these themes are the go-to material for TV producers trying to create the next best TV series in a period where dozens of new shows replace dozens of others.

All of these themes are at the core of Orhan Kemal’s novels and stories. Kemal is one of the greatest of Turkish writers and a modernist pioneer of the Turkish novel. His realist novels on class differences and the poor in Turkey left their mark on a period spanning two decades after the early 1950s, now called the Golden period in Turkish literature.

Meeting another great literary name, the “romantic revolutionary” Nazım Hikmet, in prison in the early 1940s had a profound effect on Kemal’s literary direction and social politics. He began writing poetry and stories, eventually trying his craft in novels and plays.

Kemal was one of the first authors to write about the working class, the alienation of immigrants in big cities, mass urbanization and the changing social structure of Turkey after World War II. He shed a realist light and took a brutal look at poor people living in dignity. Kemal’s stories, novels and plays also lent a voice to working-class women for perhaps the first time in modern Turkish literature.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Film takes a haunting look at arranged marriages

‘Lal Gece’ (Night of Silence), director and writer Reis Çelik’s Crystal Bear winner in this year’s Berlinale, hits theaters this week. Most of the story taking place in the bridal chamber, the film is a haunting look at arranged marriages in Turkey. ‘Lal Gece’ is a one of many in a string of Turkish films on arranged marriages


A young adolescent girl locked in a room to have sex against her will with a much older man would be the definition of rape in many countries. Yet in some parts of rural Turkey it is merely standard procedure for a traditional arranged marriage.

Reis Çelik’s latest feature and Crystal Bear winner in this year’s Berlin International Film Festival Lal Gece (Night of Silence) follows a traditional arranged wedding in which the 60-something-year old groom is sent off to the bridal chamber with his 14-year-old bride to consummate the marriage by sunrise the next day.

The marriage is an arrangement to end the blood feud between two families and the groom, played by veteran actor İlyas Salman, has spent most of his life in prison for the murder, done as an honor killing, of his mother. The film’s director and writer Çelik layers in a look at another patriarchal tradition accepted in certain rural parts of Turkey with the addition of the groom’s honor killing to the plot. The young bride, played by newcomer Dilan Aksüt, is a fresh-faced teenager under her bright red wedding veil.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Acclaimed filmmaker Kutluğ Ataman funds next film via web

Acclaimed filmmaker and contemporary artist Kutluğ Ataman may have advanced to the next stage in arts funding for his new film, ‘South Facing Wall’: crowd funding


When South Facing Wall, the fifth feature film by globally recognized Turkish filmmaker and contemporary artist Kutluğ Ataman, hits the theaters some time next year, there will be at least 153 individual funders proudly watching the film, some who have contributed 2,000 dollars, others merely two dollars.

Ataman has chosen Kickstarter, the U.S. crowd funding website for creative projects, as a major source for his upcoming movie, which will be filmed in the eastern province of Erzincan. The contributions from individual film aficionados will go directly to funding development and pre-production, help the production team shape the project from rewriting and research and include other aspects like location scouting and production design.

When you check the Kickstarter page for the project, you won’t see much on the filming details, nor about the cast and the crew. What you will see is a detailed account of the film, the story, and how the funding will work, including a five-minute video of Ataman himself talking about what he wants to achieve with his film.

“I want to make a film that talks about the everyday lives of individuals who live here and have not found proper representation in Turkish cinema,” Ataman says in the video to the potential (and hopefully actual) funders, referring to the people of eastern Anatolia.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Karaoğlan, Turkish comic book hero returns to screen

Karaoğlan, the famous comic book hero of the 1960s, makes a comeback in the upcoming film, directed by Kudret Sabancı. The young Turkic warrior will once again fight his archenemy, Mongol leader Camoka, in the film to be released next January


Nationalist sentiments continue their invasion of Turkish pop culture as another Turkish hero saves Anatolia, this time from the Mongols. With some blatant and crude nationalism in recent Turkish cinema like the box office hit Fetih 1453 (Conquest 1453) and the action series Kurtlar Vadisi (The Valley of the Wolves), the news of the upcoming adventures of a Turkish hero on screen stirred quite some excitement last week.

Karaoğlan, veteran cartoonist Suat Yalaz’s beloved comic book hero, is getting ready for his screen comeback, riding his horse in the vast film set in Kemerburgaz in northern Istanbul. The hero is a young Turkic adventurer in his early 20s, and the literal translation of his name is the Swarthy Boy, referring to his trademark dark locks. The setting is 12th- and 13th-century Central Asia during the reign of Genghis Khan.

Karaoğlan was one of the most popular Turkish comic book heroes of the 1960s, dubbed the Heroes with Swords, all of them inspired by motifs from the histories and folklore of Turks, as well as Islam. The historic comic book heroes proved to be the darling of pop culture at the time, with more than 50 heroes hitting the stands at one time.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Death by technology in film

Two new releases this week demonstrate the changing face of fear of technology in movies. While an ATM booth, mobile phones and cameras betray humans in one horror flick, in another a power outage becomes the ultimate source of horror. Here’s a look at technophobia in movies, which goes as far back as the early 1920s

Forwarding a private email to your boss could be the ultimate horror story. You might also harbor anxiety over someone tagging you on Facebook. Online shopping can be as scary, if you’ve heard stories of people’s credit cards being hacked. In fact, sometimes computers and emails, TV sets and credit cards can be much scarier than haunted houses, monstrous sharks, and psycho killers – at least on screen.

Two of this week’s new releases play on our anxieties about changing technology and our dependence on it. In director David Brooks’s ATM, three friends stop by an ATM booth to withdraw some cash, only to find themselves trapped in the ATM and their lives threatened by a hooded man waiting to kill them. While technology becomes a threat to their lives, it is also technology that offers them the chance of escape, in the form of mobile phones and cameras – which perhaps also let them down, fuelling even more fear of technology.

In Alexandre CourtèsThe Incident (released with the title Asylum Blackout in some countries), a group of unsuspecting people are stuck in a prison-like building with the criminally insane when a thunderstorm causes a blackout. Something as simple as a malfunction in electricity becomes the source of true horror in this French-American horror movie.

The fear of technology and its reflection in art, more specifically in fiction, is as old as, well, technology.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Book links identities to pop music

Turkey’s conflicting dynamics between state ideology and pop culture are analyzed in a book titled ‘The Republic of Love: Cultural Intimacy in Turkish Popular Music,’ written by music scholar Martin Stokes. The book is now in Turkish


The way to explore a nation’s identity is through a country’s music, its singers and the intimate connection they establish with their fans, advocates Martin Stokes, a lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Oxford University and the writer of The Republic of Love: Cultural Intimacy in Turkish Popular Music.

Stokes is a renowned academic studying music and music theory with a particular emphasis on contemporary Middle East. He is no stranger to examining Turkish music as his first book The Arabesk Debate: Music and Musicians in Modern Turkey was published in early 1990s.

Stokes’ second book, The Republic of Love has recently been translated into Turkish by Koç University Press. The book dissects Turkey’s recent history and its conflicting national identities through three musicians. Zeki Müren, the flamboyant singer who single-handedly normalized the concept of queer in Turkish culture, Orhan Gencebay, the father of arabesk music, and Sezen Aksu, the diva and queen of Turkish pop music, stand at the core of Stokes’ book. Through these public figures, Stokes visits Turkey’s history from the 1950s to today, and questions alternative conceptions of Turkishness as opposed to identities imposed by state ideologies. The music and public personae of these three figures help shine a light on the history of Turkish politics, a constant source of civil unrest. Stokes looks at music and pop culture in general as a major player in cultural change and as a reflection on turmoil.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Portrayal of transgenders in Turkish films, or lack thereof

This week marked Pride Week for LGBT communities. Turkey might be more accepting and tolerant of the first three letters of the LGBT communities, but when it comes to transgender people, not so much

Thousands marched yesterday in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, proudly waving the rainbow flag as they brought an end to a month of pride. June is the month when we see pictures adorned with the colors of the rainbow and even more colorful LGBT communities walking together across the world to celebrate pride.

The idea behind the celebration of pride is to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots that kick-started the gay rights movement in the United States, and more so, remind the status quo that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities demand an end to ostracization and equal rights.

While we’re used to seeing pictures from Western countries of over-the-top celebrations of pride, carefully picked by the media to marginalize the events, Turkey itself is not new to Pride Week, which concludes with the Pride Parade.

The very first Pride Week was organized in 1993 when various panels and events took place behind close doors because the Istanbul Governor’s Office had denied permission for more high-profile activities. It wasn’t until a decade later that Pride Week would close with a parade that was attended by a mere 30 people. The number increased exponentially each year, with around 10,000 people gathering and marching against homophobia and transphobia last year. But to the mainstream media, it’s still a marginal event that does not have much news value.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Orientalist look from Hollywood

Previous attempts by the Culture and Tourism Ministry to lure foreign film productions to Turkey may have created a bias, producing a history of films depicting Turks, Turkey and Istanbul through an Orientalist perspective for half a century


“It is evident that cinema makes a big contribution to tourism,” Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay said in a June 13 meeting at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, which brought together representatives from the Ministry and the Turkish cinema sector.

The meeting was convened to kick-start work on the new Turkish cinema draft law, the first seen since 2004. Set to be included in the new draft law will the establishment of a platform to provide support to foreign films shot in Turkey. Günay said, “We already do our best [to support] such productions, but we think that it would be easier to appear in the world market if we collaborate with a foreign film company.”

Günay has in fact been flirting with a system to increase foreign film productions in Turkey for some time now. Building sets and stages devoted to foreign film productions is one of the projects he has proposed. An incentive system is another.

Last year, he met with producers of the upcoming James Bond movie Skyfall, to make known his enthusiasm to have many of the film’s scenes filmed in Turkey. The production team, including current James Bond actor, Daniel Craig, were in Turkey earlier this year to film scenes at Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square, Hagia Sophia, the coastal town of Fethiye, and the historic Varda Railway Bridge close to the southern city of Adana.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Vampirler: Gecenin 'öteki' sesinden çoksesliliğe


Hayatınıza giren ilk vampiri hatırlıyor musunuz? Hangi sinema karesinden ya da hangi kitabın sayfalarından ölümcül dişlerini ilk kez gösterdiğini? Ben hatırlamıyorum. Edebiyat, sinema, çizgi roman ve televizyondan sürekli karşıma çıkan vampir tiplemesinin beni korkutmak, tedirgin etmek, kimi durumda midemi bulandırmak üzere yaratılmış olduğunu biliyorum yalnızca. Hayatıma giren ilk vampirleri hatırlamaya çalıştığımda, aklıma F. W. Murnau’nun yüzyıl başında çektiği Nosferatu filmindeki fareden hallice Kont Orlok ve çeşitlemeleri geliyor.

Vampirlerin ne zaman yeraltından yükseldiklerini, ne zaman geceyi sahiplenen, tanımlar ötesi, tanrısal yaratıklara dönüştüklerini ise çok iyi hatırlıyorum. Anne Rice’ın yüzyıllık acılarıyla büyüyen, ölüme ve yaşama lanet etmekten keyif duyan, baştan çıkarıcı vampirleriyle tanıştığım zaman.

O zamana kadar ne düşünür, ne hisseder merak etmediğim, yalnızca kimi içer, kimi yer ilgi duyduğum vampirler Anne Rice’ın kalemi, Roza Hakmen’in çevirisiyle Interview with the Vampire/Vampirle Görüşme romanında dünyanın en ilgi çekici yaratıklarına dönüştüler. Louis’nin ağzından dökülen hüzünlü sözcükler, Lestat’ın insanı anında içine çeken karizması ve Claudia’nın çocuk-kadın karmaşasıyla vampirlerin içine yeniden, bu sefer farklı bir heyecanla düşüverdim.

Vampirler kendi öykülerini anlatmaya, birer özne olmaya başladıkça herkesin benzer bir dönüşümü yaşadığını düşünüyorum. Kimisi için Underworld serisi bu görevi gördü, kimisi The Lost Boys filminin serseri vampir çetesiyle vampirleri çekici bulmaya başladı.

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London 2012: What's in it for the locals?

Come 9 September, London will have closed its curtains both for the Olympic and the Paralympic Games. But what has it meant for those living around the area where the Olympic Park was built, and most importantly, what will it mean in the aftermath of the Games?

We have seen London write history in the modern Olympics as it became the first city to have hosted the Games three times, previously in 1908 and 1948, the second time after a long pause in the Olympics in the aftermath of the World War II. The iconic sporting event, coupled with the Cultural Olympiad that is the London 2012 Festival, has put its mark on 2012 as the biggest global event of this year.

But perhaps, the real impact of the Games for the British, more specifically the Londoners, will have to bear the test of time. Whether Prime Minister’s aspiration for the Olympic legacy will come true: “Make sure the Olympics legacy lifts East London from being one of the poorest parts of the country to one that shares fully in the capital’s growth and prosperity.”

Seven years ago last month, London was announced as the host of the 2012 Summer Olympics, beating Paris in a close race. The celebrations might have been cut short in the 7/7 bombings the next day, but one of the UK’s biggest redevelopment and regeneration projects began full swing.

Along with hosting the greatest sporting event of modern history, the UK conceived the Olympic Games as an opportunity to bring East London out of its notorious economic deprivation, the 11th poorest area in the UK. Money has been pouring into the East London borough of Newham, where the Olympic Park was built over a land between Hackney Wick and Stratford, as well as the boroughs that border the Park, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Greenwich and Waltham Forest.

Click here for full article (British Council Turkey Blog)

Controversy starts early at Golden Oranges

As is the custom with Turkey’s biggest cinema event, the Golden Orange Film Festival, controversy around the national competition has begun taking the media by storm. This time, the contention has started early

What’s Turkey’s biggest cinema event, the Golden Orange Film Festival, without the anticipated controversy? There might be two months left until the festival kicks off in October, but the heat came early this year with the announcement of the jury for the national competition last week.

Cinema, competition and controversy have been running hand in hand in the southern province of Antalya almost every autumn for half a century now. The biggest cinema event in Turkey has been mocked and praised and courted and shunned for varying reasons throughout the course of its history.

But the true controversy has always centered on the national competition. Since the early days of the festival, the category has been much more than a competition. The selection of the films, the selection of the jury and the handing out of the awards, together with their aftermath, have always managed to steal the headlines away from any celebration of cinema.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

London 2012: A celebration of history and an ode to a changing world

It was a proud fortnight for Britain and for London, showing to the world that the Olympic Games is much more than sports and competition. London 2012 Summer Olympics was a celebration of diversity, equality, team spirit, fair play, and Western Civilisation when at its best. It was the Games that wrote history in many respects, most memorable perhaps for women athletes.

“Didn’t we do well!” screamed the front page headline of the UK’s Daily Express the day after the Closing Ceremony of London 2012 Summer Olympics. “The Games brought out much that is best in this country,” wrote The Guardian. “They allowed us a golden glimpse of a nation that celebrates men and women with equal awe, and embraces British athletes of all racial backgrounds,” continued the story.

The London 2012 Summer Olympics was an ode to the Olympic spirit, to fair play, to a changing world, and to a changing Britain. It brought together athletes young enough to care equally for Justin Bieber and a gold medal, andold enough to remember the tragic 1972 Munich Olympics. It brought together countries that filled a whole apartment in the Olympic village, with those that had no country to compete for. It brought people of all race, all religion, andall colour.

London 2012 showed to the world that the iconic sporting event is a team effort, continually acknowledging the colossal contribution of the 70 thousand volunteers throughout the Games. It was a historic Games in many respects. It was the Games where women shined equally with men, some of them representing their countries for the first time in their history. It was the “first social media Olympics,” as put by the International Olympic Committee. 150 million Tweets were sent during the Games, Usain Bolt breaking another record with his 1.3 million followers.

Click here for full article (British Council Blog)

Turkish films shine in Venice line-up

Absent at the Venice International Film Fest for two decades, Turkish cinema has become a regular fixture in the festival over the last four years. This year’s line up includes three movies from Turkish filmmakers Here’s a look at the journey of Turkish cinema in Venice over the past four years


With less than a month before the 69th Venice International Film Festival kicks off, the line-up has been announced, surprising moviegoers with only a few of the expected overlaps with the Toronto Film Festival. The festival will open with The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mira Nair, one of the 20 female directors who are going to be debuting their work this year.

The list of films to be screened at the festival came as good news for Turkey, with internationally-acclaimed female director Yeşim Ustaoğlu’s Araf (Somewhere in Between) included into the Orrizonti (Horizons) section, and director Ali Aydın’s debut feature Küf (Mold) competing for the Lion of the Future award, an award won two years ago by another Turkish director’s debut feature, Seren Yüce’s Çoğunluk (Majority).

The inclusion of the two films in the line-up made headlines last weekend, but there was another success story by two other Turkish filmmakers. One of the films to be screened in the Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days) section of the festival is Inheritance, a joint production between Israel, France and Turkey. The film is the directorial debut of Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, renowned for her roles in such films as Satin Rouge, Dawn of the World, and Amreeka. The two Turkish names from among the producers are Faruk Özerten and Ender Sevim. Özerten has channeled his skills to producing after having worked in the U.S. as an assistant director and a producer for one of the episodes of the short-lived TV series Missing, starring Ashley Judd.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Yaşamdan mı yanasınız seçme hakkından mı?

Kadın hareketinin tarih boyunca yoluna taş bırakan kürtaj, sonunda bizde de bir tartışma konusu olarak gündeme düştü. Kadını ve kadın vücudunu kontrol altına almak isteyen kürtaj karşıtı bakış açısı tüm ciddiyetiyle bir erkek söylemi olmaya devam ederken, kürtaj hakkını savunanlar yaratıcılıktan ödün vermiyor. Sinema ve TV ise bu önemli kadın deneyimini es geçmeyi tercih ediyor
Karmaşık Batılılaşma yolculuğumuzda geçtiğimiz hafta ilginç bir ilerleme kaydettik. Batı’nın iki yüzyıldır hararetinden bir şey kaybetmeyen kürtaj tartışması bizim topraklarda da kendine sıcak bir alan buluverdi. Köşeleri bir türlü birleşmeyen din-devlet-kadın hakları üçgeninin bu önemli savaş alanı, en son cephesini Başbakan’ın sözleriyle Türkiye’de açtı.

Yaşamdan mı yanasınız, seçme özgürlüğünden mi derken ciddi bir savaş alanı var ortada: Kadın vücudu. Tüm ahlaki, dini, felsefi, yasal ve biyolojik tartışmaların ortasında atlanan asıl gerçek ise işin güvenlik ve sağlık boyutu, bir de sağlığa ulaşım hakkı.

Her yıl dünyada ortalama 200 bin kadın kürtaj sırasında ölüyor. Bu ölümlerin yüzde 99’u ise düzgün koşullarda çok rahat önlenebilecek ölümler. Kürtajın yasal olduğu ülkelerle yasaklandığı ülkelerdeki kürtaj oranı aşağı yukarı aynı. Yani, kürtajı yasaklamak ya da toplumsal olarak cinayet olduğunu beyan etmek, genelevleri kapayarak seks alışverişini önlemek kadar gerçekçi ve insani bir yaklaşım.

Belki de en mantıklısı, kürtaj tartışmalarını kadın hareketinin, kadının özgürleşmesinin turnusol testi olarak kabul etmek. Tarih boyunca ne zaman kadınlar haklarını sahiplenmeye biraz daha yakınlaşıyor, kürtaj da o zaman yeniden masaya yatırılıyor. Seçme-seçilme hakkı, kadın emeğinin eşitlenmesi, üreten kadının yalnız başına var olma özgürlüğü bir adım ilerlediğinde, dikkatleri başka bir tarafa çekmek için kürtaj yeniden gündeme geliyor.

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Research center opens with a look at Anatolia

Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations makes its official opening with a photography exhibition of the late chronicler of Anatolia, Josephine Powell. The center aims to focus on the Anatolia
Josephine Powell was one of the most prominent documenters of Turkey’s recent history and its transformation after the establishment of the republic in early 20th century. Having visited Turkey for the first time in 1955 to photograph Byzantine mosaics, she became a regular traveler in Turkey, photographically and academically documenting nomadic life. She was both a collector of Anatolian artifacts like flat-woven textiles, kilims and sacks, as well as a photographer of ethnography.

Until her death in 2007, Powell documented Anatolia and its diverse ways of life in a collection of 30,000 photographs. Three months before her death, she left the entire collection to the Vehbi Koç Foundation. The photos have been digitized and cataloged by Koç University’s Suna Kıraç Foundation.

Now, a selection of these photographs, taken over a span of two decades, is ready for art and culture aficionados as part of an opening exhibition.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Angrier, more aggressive Madonna rocks Istanbul

Three decades into her career, with her second visit to Istanbul after a twenty year absence, Madonna once again showed an awe-struck audience of 50,000 the very definition of a good show. In fact, the best show anyone could hope to see.


Madonna performed in Istanbul June 7 on the third stop in her latest MDNA tour. The show was vintage Madonna, edgy Madonna, a re-invented Madonna, and an all-too-familiar in-your-face Madonna. Singing perhaps a little too much from her new album MDNA for the casual fans’ taste, the Queen of Pop nonetheless managed to impress with a two-hour extravaganza of singing, dancing, acrobatics, visual effects and costumes.

With nine concert tours undertaken throughout her career, the MDNA Tour is the darkest Madonna has ever done. This was a concert of war, anger and aggression. But against whom it was directed is a bit muddled. There were guns, a shooting rampage on Madonna’s part against her male dancers, a choreographed dance of eye-flinching torture, prison violence and blood, lots of blood splattered across giant screens. Madonna definitely had some issues to work out. She was angry at ex-husbands, ex-lovers, the male authority figures, high school bullies, the church, and a pop star who is 28 year her younger.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News) 

YouTube joins activist world with Human Rights Channel

As we have seen in the last two years with the Arab Spring, social media can be the ultimate tool in the fight for equality, rights and justice. In line with this, YouTube, together with two partners, has launched the Human Rights Channel, a platform for citizens around the globe to upload their videos on human rights violations. No videos, however, have yet been uploaded from Turkey


Did you know that you can now watch human rights violations and under-reported human rights stories all around the world on a single channel? Maybe not a TV channel, but perhaps a more powerful, impartial and global source of videos. YouTube’s very own Human Rights Channel opened in late May with the slogan, “Film it. Share it. Change it.”

With a single click, you can now watch the gruesome footage of a raid by Syrian security forces on Aleppo University’s dormitories that claimed four lives and its aftermath, or recent rallies in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, a man publicly whipped as punishment in Iran, or cousins burning themselves to protest Chinese rule in Tibet.

The channel asks people around the world to upload videos “to shed light on and contextualize under-reported stories, to record otherwise undocumented abuses, and to amplify previously unheard voices.” The all-too-important hashtag is #video4change.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Turkey and Greece unite on screen

The recent collaborations between Greek and Turkish filmmakers are an increasing interest on the part of Turkish moviegoers in cinema. This year’s edition of Documentarist, devotes a section to Greek - Turkish relations.
Celebrating its fifth year, Documentarist, Istanbul’s Documentary Days, is preparing to bring moviegoers face to face with the harsh realities of today (and yesterday) as seen through the eyes of nearly 100 filmmakers. This year’s festival, taking place between June 1-6, features a section devoted to Greece and the difficult times it has experienced in the last couple of years.

The section “Our Nextdoor Neighbor Greece” is the latest example in a string of collaborations between Turkey and Greece, as well as a growing interest in each other’s work both in film and TV. The sometimes-troubled relationship between the neighbors seems to have taken a friendly turn in the past couple of years, at least as seen through the camera.

In this year’s Documentarist, one can see examples from Greek cinema that shed a harsh light on the tough times of the recent past. Myrna Tsapa’s Katinoula of 2012 is a candid look at an elderly woman of Greek origin living in Egypt. Directors Chyrysa Tzelepi and Tania Hatzigeorgiou’s film, 25th Meridien, which took five years to complete, follows the lives of the few remaining Greek residents on the largest Turkish island in the Aegean, Gökçeada, or Imbros.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Harry Potter'la yine yeniden

Yedi kitap ve sekiz filmle macerasını tamamladığını sandığımız Harry Potter, popüler kültüre bir türlü veda edemeyecek gibi gözüküyor. Yeni sesli ve elektronik kitaplar, J.K. Rowling’in heyecanla duyurduğu web sitesi Pottermore, ufukta beliren bir ansiklopedi ve ilk defa hayranlara açılan filmlerin çekildiği stüdyo, büyücüler ve cadılar dünyasında kazan hala kaynıyor diyor...
Harry Potter serisinin yedinci ve son kitabının piyasaya çıktığı 2007 yazı dünyanın dört bir köşesine dağılmış milyonlarca hayran için de buruk bir yazdı. On yıl önce tanıdığımız küçük büyücü ve cadıların tedirgin yetişkinlere dönüştüğü, masum maceraların epik bir savaşla noktalandığı, popüler kültürün bir kahramanına veda ettiği bir yaz.

İki yakasını bir araya getiremeyen yalnız bir anneyken 2000’lerin başında dünyanın en zengin kadınlarından birisi olan J.K. Rowling’in hayranlarıyla yaşadığı ilişkinin de karmaşıklaştığı bir dönemdi son kitabın piyasaya çıktığı yaz. Harry Potter’ın yaşayıp yaşamayacağına emin olamayan hayranlar dünya çapında başlattıkları Harry’yi Kurtar kampanyasıyla sevgili kahramanlarının popüler kültür mezarlığına gitmemesi için ellerinden geleni yaptılar.

Rowling de güvenli yolu seçti ve Harry Potter ve Ölüm Yadigarları’nın son bölümünde serinin saç ayağı Harry, Ron ve Hermione’nin büyümüş hallerini okuyuculara sundu. Bu edebi manevrayla gelecekte ne olursa olsun, Harry Potter ve arkadaşlarına bir şey olmayacağını garantiliyordu. Hayatının o döneminde büyücüler dünyasıyla artık işi kalmadığını düşünse de, aynı dünyaya yeniden atlama olasılığını baki tutuyordu. Hatta kahramanlarını çoluk çocuklu çekirdek ailelere dönüştürerek, yeni nesil büyücü ve cadılar için de açık bir kapı bırakmıştı Rowling.

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Chatting with UK's Paralympic swimmer Rodgers

The UK’s Paralympic swimmer Susannah Rodgers talks about being a newcomer to international competitions, being selected for London 2012, her sporting idols, and Paralympics.
Susannah Rodgers is a Paralympic swimmer for the British team in the Olympic Games. She won five golds and one silver on her international debut at the 2011 IPC European Championships in Berlin and set two European records. She had also won bronze and silver at the 2011 British Championships. She is currently ranked third in the world for the 50m freestyle. The London-based swimmer is also working for the British Council. Here is an interview with Susannah Rodgers.

You are a relatively newcomer in the international competitions. When did you start swimming competitively?

I did do some swimming when I went to university when I was 21. I did training for a year and I competed. But I was doing a degree in Modern Languages, and as part of my degree I had to go and travel abroad for a year. So I stopped swimming. And it was only after I’d finished university that I got back to the swimming, and I got started competing again. And it went well and then it carried on from there.

Click here for full article (British Council Blog)

‘The Dictator’: When racist replaces racy

Once one of the best comedians in the world and a crusader fighting the ignorance, prejudice and vacuousness of political correctness, Sacha Baron Cohen has given in to Hollywood mechanics. ‘The Dictator’ is at best a mediocre comedy

When Borat Sagdiyev, Kazakhstan’s sixth best journalist and one of the many alteregos of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, led the unsuspecting American patrons of a Country West Club to sing along to Throw the Jew Down the Well on screen in 2006, it was time to revisit the boundaries of comedy, and realize that we actually live in a very controlled environment when it comes to humor.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was a mockumentary, a collection of pranks spread over a journey from New York to California. Borat and his producer traveled throughout the “U.S. and A,” to make a documentary on America or to find Pamela Anderson and make her Borat’s wife, whichever story you chose to follow.

The initial reaction to Cohen’s comedy was simple strain, before deciding whether to laugh or not. You had to laugh, because the pranks were funny, and the timing was spot on. And when you let yourself go, and started to feel comfortable laughing at all the misogynistic, anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist jokes, there was an unexpected sense of liberation. You could be a woman, Jewish or gay. It didn’t matter. In the hands of a masterful comedian who played on people’s ignorance and prejudice, political correctness crumbled into pieces.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

'Umutsuz Ev Kadınları'yla son kez

Evlenme, boşanma, aldatma, çoluk çocuk, sayısız cinayet ve birkaç doğal felaketle geçen sekiz yılın sonunda 'Desperate Housewives-Umutsuz Ev Kadınları' ekranlara veda ediyor. Wisteria Lane'in kadınlarını, televizyon ahiretinde 'Altın Kızlar'a ve 'Sex and the City' kadınlarına emanet ediyoruz.
Önümüzdeki Salı akşamı umutsuz ev kadınlarına veda etmeye hazır olun. Yasemin, Nermin ve Elif’e değil de, asıl ev kadınları Susan, Bree, Lynette ve Gabrielle’e. Sekiz yıl boyunca Wisteria Lane’i mesken edinen, ekranın orijinal umutsuz ev kadınları kirli çamaşırlarını bu hafta son kez izleyicilerle paylaşacaklar.

Lost’la beraber Amerikan ABC kanalını sekiz yıl önce karanlıktan gün ışığına çıkaran Desperate Housewives, iki bölümlük finaliyle Pazar akşamı Amerika’da, iki gün sonra da cnbc-e’de yolculuğunu tamamlamaya hazırlanıyor. Evlilik, boşanma, aldatma, çocuk, iş sorunları, mahalle kavgası arasına sayısını unuttuğumuz cinayet, birkaç tane doğal felaket sıkıştıran, hatta mahallenin ortasına uçak düşüren dizi, kabak tadı verme aşamasında sona eriyor.

Pembe dizi, dedektiflik ve ‘sitcom’ türlerinin bazen başarılı, bazen de acemi bir karışımı olan Desperate Housewives’ın bu kadar uzun süre tutunabilmesi, televizyon ve sinema izleyicisinin tanıdık bir yerlerine dokunmasında yatıyor. Amerikan sinemasının banliyö hayatının karanlık yanıyla ilgili takıntısı, televizyonun unutulmaz nevrotik kadınları (bkz. TV’nin ilk umutsuz evkadını Sue Ellen Ewing) ve kadın arkadaşlığı (bkz. Sex and the City ve Altın Kızlar), dizinin de sarsılması zor belkemiğini oluşturuyor.

Sekiz yıl içerisinde karakterlerini giderek derinleştiren Desperate Housewives’ın hikayeleri teklediği zamanlarda bile, kare ası dört kadınla düzlüğe çıkmayı başardığını unutmamak gerek. Wisteria Lane sakinleri belki televizyonda bir devrim yaratmadı ama Bree’nin gümüşlerini parlattığı, Lynette’in masada dans ettiği, Gabrielle’in çimleri biçtiği, Susan’ın çıplak vücudunu çalılarla kapladığı sahneleri unutmak kolay olmayacak.

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Lucky Luke celebrated in Istanbul

Lucky Luke, the timeless Belgian comic depiction of a lonesome cowboy created by the team of Morris and Goscinny, will be celebrated in Istanbul with an extravaganza including an exhibition, a workshop and a panel
Comic books were a hovering presence in Turkey’s pop culture from the late 1950s until the 1980s, defining generations, their tastes and the boundaries of their imagination. It’s no surprise that kids who grew up with imaginary comic heroes dominating their childhood and adolescent lives are looking back on them now. While comic book culture went into a period of deep sleep with the increasing number of private TV channels and the emergence of videos and computers in the 1980s, the nostalgia has become unbearable for some kids, who have now grown up, whether they have become academics or artists, opened their own businesses or are working away in a job.

The lazy comic book readers of the past have become adults, reviving the cult of comic books in late 1990s through underground fanzines and secondhand booksellers. Now this has become an economy of its own, with old comic books published in new packages to suit expensive tastes, and collectors demanding insane amounts of money for old issues of comic books and the once-cheap memorabilia of childhood.

In this atmosphere, a comic book hero that was a big name for Turkish readers is getting the star treatment in Istanbul now. Belgian cartoonist Morris and writer René Goscinny’s timeless creation, the lonesome cowboy Lucky Luke (known as “Red Kit” to Turkish readers) is at the center of an extravaganza celebrating the history, art and fandom of the character.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Hollywood’da gerçek kadın hikayeleri

Yapımcısı, yönetmeni ve kadın oyuncusuyla Hollywood, ödüle giden yeni bir formülü keşfetmiş durumda: 20. yüzyıla adını yazdıran kadınların biyografileri. Geçtiğimiz sene Michelle Williams’a Oscar adaylığı, Meryl Streep’e de 29 yıl sonra ikinci Oscar’ını getiren iki gerçek kadın hikayesiydi. Williams, Marilyn Monroe’yu; Streep ise, hala hayatta olan eski İngiltere başbakanı Margaret Thatcher’i canlandırdı. Hollywood kazanında yeni kadın biyografileri kaynamaya başladı bile. Sırada Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly ve Nancy Reagan var.

Kızgın damdaki sarhoş
Lindsay Lohan, Elizabeth Taylor rolünde...
“İki dinamiti durmadan birbirine tokuşturup, sonra da patlamamalarını bekleyemezsiniz.” Elizabeth Taylor’la ikinci evliliğini bu sözlerle açıklayan Richard Burton, Hollywood’un en tutkulu ilişkilerinden birinin erkek tarafı olarak yeniden gündeme gelmek üzere. Mücevherleri, kocaları, bıkmadan izlediğimiz filmleri ve insanın içini eriten menekşe gözleriyle tarih yazan Elizabeth Taylor, ölümünden bir yıl sonra yeni çekilecek bir filme konu oluyor.

Taylor ve Burton’ın, Hollywood filmlerine yakışır iniş çıkışlı ilişkilerini anlatacak Liz and Dick filminde Taylor’ı canlandıracak isim ise Lindsay Lohan. Başı beladan kurtulmayan, geçtiğimiz ay bilmem kaçıncı cezasını morg temizleyerek geçiren Lohan’ın Hollywood’un kraliçelerinden birisini canlandıracak olması doğal olarak birçok insanın yüzünü buruşturmuş durumda.

İnsanın aklına haklı olarak bir soru geliyor. Hangi aklıselim çoğu insanın tipini sarhoş ya da polislerle haşır neşir (kimi durumda her ikisi de) paparazzi fotoğraflarından bildiği bu sorunlu yıldıza Elizabeth Taylor rolünü verir? Asıl soru ise, Lohan bu kadar sorunlu olmasaydı, sinemacılar tarafından disiplinsizliğiyle ipe çekilmeseydi, bu rolün ona verilmesine bu kadar şaşırır mıydık?

Bir kere, sabahlara kadar içki içmediği zamanlardaki duru güzelliği Taylor’ın gençliğini andırıyor. Sonra, sorunsuz zamanlarında Lohan’ın oyunculuğu seyirciyi hemen içine alan cinsten. Ünlü film eleştirmeni Roger Ebert’in Jodie Foster’ın Taksi Şoförü'ndeki oyunculuğuna benzeteceği kadar. Taylor’ın da, Lohan’ın da çocuk yıldız olarak ünlü olduklarını ve herkesin gözü önünde yaşadıkları arızaların bir kısmının buna bağlı olduğunu da hatırlamak gerek. Hatta Taylor’ın, bir dönem Lohan’a hediyeler gönderdiği, ablalık yaptığını da.

Son karar: Lohan, büyük bir şans olarak gördüğü bu rolle yeniden dönüş yapabilir. Tüm bu olumsuz tepkiler kendisini biraz kamçılarsa, unutamayacağımız bir role bile dönüşebilir. Tabii sete sarhoş gitmezse ya da çekimler sırasında hapiste olmazsa.

Monako’da arka pencere
Nicole Kidman, Grace Kelly rolünde...
Marilyn ile Bir Hafta ve Zoraki Kral filmlerinden gördüğümüz üzere, tüm hayatı birkaç saate indirgemeye çalışan biyografiler yerine kısa bir dönemi anlatan filmler hem gişede iyi iş yapıyor, hem de ödüle doymuyor. Sırada Hollywood oyuncusuyken her şeyi bırakıp prenses olan Grace Kelly’nin politik cambazlıklarını anlatan Grace of Monaco var.

Arash Amel tarafından yazılan filmin senaryosu, LA Times gazetesinin geçen sene hazırladığı, Hollywood’un bir türlü çekilemeyen iyi senaryolarını sıralayan Kara Liste’de en başlardaydı. Liste uğurlu gelmiş olmalı ki, Grace of Monaco'nun çekimleri çok yakında başlıyor. Film, Monako’nun vergi cenneti konumu üzerine 1962 yılında Fransa Başkanı De Gaulle ve Monako Prensi Rainier arasında yaşanan gerginliği taze prensesin bakış açısıyla anlatacak.

Prenses Grace rolü için Hollywood’un kadın oyuncularının nasıl bir yarışa girdiklerini, başrolü kimin aldığının açıklanmasıyla da Gwyneth Paltrow’un kendini nasıl yogaya verdiğini tahmin edebiliyoruz. Prensesi canlandıracak oyuncu, bir başka gerçek karakteri, Saatler filminde yazar Virginia Woolf’u canlandırarak Oscar kazanmış Nicole Kidman. Filmin yönetmeni ise, Edith Piaf biyografisi Kaldırım Serçesi ile Marion Cotillard’a Oscar kazandıran ve bu Fransız oyuncuya Hollywood’un yolunu açan Olivier Dahan. Kidman’ı En İyi Kadın Oyuncu Oscar adayları arasında görmeye hazırlanabiliriz.

Son karar: Nicole Kidman, 2010 yılında Rabbit Hole filmiyle kazandığı Oscar’la gaza gelmiş durumda. Az duyulmuş yönetmenlerin filmlerinde birbirlerinden çok farklı, zorlayıcı karakterleri canlandırıyor. Grace Kelly rolünü başarıyla oynamak için kariyerinin en iyi döneminde.

Aerobik, vatkalar, seksenler
Jane Fonda, Nancy Reagan rolünde...
Bir Hollywood kraliçesi ya da Avrupa prensesi olmasa da, Amerikan First Lady’si Nancy Reagan’ın bir zamanlar lakabı Kraliçe Nancy’di. ‘Büyük düşün’ felsefesiyle şaşanın, gösterişin ve tüketimin yeni bir tanım kazandığı 1980’lere damgasını vuran Amerikan Başkanı Ronald Reagan’ın karısı Nancy, çekimleri yakında başlayacak bir filmdeki ana karakterlerden birisi olacak.

Sekiz Amerikan başkanının görev sürelerini kapsayan 34 yıl boyunca, Beyaz Saray’da kahya olarak çalışan Eugene Allen’ın hayatını anlatan ve Lee Daniels’ın yönettiği filmde Nancy Reagan’ı Jane Fonda canlandıracak. Bir 1980 klasiği olan aerobik kasetleri ve medya imparatoru Ted Turner’la 10 yıl süren evliliğiyle Reagan’la benzer bir yaşam tarzına sahip olduğu izlenimi verse de, Fonda’nın politik kimliği Reagan’ın 180 derece uzağında kalıyor.

Kızılderili, siyah ve kadın hakları için özellikle 1970’lerde sesini yükseltmesiyle, hala konuşulan Vietnam gezisi ve Vietnam karşıtı gösterilerin en önlerindeki ateşli konuşmalarıyla Jane Fonda için gerçek bir aktivist diyebiliriz. Reagan ise, 1940’lardan beri dokunulmayan Beyaz Saray’ı tamamen yenilemesi, yeni evine beş bin parça altın kaplamalı yemek seti alması ve pahalı giyim zevkiyle, Kraliçe lakabını Jackie Kennedy’nin elinden hakkıyla almış bir isim.

Politik olarak iki ayrı kutupta gözükseler de, bu iki kadını hassas bir şekilde bağlayan özel bir durum bulunuyor. Reagan da, Fonda da atlattıkları meme kanseri sonrası bu konuda duyarlılık yaratmak için ellerinden geleni yapıyorlar. Geçmişteki yanlışlarını çok rahat kabullenen Fonda’nın eski First Lady’yle kadınlara özgü bir empati kuruyor olma olasılığı yüksek.

Son karar: Zamanında politik olmadığı gerekçesiyle önüne gelen birçok rolü reddeden Fonda, 14 yıllık bir aradan sonra geri döndüğü oyunculukta eskisi gibi seçici değil. Yakın zamandaki vasat rollerden sonra yeniden konuşulacağı bir rol bulmuş gibi. Film, Fonda’nın ikinci baharının doruk noktası olabilir.

Olimpiyatlar'da çocuk olmak vardı

Olimpiyat heyecanı çocuklar için bambaşka bir anlam ifade ediyor. Tüm Londra’ya yayılan Olimpiyat dükkanlarından yeni doğmuş bir çocuğa da, ilkokul öğrencisine de, içindeki çocuğu beslemek isteyen yetişkine de bir şeyler bulmak mümkün. Tabii bir de Londra 2012’nin kültürel boyutu var. Londra’da devam eden Beautiful Games sergisi hem çocuklara, hem de büyüklere hitap ediyor.
Bir sporcuyu başarılı yapan nedir? Yeni teknolojiler bizi nasıl daha güçlü ve daha hızlı yapar? Fair play’in hassas sınırları nerede biter? Bu ve bunun gibi bir dolu sorunun cevabını öğrenirken bir yandan da Olimpiyat tarihine iz bırakan ödülleri, giysileri ve teknoloji harikası spor aletlerini bir arada görme fırsatı yakaladığınızı düşünün.

Londra sokaklarında yürürken, Olimpiyat ve Paralimpik Oyunları’na günler kaldığını hatırlamamanız imkansız. Sporla ilginiz olsa da, olmasa da Olimpiyat heyecanının parçası olmak için herkese bir şeyler var Londra’da. Özellikle de çocuklara.Yedi yaşından 70 yaşına herkesi kısa bir süreliğine çocuk yapan Londra’nın Çocukluk Müzesi (Museum of Childhood), Olimpiyat Oyunları’nın tarihini ve spor teknolojilerini çocuklara ve çocukluğunu hatırlamaya müzeye gelen yetişkinlere eğlenceli bir şekilde gösteriyor.

Yazının devamı için tıklayın (British Council Blog)

Films tackle honor killings

‘Ateşin Düştüğü Yer’ (Where the Flame Falls) takes a father and his 17-year-old pregnant daughter on a road trip, where the father prepares to execute the unsuspecting daughter
According to numbers released by a rights organizations and compiled from the press, about one woman every day was killed by a family member, husband, ex-husband or partner in Turkey last year.

Government figures are even more drastic, suggesting murders of women have increased ten-fold in the last decade, from 66 in 2002 to around 1,000 each year over the last few years. Thousands are victims of the cultural and social oxymoron of “honor killings.”

Honor killings have always been a major problem in Turkey, especially in the rural areas of eastern and southeastern Turkey. Until quite recently, Turkish law tended to be lenient to honor killers, with many sentences reduced through claims of “provocation.” Thanks to women’s NGOs, devoted followers of the problem in the media, and the country’s quest to enter the European Union, honor killings were deemed a scarlet letter against Turkey, eventually leading to the introduction of a mandatory life sentence for those found guilty of the crime seven years ago.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Shakespeare Fest to be celebrated in Turkish

The World Shakespeare Festival is remembering the English playwright through productions in 37 different languages. Stage and screen veteran Haluk Bilginer’s theater group will perform Antony and Cleopatra in Turkish

“Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch of the ranged empire fall!” So will Turkish stage and screen actor Haluk Bilginer cry on stage in London in late May.

These words by the Roman general Mark Antony in the Shakespeare tragedy Antony and Cleopatra will be uttered in Turkish as part of London’s six-week Globe to Globe event, which is staging plays by Shakespeare in 37 languages from Turkish and Swahili to sign language for the World Shakespeare Festival.

The World Shakespeare Festival, celebrating the bard and his work, will be part of the London 2012 Festival, a global extravaganza tying in with the upcoming Summer Olympics in London and celebrating culture through film, theater, music, fashion, visual arts and more.

The festival kicked off last week, coinciding with both Shakespeare’s birthday and the anniversary of his death. The plays in various languages will take place on the south bank of the River Thames at Shakespeare’s Globe, the replica of the original 17th century theater of the English playwright.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Damien Hirst: revelations through shock tactics

Damien Hirst is the artist who single-handedly changed the contemporary art scene in Britain in the 1990s. He is the guy who preserved a shark for the sake of art, and who sliced a cow in two. Now, his most famous works appear in a retrospective at London’s Tate Modern
AFP Getty
 Whether you are an art aficionado with old-fashioned conceptions of art or are ready to be swept away by the shock value of contemporary art, it’s hard not be impressed with Damien Hirst. More specifically, it’s hard not to be impressed with the largest U.K. exhibition ever for the man who single-handedly changed the British contemporary art.

The sight of medicine cabinets neatly filled with pharmaceuticals, or the head of a cow with flies crawling all over it may not be your idea of art, but for evoking emotions and raising questions, Damien Hirst’s work would have to be at the top of a list of true works of art that leave an impact. That impact might wear out as soon as you leave the exhibition, but it’s definitely palpable when walking past dead and living butterflies, a shark suspended in formaldehyde.

With his first exhibition Freeze in 1988, Hirst leapt straight into the art scene, initiating a brand of contemporary art that would leave its mark on Britain in the 1990s. Known as the Young British Artists, YBA, or Britart, a generation of artists born in mid-1960s that included Hirst, along with others like Tracey Emin and Carl Freedman, revitalized visual art by incorporating shock elements in their work, using throwaway objects and showcasing their opposition to the system in unprecedented ways.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

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