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)