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.”

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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.

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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.

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