Lots of Turkish cultural programmes under the header ‘Turkey Now’ have circulated in the Netherlands (and throughout Europe) in the last few years. Music, film and more – one can say mainly of a promotional character for the country, its culture and its natural beauties. Undoubtedly, there was quite a lot of international success for Turkish cinema, and especially individual film makers - cinema auteurs like Nuri Belgi Ceylan, Yesim Ustaoglu, Semih Kaplanoglu in the last decade and a half, but 2008 was the year that brought the biggest success for Turkish cinema at international film festivals until now – in terms of their participation, and even awards received.
In our conversation with Seyfi Teoman, the director of the film Summer Book, at one of the film festivals in the summer of 2008, we discussed recent developments in the Turkish film industry, in particular the successful débuts of the upcoming generation of film makers. Seyfi pointed out that it was worth researching the work of this youngest generation. Later on he also mentioned Altyazi, a prestigious film magazine run by a generation of young film critics. This was the beginning of our discovery of this country and its dynamic film developments, which our audiences can now enjoy in a thematic programme during the IFFR 2009 called Young Turkish Cinema. Last year’s film critic trainee Emine Yildirim, who spent the whole ten days at the festival and knows it quite well, responded with enthusiasm to our initiative and became one of our most appreciated advisors. And in the end we met with the first film critic from Altyazi - Nadir Operli, last year in September in Holland. Together with Rutger Wolfson we agreed upon setting up a joint project. The project would include searching for new, upcoming film makers in Turkey, and reflection on their work by their colleagues-film critics. We decided to add a few titles from the nineties that may have been an important influence with the next generations of film makers.
No permission
As often happens when compiling a thematic programme like this, you are dependent on many factors and above all people, and often it is impossible to get the best and nicest films that would enormously enrich the programme that you have in mind. It became clear quite soon that this would be the case with the latest masterpiece by Nuri Belgi Ceylan – Three Monkeys. We could not get permission from its Dutch distributor. What a pity, to make a programme like this and not to have the latest film from the most influential master of Turkey. Reality had to be faced though and it took me a few weeks to accept it. The alternative solution was to only select one of the old film of the director, so we did choose his wonderful b/w début Kasaba. When we ‘lost’ a few more recent débuts later on, this again affected the final shape of the programme, but nevertheless we do believe that the end result is still a strong and interesting programme.
Kars - de city panorama with a chair
Festival on Wheels
Turkish Festival on Wheels in Kars is probably known to everyone who works within the festival circuit, as it is renowned for its selection of quality foreign films and in recent years also for its Turkish film selection. Also, Basak Emre and Ahmet Boyacioglu are known as very enthusiast promoters of Turkish cinema. It is time to visit their festival in Kars and do some research on the spot. Kars is quite far away, in the most eastern part of the country, almost literally on the border with Armenia. It is only November but it's pretty cold here, minus ten during the nights and the hotel radiators don’t start to heat up until around 7 pm, so we do experience what real cold is like. However, the enthusiasm, friendliness and hospitality of the festival organisers make up for everything, even for the cold. There is always a lot of warm chai or tea at the hotel lobby and many helpful people to pour you a cup. The town seems to come alive with this important cultural event and people seem to enjoy it a lot.
It is in the hotel lobby where we first meet with Senem Aycar and Firat Yücel, two of the other Altyazi magazine film critics who write about the Kars festival and in this way support it. Even though they are very busy, they find some time for a working meeting and exchange of ideas about our programme. More meetings follow after the festival, back in Istanbul and with Gozde Onaran joining us. We are discussing various possibilities of approaching this special programme. From now on everything goes very quickly - even though not smoothly, unfortunately. There are quite a few new films but they are either unfinished, or the directors cannot make their festival choice, or they are just not suitable for our programme.
Kars
In the meantime I do manage to make two trips during my festival visit in Kars. The first one is a very short one – just around the town and up to the hill to catch the beautiful panorama of the city. I have great company – the Bosnian film maker Aida Begic who came here for two days to introduce her film Snow (a HBF supported project that will be shown at IFFR 2009 as well).
Aida Begic
We are both amazed by the picturesque beauty of Kars and agree that this is ideal working material for any film maker. Wherever you look, you can imagine a film scene that just begs to be recorded, if only with a photo camera. As Aida has forgotten hers, she is very sorry until she dares to ask if she can borrow mine. As soon as she has the camera in her hands, off she goes, and she disappears for quite a while. She comes back with wonderful pictures that each are a sort of story in themselves. You cannot deny the artist's hand!
The second trip was a longer one; the last day before the festival ended we went to visit the Medieval city of Ani, once part of the Armenian kingdom, nowadays a place of ruins, a distant memory of this city. Some of our Turkish friends also see it for the first time, as it was not open to the public until recently. Ani shows us its faded beauty and we learn about the ancient history of this magical place.
Back in Istanbul
Senem Aytac, Emine Yildirim and Gozde Onaran
Back in Istanbul – it is mostly two days of intensive work and meetings here. We talk about a special booklet of the Altyazi film magazine on the occasion of the special programme Young Turkish Cinema that should be available at the IFFR 2009. Later that evening we have dinner with Yesim Ustaoglu, whose two films – Pandora's Box and Journey to the Sun we are going to show in our special programme. And what’s more: Yesim has agreed upon becoming one of the Tiger Award jury members.
Back to my shabby hotel Londra (or Londres, meaning London) – a hotel that is more like a museum than a hotel, and best known for the fact that it served as a film set in a number of Turkish films. When I take a picture of one of the two parrots in the lobby cafe of the hotel, I almost fall off my feet when it screams at me: “Cuckoo! Cuckoo!” The other one, placed two windows further along, answers with: “Miaauw!” Strange company indeed. But an amusing one as well.
Altyazi film critics: Gozde Onaran, Nadir Operli, Senem Aytac, Firat Yucel
The last evening in Istanbul we spend together with Altyazi film critics in the Ciragan Palace where the Bursa International Silk Road Film Festival anounces its upcoming event and programme, and where Altyazi receives an official plaquette of thanks for being the festival‘s press sponsors.