NYT (New York Times) has claimed that this film has severely strained Israel’s relations with Turkey.
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Here´s some quote below:
“Valley of the Wolves: Palestine” is built around the unsuccessful attempt in May by a six-boat Turkish flotilla to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Eight Turkish activists and a Turkish-American youth were killed when Israeli commandos boarded one ship, the Mavi Marmara, in international waters.
The episode stirred international outrage and severely strained Israel’s relations with Turkey, once a close ally. It also led to a substantial easing of the land blockade of Gaza, which is run by the Islamist militant group Hamas.
Recently, Israel’s top military commander told an Israeli panel investigating the episode that while mistakes had been made in carrying out the raid, the activists were the first to open fire on his soldiers.
“Valley of the Wolves” began in 2003 as a weekly television series whose central character, a Turkish covert agent named Polat Alemdar, is played by Necati Sasmaz. Each week, Polat confronts one crisis or another whose roots often reference noteworthy — or notorious — current events. Think “24” crossed with “Law and Order.” Ratings soared.
An action movie, “Valley of the Wolves: Iraq,” followed in 2006, tapping into the strong feelings of anger many Turks feel toward the United States over the American-led invasion of Iraq. That film, co-starring Gary Busey and made with a budget of more than $10 million, was seen by more than four million viewers in Turkey, still a record. But it failed to attract a significant audience in the United States or Europe.
The next three years brought two more movies in the series.
The production company, Pana Film, had already settled on Palestinian territories as the focus of this year’s release and was about to start shooting when the flotilla confrontation turned into a peg for what the company hopes will be another blockbuster.
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