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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
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
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.
The jury, which included actress Hale Soygazi, director and producer Süreyya Duru, social scientist Emre Kongar and film critic Vecdi Sayar, unanimously decided not to go ahead with the competition. Eventually, the festival committee cancelled the 16th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
That year’s jury, along with the then-mayor of Antalya Selahattin Tonguç, will come together to finish what they had started 32 years ago. In a recent statement, Soygazi said, “It makes me so happy to see this project come alive years later, and bringing us, the jury members together.” Kongar commented that, “It was a first in the world that a festival couldn’t be held for two consecutive years. One was because of censorship, the other because of the coup. Both of these topics are on Turkey’s agenda today.”
Some of the films of that year were Erden Kıral’s “Kanal” (Channel), Metin Erksan’s “Sensiz Yaşayamam (I Can’t Live Without You), and two films by Orhan Aksoy, “İsyan” (Mutiny) and “Altın Şehir (Golden City).
The next year, the festival was to be held between Sept. 13 and 20, with a decision to include the previous year’s competing films into the national competition. Turkey woke up to a military coup on Sept. 12 and a subsequent trying martial law. Among that year’s jury were director Orhan Aksoy, poet Melih Cevdet Anday, film critic Atilla Dorsay, and writer Doğan Hızlan.
In another statement, Dorsay said, “We are going to be taking a journey to the past, we will evaluate the films with a different prespective.” Some of the films of that year were Atıf Yılmaz’s “Adak” (Offering), Zeki Ökten’s Golden Leopard winner “Sürü” (The Herd) and Erden Kıral’s “Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde” (On Fertile Lands).
The Ugly King, once again
When the subject is censorship in Turkish cinema, the first name that comes to mind for many is the late director and actor Yılmaz Güney. His life and works are now being celebrated in the United States and Canada. Eight of his films, along with a documentary on Güney and Turkish cinema, are screened as part of a traveling movie event, including such cities as Los Angeles, Houston, Vancouver and Toronto.
Although he had brought home the prestigious Palme D’Or in 1982 with his classic “Yol” (The Road), Güney was persona-non-grata in Turkey until the 1990s, being treated as a controversial political name with “communist” leanings, rather than a celebrated filmmaker.
Güney’s directorial debut “Seyyit Han,” and the following “Aç Kurtlar” (Hungry Wolves) and “Kızılırmak Karakoyun” (The Black Sheep of Kızılırmak) had established him as a filmmaker for the underdog and those crashed under the system in rural Turkey. During this period, Güney got his popular nickname Çirkin Kral due to his popularity as an actor and because he was the antithesis of the pretty Turkish leading faces of the period.
Güney’s breakthrough work, “Umut” (Hope), in 1970, established him as one of the most outstanding filmmakers of Turkish cinema. A prototypical film of Güney’s unique brand of cinema, “Umut” was first in a series of films reflecting the frustrations of Turkish lower class, mainly of Kurdish origin.
Güney was arrested in 1972 for helping the leaders of an illegal organization, and was kept imprisoned until 1974. That same year, Güney was once more imprisoned for killing a judge. He stayed in prison until his escape in 1981. In prison, he wrote the scripts for “Sürü” and “Yol”, films which later established him as an international filmmaker.
In his book “Bütün Yönleriyle Yılmaz Güney” (All Sides of Yılmaz Güney), film critic Agah Özgüç sites 111 film credits to his name – as a scriptwriter, actor and director. In the 1990s, Turkish intellectuals embraced Güney, and his films began finding their way in Turkish movie theaters and DVD shelves. Many books were published, praising him as a cinema personality. Güney continues to be a major name in film festivals, his name growing even more in retrospect.
Emrah Güler
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
Edited (8/22/2011) by tunci
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