OTTOMAN ROGUE IS LATEST TURKISH MOVIE HERO
By Daren Butler
Reuters, UK
March 14 2007
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish cinema audiences love their heroes and the
brawling, roguish womanizer Yandim Ali — who takes on British forces
occupying Istanbul in "The Last Ottoman" — fits the bill perfectly.
The film, set during the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end
of World War One, taps into a growing wave of nationalism in Turkish
cinema which has fed on historical themes and current issues such as
the war in neighboring Iraq.
Exploiting the popularity of Turkish television stars, local films
are now mounting a major challenge to the Hollywood productions which
used to dominate cinema screens here.
The mass-market local productions are also much more of a hit with
audiences at home than the Turkish art house movies that have won
critical acclaim abroad.
Mustafa Sevki Dogan, director of "The Last Ottoman," is under no
illusions about the recipe for success with his central character,
based on a popular comic strip hero.
"Yandim Ali is a great hero and heroism is something which always
appeals to us … Maybe we follow this path because we know the make-up
of our people and know there is a majority that likes nationalist
films," he told Reuters.
In his film, Yandim Ali evolves from a loveable rogue to a hero of
the country’s liberation from foreign forces, inspired by the example
of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
But Dogan said it was important to guard against extreme nationalism
in the cinema. Ultra-nationalists have been blamed in Turkey for
a number of crimes, most recently the murder of prominent Turkish
Armenian editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul.
"I am against all excessive nationalism," Dogan said.
ANTI-AMERICAN FEELING
Dogan also had a hand in the creation of a television series which
last year spawned Turkey’s most successful film, the controversial
"Valley of the Wolves-Iraq," whose hero Polat Alemdar single-handedly
battles U.S. forces in Iraq.
The Wolves film, with a record budget of $10 million, drew on
anti-American sentiment in Turkey after a real-life incident in Iraq
when U.S. forces arrested and hooded Turkish special forces, causing
widespread anger and a diplomatic incident.
"The subject was a matter of pride for Turkish people and was seen
as a way of getting revenge … It became clear that audiences could
be attracted with such films. It has become something of a fashion,"
said film critic Ugur Vardan.
"Valley of the Wolves" is one of two Turkish films to draw a
four-million-strong audience. It eclipsed the science-fiction comedy
G.O.R.A., in which comedian Cem Yilmaz’s character fights to escape
the clutches of the aliens who abducted him.
Alongside "The Last Ottoman," the other box-office success this
year has been "The Masked Five in Iraq" in which a clumsy Turkish
gang outwits U.S. forces in Iraq to divert oil resources from there
to Turkey.
Such mass-appeal films have in Turkey eclipsed the critical acclaim
which some Turkish art house movies have earned abroad.
One of the first major successes was Yilmaz Guney’s "Yol" (Road)
which won the Golden Palm at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival with its
harsh portrayal of life after the 1980 coup.
More recently, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s film "Uzak" (Far) won the Cannes
Grand Jury and best actor awards in 2003 but drew a local audience
of just 30,000, said film producer Mehmet Soyarslan.
"This is not enough to keep the Turkish cinema industry on its feet.
Unfortunately films like this do not attract audiences in Turkey,"
he told Reuters at the offices of his company Ozen Film, one of
Turkey’s leading film companies.
DECLINE AND REVIVAL
He said critical success has had to take a back seat while the local
film industry is developed to compete with bigger-budget foreign
productions.
Turkish cinema fell into decline in the mid-1970s with the spread
of television. As a result, the number of cinema screens fell from
several thousand to around just 250. By the time it began to recover
in the late 1980s there were few producers and directors to make films,
and few people willing to invest.
Only in 1996 did cinema take a leap forward with the success of the
film Eskiya, which drew an audience of more than 2.5 million people
with its portrayal of the life of a bandit following his release from
jail after a 35-year sentence.
"The Turkish cinema’s audience had been a sleeping giant and at
that time it woke up. What was needed then was the food to feed it,"
Soyarslan said.
The number of locally made films has now doubled to around 30
annually. Audiences of these films account for some 50 percent of
box office receipts.
The last decade has also seen the domestic film industry progressing
technically and the next step is to achieve greater international
success for local films.
"Now we must try and open up internationally… I believe that Turkish
cinema can now be compared with world cinema in terms of its technical
standards and tempo," Soyarslan said.