TURKISH FILMS TO BE SHOWN IN YEREVAN
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04:08 pm | March 23, 2010
Turkish fiction, documental and animated films about Turkey will be
shown in Armenia within the framework of the 2nd "23.5" Turkish film
festival to be held on March 25-27.
"Modern-day Turkey, people’s issues, concerns and views are at the
core of the films. The films are produced by Turk film directors
living in Turkey and abroad," director of the festival, Head of the
Caucasus Center for Peace-making Initiatives Georgi Vanyan told "A1+".
The first festival was held in March 2009 and the results will
be summed-up during festival. The winning film will receive the
"Sympathy of the Audience" award which is the festival’s only category.
The audience’s vote, and not the jury, will determine which film
is the most successful. This year we received 77 applications, the
jury selected 10 and 3 films for the program that is not part of the
competition," informed Georgi Vanyan.
The festival will open with the short-length films "New Day" and
"Pieces", which tells about Armenian traditions in Turkey. The program
"Festival on Wheels" will be held this year and there will also be
a library of the two festivals.
How will Armenian audiences perceive the films about Turkey in the
context of Turkish-Armenian relations? In response, the festival
director said the festival must not be viewed from the political angle.
"We never have political speculations. Today the word "Turk" is
associated with different feelings, while the Turkey we know is the
Turkey of propaganda. We will try to present the real Turkey. This
festival is aimed at opening a small gap in the wall between our
nations," Georgi Vanyan told "A1+".
As far as perspectives for organizing Armenian festivals in Turkey
are concerned, according to Vanyan, previous experience has shown
that Armenians are not ready for that yet.
"We tried to organize it last year, but many directors took back their
applications at the last minute," said Georgi Vanyan. The festival
will be held at the AUA Business Center.
It was supposed to be held at the State Chamber Theater, but according
to the director, the theater administration liquidated the contact
a couple of days before the festival.
To find out more information, we asked artistic director of the Chamber
Theater Ara Yernjakyan who mentioned that there had been an agreement
on organizing a screening of films, not a festival.
"There were no talks on holding a festival, much less a Turkish film
festival. We talked about screening some films and they were on a
different scale. We were surprised to find out that a large-scale
festival is scheduled to be held at our theater," Yernjakyan told
"A1+".
According to Yernjakyan, the termination of the agreement had nothing
to do with the fact that the films are Turkish. "It is simply an issue
of lack of confidence. We let them know that we were terminating the
agreement 10 days before the festival."