Filmmakers display solidarity against censorship of ‘Bakur’: 3
competitions and closing ceremony cancelled at Istanbul Film Festival

04.13.2015 17:04 CULTURE AND ARTS

The Golden Tulip National and International Competitions and the
National Documentary Competition, and also the closing ceremony of the
24th Istanbul Film Festival have been cancelled following the blocking
of the screening of the documentary ‘Bakur’ yesterday.

Following the cancellation yesterday (April 12) of the screening
within the scope of the 34th Istanbul Film Festival of the documentary
‘A Guerrilla Documentary: Bakur/Kuzey’ on grounds that it did not have
a ‘certificate of registration’, directors and producers of 22 films
taking part in the festival had withdrawn from the festival in protest
of this act of censorship.

The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IFCA/ÝKSV), the
organizer of the film festival, held a press conference today
following the crisis. Festival President Azize Tan, jury members, and
filmmakers taking part in the festival took part in the press
conference.

Azize Tan stated that they respected and supported the decision of
directors who had withdrawn their films from the festival, and invited
film teams that had withdrawn their films from the festival to come to
the film theaters at the hours of screening to hold open forums on the
issue.

How was Bakur’s screening blocked?

Azize Tan also provided an account of how the screening of the
documentary Bakur was blocked: “On April 11, we received an official
notification from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism that reminded us
of the implementation of laws and regulations in force. These require
that films produced in Turkey to have a ‘certificate of registration’.
Bakur was the first film to be screened that did not have this
certificate. There are many other films without the certificate.

Demirkubuz: Someone has clearly decided that this film needs to be banned

Zeki Demirkubuz, director and head of this year’s National Competition
Jury, said that the censorship targeting Bakur was related to its
subject matter: “This country has begun to force the boundaries of
self-destruction. A decision has been taken to ban Bakur. In my
opinion, this has to do with the upcoming elections, with yesterday’s
clashes, and the mules murdered by the army 10 days ago in Roboskî.”

Demirkubuz also referred to the sentence ‘It is impossible to make
films in a country where there is censorship’ included in the boycott
declaration of filmmakers, and said, “I am against all that. Buñuel
made his best films during the Franco era. If a filmmaker is not sharp
enough to confront the powers that be, then it’s time to give up.”