- Title: TURKEY: TURKISH FILMS BEAT OSCAR WINNERS AT THE BOX OFFICE
- Date: 11th June 1996
- Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (RECENT) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) "ESKIYA" PRODUCER MINE VARGI (SOUNDBITE TURKISH) SAYING THE AUDIENCES, THEN THINKING ONLY IN TERMS OF HOLLYWOOD FILMS, HAD THEIR APPETITE WHETTED BY ANOTHER FILM BY THEIR PRODUCTION HOUSE - "AMERIKALI" - WHICH IS ABOUT A TURK RETURNING FROM THE UNITED STATES
- Embargoed: 26th June 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: Turkey
- Reuters ID: LVA8IK8HXXW5ZTGYGOL3RF1JXMBI
- Story Text: A Turkish film about a bandit braving modern Istanbul after 35 years in jail has beaten Oscar-winning films at the box-office and raised hopes that the country's long neglected film industry is on its way to recovery.
Eskiya' (The Bandit) has attracted more than two million viewers since its release in November. It has since become the first Turkish film to warrant a re-release and is currently on show at cinemas across the country.
The Turkish film industry began to deteriorate in the 1970s with the rise in popularity of television and home video and the organised assault of Hollywood films on the home market. The industry also lacked cash-flow after so many years of relying on box-office takings.
Cinema-going in general was hindered in the 1970s, when right-left street fighting which left more than 5,000 people dead, and a quick visit to the cinema meant taking your life into your own hands.
As a result, cinemas which once had pride of place in even the smallest of settlements, were sold off as shopping centres.
The director and writer of Eskiya', Yavuz Turgul, said Turkish directors should now be thinking about how to attract new audiences.
"I don't know whether it is right to judge success with the size of the audience," he said. "But to attract audiences back to a cinema they had abandoned is something that other film-makers should be thinking about." "This cinema (industry) should have improved itself, should have prepared itself for new times. It should have developed along with its new audience," Turgul added.
A real surge back to the cinema in general began in the early 1990s, when foreign films began to arrive in Turkey soon after their release abroad.
Eskiya' producer Mine Vargi said audiences which had previously been thinking only in terms of Hollywood films had their appetites whetted by their film Amerikali', about a Turk returning home from living in the United States (U.S.).
The film sent up several Hollywood films of the day, including Home Alone' and Pretty Woman', and included the first real hi-tech Turkish screen car chase.
Amerikali's success was not repeated for some time.
Eskiya comes less than a year after another Turkish film, Istanbul Beneath My Wings', heralded a new dawn for the stuttering industry that was once comparable to India's in terms of films churned out per year.
The film, which told the tale of a 17th-century Ottoman doctor who made the first human flight with makeshift wings, was seen by about a million people - then a record.
Eskiya' and Istanbul Beneath My Wings' have successfully released their soundtracks on tape and CD - something that had not been done before.
Istanbul Beneath My Wings' is on release in Germany,Spain and Latin America. Eskiya''s distributors, Warner Brothers, are now negotiating now to sell the film abroad.
Turgul said the film's regional feel should give it universal appeal abroad.
"For a film to attract audiences abroad it is essential for that film to have certain characteristics of its country of origin," he said. "When people go to see a film, as well as requiring a good story, they like to see signs of places they have not seen and know nothing about. In this sense Eskiya is a Turkish film." Eskiya' is the story of a former bandit, named Baran, returning to his village and discovering it has been flooded by a dam - mirroring a current Turkish government plan - the Southeastern Anatolia Project - to improve agriculture through the creation of dams and hydroelectric plants.
Many villages in reality have been flooded by the project's dams.
Baran is lost in the urban sprawl of Istanbul, which has grown over the years through massive immigration through the southeast to a city of 12 million people.
'Istanbul Beneath My Wings' similarly holds appeal through its local historical setting in Istanbul under the harsh rule of Sultan Murat IV - who expanded the empire to the east, taking Baghdad, while at the same time struggling against an uprising of his elite troops, the Janisseries.
Against this backdrop, the film studies the battle between the paranoid and conservative entourage of Murat - who banned drinking, gathering in groups (for fear any group could be plotting against him) - and the progressive attempts at flying and experimental interest in antomy of doctor Hazerfen Ahmet Celebi.
The film, a resounding success with audiences, drew criticism from the Islamist and conservative establishment for portraying Murat IV as bisexual. Turkish films rarely depart from the strictly heroic and virtous portrayal of Turkish historical characters.
Nida Karabol, whose production house Umut Sanat produced Eskiya' said she thought Turkish cinema had progressed since Istanbul Beneath My Wings' was released.
Despite the sucess of these two films, Turkish cinema still has a long way to go in consitently equalling the popularity of Hollywood productions.
A handful of Turkish films made their way into central Istanbul cinemas between the release of the two films. But cinema owners say the risk of showing a Turkish film remains high.
Sener Sen, the star of both Amerikali' and Eskiya' pointed out that securing money hadn't become any easier, adding long delays to production. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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