The first movie show in Turkey took place in 1897. The sultan ruling at the time arranged an unprecedented sight in his palace, amazing his retinue with an unseen European toy, the cinema. Since then in terms of quantity Turkey has been moving on a level with the leading cinematic states, some years it has even occupied first place in film production volume. However, there were only six films brought to The Days of Turkish Cinema that were shot in the nineties: our southern neighbor decided to stay close to the present. Obviously, the films were selected carefully. Almost all of them were crowned with awards at Turkish festivals; there are not many international awards.
These films were strikingly similar to the Soviet cinema twenty years ago. In search for good stories Turkish directors rush to the countries, to old quarters, to ordinary, in their opinion, people. The action is leisurely, heroes are talkative, music abundant and banal. The most successful at the international festivals was the film opening the program, Turkish Baths. Here the view of the former Sublime Porte is predictable. The film was created in cooperation with Italians and tells the story of an Italian couple lost in old Istanbul’s fascinating labyrinths among steep streets and passages. Other pictures seem to be made by different authors but according to the same recipe. The same unconceited but proud characters; children telling long stories; melodramatic feelings of love. The director’s care for the man in the street seems to have the power of an almighty clichО that is rather far from the needs of the little people in the auditorium. However, who knows: perhaps in Turkey itself these never-ending family sagas are perceived in an absolutely different way.
There is nothing for us but to be happy for Turkish film directors: in any case they shoot many films, they have enough money to do so. However, it is not worth being jealous. In spite of all the plenitude of resources, their limitations of ideas and original interpretations is even smaller than here, in Ukraine where Dovzhenko and Paradzhanov made their names.
Do we not need our own pride?
