The recent success of Turkish director Reha Erdem’s ‘Kosmos’ at Armenia’s Golden Apricot Film Festival is the latest among promising examples of growing relations between Turkey, Armenia and the diaspora. Çiğdem Mater, from the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform, tells the Daily News of her impressions of the festival, its history and its discussions
While Reha Erdem’s fantastic and bizarre fairy tale, “Kosmos,” won the top prize at the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan last week, the message the director wanted to emphasize most was the need for dialogue.
“Erdem’s message emphasized the importance of the award coming from Yerevan, as he thanked with a quote from his award-winning movie, ‘Allah created the human in a right way but they looked for other paths,’” said the Turkey coordinator for the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform, Çiğdem Mater, who accepted the award on Erdem’s behalf.
Mater spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review about Erdem’s message, her impressions of the festival and its history, along with the growing number of civil initiatives among Armenian, Turkish and diaspora communities.
Speaking about the festival, Mater said: “The festival is becoming better, on a par with international film festivals each year. Interest from international filmmakers is increasing, the selection of films and guests have turned the Golden Apricot into the biggest film festival in the Caucasus.”
For Mater, the journey of the festival is similar to the prestigious Sarajevo Film Festival.
‘How cinema deals with history’
Asked about the festival’s attitude toward Turkish cinema, she said, “The festival makes sure that Turkish cinema is recognized, with six or seven, sometimes even more, films selected and Turkish filmmakers invited to the festival each year.”
Among the guests invited from Turkey to Yerevan include documentary makers Nurdan Arca, Enis Rıza, Mehmet Binay and Melek Ulagay; actress Ayça Damgacı; this year’s Golden Bear winner director, Semih Kaplanoğlu; Önder Çakar; Azize Tan; film critic Alin Taşçıyan; as well as directors Özcan Alper, Yeşim Ustaoğlu and Fatih Akın.
While “Kosmos’” victory in the Golden Apricot was definitely the highlight of the festival, Mater said, “We were also proud to see director Barış Hancıoğulları become first in Directors Across Borders, a co-production forum.”
Mater is the Turkey coordinator for the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform was initiated in collaboration with the Golden Apricot Film Festival, which brings together Turkish and Armenian filmmakers. The platform was started by Anadolu Kültür, a civil initiative created to foster mutual dialogue through arts and culture, and the Golden Apricot Film Festival. This year, the platform held its seventh meeting during the Festival, greenlighting one project from Turkey, one from Armenia, and another from Lebanon.
“Before traveling to Yerevan, Arca paid a visit to Anadolu Kültür and asked what kind of a project they could make between Turkey and Armenia, possibly between Anadolu Kültür and the festival,” Mater said in recounting the platform’s origins.
“Chair Osman Kavala and I said we were more than willing to jump on board for any collaborative initiative.” Arca, meanwhile, became the liaison for starting the platform.
The platform’s first activity was a workshop held in conjunction with the Istanbul International Film Festival in 2008, “How cinema deals with history.” A total of 20 young filmmakers from Turkey and Armenia came together for the workshop in Istanbul.
Since then, seven meetings among filmmakers from both countries have taken place.
“The platform enabled 50 filmmakers to meet with one another. With a workshop we organized last April, the filming of five short films from both countries began,” Mater said. “All of these films will be joint productions from both countries. They will be completed in early 2011, becoming the first fruits of the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform.”
She said Turkish filmmakers have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic about participating in the festival.
“Hüseyin Karabey, director of ‘Gitmek’ [My Marlon and Brando], still feels sorry for not being able to come to the festival when his film was running for the Golden Apricot. It truly makes me happy to see the enthusiasm of filmmakers from Turkey to meet with friends and colleagues from Armenia,” she said.
“Following the announcement of the platform for the festival, more than 40 short-film scripts were submitted within just a week,” she said. “This just shows how many young filmmakers are ready and willing to become part of the dialogue.”
A door opened by Hrant Dink
Asked about the portrayal of Armenian-Turkish relations in cinema, Mater said: “I’m not really sure if we can talk about such a portrayal. Armenians are merely nonexistent in Turkish cinema. And when they do exist, it’s either the villains or the cardboard characters in 1960s’ cinema. The first multi-dimensional real character in Turkish cinema probably was seen in 2000 with director Serdar Akar’s ‘Dar Alanda Kısa Paslaşmalar’ [Offside]. And the most recent example was Özcan Alper’s ‘Sonbahar’ [Autumn] where Hemşin, an archaic dialect of Armenian, was used.”
Despite this, there are many documentaries on Turkey-Armenia relations by filmmakers from the Armenian diaspora or Armenia, says Mater, adding that the most famous example was “Ararat” by Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan, whose retrospective was celebrated at this year’s Golden Apricot Film Festival.
“The troubled political relations and political propaganda caused the film not be put on release in Turkey eight years ago. Sadly, most of the voices behind this propaganda had not seen the film,” she said.
“Recent years have seen an unprecedented enthusiasm for dialogue between Turkish and Armenian communities among civil society, which was sadly kick-started by the murder of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor, in 2007,” she said.
Anadolu Kültür has put its signature to various activities organized in collaboration between Turkey and Armenia, which include film screenings, concerts, exhibitions, workshops on art history and oral history projects.
Mater is especially proud of the “Merhabarev photo exhibition held in 2006 by Nar Photos and Patker Photos, the concerts by Kardeş Türküler and Sayad Nova and last week’s Turkey-Armenia Youth Symphony Orchestra concerts in Istanbul.” Mater believes “each civil initiative taken by Turkey, Armenia, and the diaspora communities are invaluable,” and “they should have started yesterday.”
“All of us owe a great deal to Hrant Dink. His loss opened a door. And all of us – Turks, Kurds, Armenians – have to walk through that door,” she said.
Emrah Guler - Hurriyet Daily News
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