‘My Aunt’

Sexually abused by her stepfather who domains the family with his absolute authority, used and abandoned by her lover, exposed to psychological violence in her marriage, Uftade weaves herself a world of salvation fantasies and fears of destruction.

Directed by the late director Halit Refiğ and starring Müjde Ar, maybe the cult actress of Turkish cinema, My Aunt (Teyzem, 1986)  is the story of a woman who loses her mind through disappointments and crumples, narrated by her nephew who has a naive affection for her. Besides, it functions as a harsh criticism towards Turkish middle-class morality. The film deals with frequency of sexual abuse and violence through the stepfather character appearing in the delusions of Üftade. On the other hand, passiveness of the society in front of the oppression is criticised through the paralyzed mother unable to talk and react, and through the brother afraid of being disgraced. The closeted gay husband in an unhealthy relationship with her mother, the contractor pausing to assault Üftade with the azan coming from the alarm clock are the indicators of the traumatic society with hypocritical conservatism.

The portrait of the father in soldier’s uniform does not only symbolize the head of a family, but also the dominant forces watching and ruling the society. The notes taken by Uftade through years are burned, on the eve of their tearing apart, by the family to find peace; and they are the simultaneous reports of a social collapse and her shaken identity. Finally, contrasting this shivering sad story, through the childhood memory of a declaration of love to the aunt, Uftade is eternalized as a happy young girl as she deserved.

–

Damla Okay / Originally published in Nisimazine Artvin #6

‘Honey’ wins Golden Bear

Despite the somehow negative numbers in terms of annual tickets sold and the generally low quality at the film industy, Turkish cinema continues to produce internationally acclaimed gems: Semih Kaplanoğlu’s Honey (Bal, 2009) won the Golden Bear for Best Film prize at Berlinale 2010 Competition. Honey is the third and last link in Kaplanoğlu’s ‘Yusuf’ triology and it tells the story of the 6-year-old Yusuf, whose beekeeper father goes missing in the woods.

Sinema.com announces the national release date of Honey as March 12. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope the date doesn’t change!

–

Damla Okay

Movie market 2009

by Deniz Yavuz, Antrakt Movie Magazine (www.antraktsinema.com)

In 2009, 255 films were released for the first time in movie theaters in Turkey(2008: 265 -4%). 69 of them were Turkish movies. (2008: 50, +38%). 110 of these films were produced by one country, without any international- co-producers. Movies produced in U.S.A. had the highest distribution rate in Turkey (85 films compared to 2008: 97, -12%), followed by France (9 films compared to 2008: 15, -40%), U.K. ( 11), Germany ( 2), Italy (2), Spain (1). In addition, 6 feature films from Far East region and 0 films from Africa and East America region were released in 2009.

Total screening time for all 255 first releases was 26.311 minutes (2008: 27.684, -5%). The longest screening time belongs to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (166′) and the shortest to Gnomes and Trolls: The Secret Chamber (70′). If we were to nonstop watch these films, it would take approximately 18 days (2008: 19 days)

In 2009 most films were released in October (30 films) and least were released in August (only 11).

Recep İvedik 2 had the largest nationwide distribution. This film was released with 372 prints and shown on 390 screens, it had 2.236.432 admissions and 11.719.980,72 USD box office in its opening week. Overall, the movie had an average of 5.734 spectators and 30.434 USD ticket revenue per screen.

In 2009, number of Turkish films released nationwide was 69. (2008: 50, +38%). 3 of them (Sut, Pandora’nin Kutusu, and 11’e 10 Kala), were Turkish productions with foreign co-producers. In addition, 3 foreign films released in 2009 (Sari Saten: Gunahkarlarin Aski, Market: A Tale of Trade, Akamas) had a Turkish co-producer The greatest number of Turkish films were released on Sep 18, 2009 and Nov 6, 2009 (4 films per week). The highest number of admissions in 2009 ( 4.333.116) belongs to Recep Ivedik 2 and the least( 554) to Suluboya.

In 2009, 50.92% of all films released in Turkey were Turkish films (2008: 59.99%). The average price per ticket for Turkish films was 5.30 USD. (2008: 5.05 USD., +5%) and the average price per ticket for all films was 5.64 USD. (2008: 5.30 USD., +7%)

The total number of admissions in 2009 was 36.899.954 (2008: 38.465.046, -4%) and the total box office gross was 208.462.155,34 USD. (2008: 204.103.710,03, +2%). In 2009, 255 films were first time releases which had a total of 34.787.745 admissions and 197.773.595,39 USD box office. In 2009, 114 local-foreign films which were produced in 2008, were released. Total number of admissions for these 114 films were 2.112.209 and their total box office was 10.688.559,95 USD. In 2009, the number of admissions for this year’s and previous years’ Turkish films were 18.790.700 (2008: 23.074.291, -19%) and their total revenue was 108.766.747,59 USD. ( 2008: 87.431.664,89, +24%)

In 2009 total number of admissions for all films showed 4% decrease, and the total number of Turkish films showed 19% decrease when compared to the previous year.

According to their admission numbers in opening weeks, top 3 Turkish films in 2009 were Recep İvedik 2 (Feb: 2.236.432 admissions), followed by Güneşi Gördüm (March: 1.101.986 admissions) and Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun (Oct: 554.263 admissions). Recep Ivedik 2 has a new ‘best first 3 days’admissions record (1.209.453) as well as the ‘best opening week’ admissions record ( 2.236.432) since 1990.

In 2009 the highest number of admissions (4.333.116) and highest grossing (22.651.958,94 USDgross) belong to Recep Ivedik 2.Top 3 films which had the highest grossing are:

1. Recep İvedik 2 (4.333.116 admissions and 22.651.958,94 USDgross)

2. Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun (2.419.136, 13.337.197 USD)

3. Güneşi Gördüm (2.491.454, 12.879.565,12 USD).

In 2009, there were 18 companies which distributed films in Turkey. UIP Turkiye had the highest number of admissions and made an annual revenue of 37.685.568,20 USD. Tiglon Film released the highest number of films in theaters (104) with a total number of 6.820.556 admissions.. The distribution company which released the highest number of Turkish films was Ozen Film. Ozen Film released 27 of all 69 Turkish films in 2009 and had 37% of all box office revenue with 18.790.700 admission for Turkish films. Warner Bros had the greatest share (40.297.053,29 USD with 6.657.667 admissions) in box office revenue. Cine Film has best average in number admissions. The company released 6 films in 2009 and had an average number of 374.284 admissions per film.

Dry Summer

World Cinema Foundation restored a number of neglected films from around the world. Among them there is Metin Erksan’s 1964 classic Susuz Yaz (Dry Summer) which was suggested by Fatih Akin:

Dry Summer is a film of passion. A passion for water as well as the obsessive passion created by forbidden love. […] Dry Summer is a film of captivity… Authorities at the time objected to Dry Summer representing Turkey overseas, which presented all kinds of obstacles when the film came to the Berlin Film Festival. The film walked away with the Golden Bear, but before success could even be celebrated it was ‘taken captive’ and completely forgotten for the next 45 years. Today, in these times of intellectually dry summers, when greed is driving humanity to the brink of starvation, this film could hardly be more valid. Dry Summer is one of the most important legacies of Turkish cinema, and thanks to restoration it can be re-discovered by the next generations of audiences all over the world. —Fatih Akin, May 2008

The restoration of Susuz Yaz used the original 35mm camera negative and the original 17.5mm sound negative and recaptured the black and white film’s tonal nuances. The film’s producer, Ulvi Dogan, provided the prints. An interpositive preserved at the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung in Wiesbaden was used for the negative’s last missing reel. The opening and closing credits, missing from all available sources, have been digitally reconstructed.

Dry Summer is now available for viewing online at The Auteurs.