All language subtitles for Remake, Remix, Rip-Off-About Copy Culture and Turkish Pop Cinema 2014

There are only 33 or 34 stories in the world altogether.

Maybe 36, but no 37.

There are 31, not even 32.

These 31 topics, just mix them all up.

Put the finale of the twentieth, to the beginning of the eleventh

and there you have a new movie.

All movies are the same.

All are the same. Take revenge movies for instance.

This is for my father!

This is for my sister!

This is for your cowardice.

This is for your contractee.

And this is for all murdered muslims!

Or look at stories about infidelity.

Ahmet is mine...

Stop! Well played!

Or comedies. You tag together some gags.

Then history films come into fashion.

Everybody makes Sword-and-sandal movies then.

Folk heroes or based on local comics.

Action movies never come out of fashion.

The superheroes of the 70s and the Fantastic Cinema.

I am Fantomas.

Romance movies are always popular as well.

"I love you, you love me."

Don't leave me, Nejat.

Don't touch her!

We show movies from the 70s.

The people come out of nostalgia. They like the old movies.

These artists don't exist anymore.

Actresses like Dilber Ay don't make movies anymore.

The Americans are speechless, when I talk of 200 movies.

I was once asked whether I was very rich. "Sure", I said.

About 120.

But for Turkish circumstances this is a rather pathetic number.

I counted till 200.

I forgot the rest.

Roughly between 500 and 1000.

1772 movies. That's all documented.

Only fights and stunts. Jumping out of windows and cars.

I have no intact bones.

No other movie ever had something like this.

Eye for an eye with the devil.

This is "Delifisek".

I can't remember this movie.

Gee!

This one neither.

I saw this one in Germany on VHS. - Really?

Who's that?

I can barely remember any movie. For me it was all about the money after all.

Who would have thought, that years later, I would embarrass myself on TV on a daily basis.

Sometimes I see my name on TV and wonder.

No idea how many movies there were.

You probably won't be able to imagine that in numbers.

If you line up the negatives of all my movies

you could circle the earth two times.

I came to work.

Splendid.

Because I'm going to be a movie star.

You were certainly invited personally.

No, I came by myself. For the Acting Contest.

Behind you the tram. Try to film it.

This is Yesilcam.

Fortunately they make a new building.

This is the entrance to the Yesilcam Street.

Statues of important Turkish directors will stand here.

This big building here will be demolished.

This is the entrance of the Emek Cinema.

The heart of the Turkish Cinema used to beat here.

This is Yesilcam.

Our first street was behind the Emek Cinema.

All production companies were there.

When they started to do well, they moved one street further.

Every morning about 40 mini buses drove off from here.

This was a busy street full of movie productions.

Actors and the crew drove to the set with these mini buses.

That's why this was a very busy street.

I put Yesilcam into the center of the Turkish movie history.

The era began in the late 40s early 50s.

and ended in the beginning of the 90s.

The 50s were Yesilcams years of apprenticeship.

Filmmakers learned how to pratically make movies.

G�ven Film is proud to always make the best films.

A masterpeice by director L�tfi Akad,

that can compete with European films.

The touching story of an innocent prisoner.

"Zaloglu R�stem"

You will want to watch this movie more often and you will start to recommend it.

At the beginning of the 60s a structured film industry started to arise,

which worked well until the end of the 70s.

Love and strain in "Utanc kapilari".

A tragedy about orphans, the poor and the hopeless.

You'll tear up.

"The Truth!"

A young woman looking for the truth.

The criminal son of a lawman.

A mourning father and a classic film.

The military coup in the 80s sent the cinema on forced vacation for three years.

But it picked up again.

In the 80s about 100 movies were made each year.

But in 1989/90 it was finally over.

Dear audience and dear countrymen in emigration,

Kalkavan Film is proud about its long-standing service in the cinema.

Kalkavan Film now offers this very service for your home.

Its movies were recorded on video in Europes biggest studios.

These are custom-made. They were also available in other colors.

I bought 17 movie productions.

It was big in the press: "Businessman from Urfa buys Yesilcam."

These 17 companies produced movies exclusively for us.

We then supplied the German market.

When that was not enough we started to produce on our own.

It was a good business, despite the piracy.

Over 300.000 Turkish VHS-Tapes are in circulation in the Federal Republic of Germany.

35% of all Turkish households have a video recorder, that's three times as much as in German households.

Every Turkish family with a video recorder rents up to ten tapes every weekend.

These videos are often melodramatic "homeland-films", often with violent content,

or corny "Doctor-films" just as we know them from Germany. They're all low-budget productions.

The Turkish video and cinema market is one of the biggest in the whole world.

Don't push.

It was always sold out.

10.000 people went to the Atlas, daily.

Only 2.000 visitors fit into the Atlas.

2000 people per screening.

A dozen blackmarket trader lived off this single cinema.

There were motorcycle couriers, who delivered the film rolls to the cinemas,

every 30 minutes.

You should hurry.

Well, there was nothing else. Since my childhood we went to the cinema.

They always played two movies. We sat in the front, because it was cheaper.

I liked to watch musicals. I watched them several times.

Especially the open-air cinemas in summer. Up to 4.000 people fit there.

Admission was cheaper than in winter, and they played at least two movies.

The people brought their kids and some provision.

They watched their movie and ate a bit.

And everybody could afford it.

4.000 people, just imagine.

Every night, bursting full. Two movies in a row.

The posters always said "These are new movies"

It was also a good system to put the people to sleep.

Especially melodramas were supported.

All goverments like melodramas.

The people should cry nicely and feel relief.

Because we are a sentimental crowd.

Seems to be very tragic. Very good, we're gonna cry a lot.

I left just to see the movie.

The audience of the Turkish cinema was rather rural.

Graduates of the primary or secondary level.

Educated people didn't watch Turkish movies. Or they did not admit it.

The Turkish cinema was carried by films, which were visited by families.

That's why most of our movies are family-friendly.

Cheap action-flicks were another genre.

They were filmed chaotically in the streets.

These movies were shown in different cinemas and they had different attendance figures as well.

The female audience was very important.

Because women talk a lot and they visit the cinema in groups.

Women don't go to the cinema alone, they organize themselves.

You have to see this movie. It's the third time I'm going to see it.

Oh, what did I cry!

If women talk about the movie, you made it.

She loves him so much.

He loves her, too.

I love you very much.

I love you, too.

If only you were not so rich, but poor as me.

-Is she pretty?
-Like a puppet

She keeps her illness secret.

Just as she's about to tell him...

Well, then make her happy!

- Did you like the movie?
- Not really.

It was all totally absurd. The guy became famous over night

went to the desert out of lovesickness and ate sand.

The folk tales of my Granny were similar. Lovers never find each other.

You lack topics and you have no authors.

Yesilcam once produced 300 movies per year

but only had three screenwriter.

Safa �nal,

What was his name? Oran?

B�lent Oran and Erdogan T�nas.

Three people. Not even a fourth one.

Everything was copied from Hollywood. They had to.

How should three people come up with 300 movies in a year?

At half the screenplay and already the same story.

He is rich, she is poor. The father is mean.

A blood feud and an inheritance dispute.

In your last movie the girl was rich, in this one it's the boy.

My movie "Derbeder" is an adaption of Emily Brontes novel "Wuthering Heights"

That book was adapted all the time all over the world because of its dramaturgy.

Even the Turkish movie author Metin Erksan filmed it.

Movies with Arabesk-Singers were in fashion back in the day.

But the story works without the songs as well.

Then he would be just become a gifted card player.

Or a famous doctor and would have become rich because of that.

The templates are always the same.

I'm just the son of a farm labourer. One day they will separate us.

The son of a farm labourer, of all people.

Without money, you won't be happy.

Look!

You will marry in two weeks!

Never!

I won't marry.

Take a drink!

I feel sick!

I feel dizzy.

There you have some pocket money!

One day I'll buy this bride from you.

Once I too had a lover...

- Where are you going young man?
- To Istanbul.

Are you permanently employed?

You have a nice voice.

I like your voice.

I like it!

Here, my card.

Take this.

I should sing?

Now you're famous and can have everything.

I didn't come as a servant, this is my house now.

Talk to me! Insult me again!

My father can't speak, he is paralyzed.

It's cancer.

A fast growing tumor.

The bullet caused a calcification.

The kidneys.

One of your lungs gave up.

Only in America there is a treatment.

Only in Switzerland.

It's only possible in England.

The professor is pretty confident.

She will be able to see again.

No, that's impossible!

You thought money makes you happy.

Please, not in the presence of our son.

Our son?

H�lya is your daughter.

She didn't cheat on you.

After an accident I lost my memory.

Can you forgive me?

No, you shouldn't marry!

Because they are siblings. Semra is your daughter.

That can't be true!

I'd rather die.

Forgive me!

END

Most production companies didn't have a lot of money.

and therefore made movies according to the wishes of the film distributor.

The cinema operators always wanted copies of successful movies

and directed these requests through the local distributors

to the producers in Istanbul.

Turkey was divided into five distribution areas.

The biggest region was in the south Adana and its surroundings.

These areas kept the cinema alive.

After Adana came Izmir in the west, the Black Sea in the north.

Ankara and Zonguldak were small areas.

These areas had to bring in the production costs

Then Istanbul remained as profit for the producers.

This year I want six movies from you.

One with the movie star Ayhan Isik, one with T�rkan Soray,

one with comedian �zt�rk Serengil...

Nowadays everybody wants award-winning movies or something with a social message.

Back in the days they asked for stars, and the number of fights.

A movie had to have at least six fights.

Some movies were just patched together.

You copied the fighting scene from one movie

and from another movie you took a love scene.

I read some novels with titles that sounded interesting.

I mixed crime thrillers by Agathe Christie with novelettes by Barbara Cartland.

Turkish romantic novels were filmed a lot

and foreign movies, that had a successful run in Turkey before.

Movies with big attendance figures.

Because cinema meant commerce.

See you inside girls.

Look at her!

- Do you know why I'm in this hotel?
- To sing?

No, to catch a millionaire.

- You don't say.
- Sure I am.

Clearly, Yesilcams big role model was Hollywood.

When I started with Western movies

they asked, were there even cowboys in Turkey?

Were there cowboys in Spain?

Or in Italy?

Back then I made one movie a week, twenty movies a year.

Just imagine. One movie, from beginning to end.

How should I take care of movie scripts?

I saw "A Fistful of Dollars" in the cinema, the next day I simply copied it.

With less resources of course, but the idea was the same.

Back in the day there was no copyright in Turkey.

Even today there is none, piracy is commonplace.

Copyright laws existed for just a couple of years now.

We could film any properties and use all kinds of music.

In that sense we were free.

Do you know what "Kovboy Ali" is about?

It's about a man who is under the influence of American movies.

I used to go to the cinema a lot in my youth.

I loved Western movies very much. Weapons, horses, carriages, flying fists.

This movie is the expression of a deep admiration.

American movies were mostly screened in the western metropolises.

In the rest of Turkey not so much. Yesilcam adapted these movies

and showed them, with success, in the cinemas of Anatolia.

"Dracula in Istanbul"

"Tarzan in Istanbul"

No, I'm not Necla.

I'm Alev.

And you?

I'm Necla?

The people only knew Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan.

They wished for a local hero.

It was an rural crowd

with the wish for something own.

Oh my goodness.

If they swallow it...

I'm totally honest here, maybe the whole world hears it now.

When they swallow it, you can call yourself lucky.

If not, knock it off.

When we look into the universe at night, we see sparkling and dim stars.

The brightest of them was Krypton.

If my Superman had not flown, I would have stopped.

Shazem!

I'm not denying it. Even "Limelight" was a reshot.

But in the Black-and-White-Era you won't find many rip-offs.

They stole a lot from the Americans in the 70s and 80s.

So what?

You will not have human feelings anymore.

Home.

May God have mercy on you.

Give me the pillows.

We start with a close-up from the back.

There is no equivalent today for the conditions at that time.

You won't understand just by hearing some stories.

There were neither such cameras, nor were there dollies.

The working conditions were unbelievable.

It's hard to describe. Even for the time back then.

It's almost like a miracle.

A foreigner once said about our movie labs

that he wouldn't even wash his clothes there.

After a month, only then you saw what you filmed.

In cloudy weather the cameraman looked through a colored glas.

"It'll be fine." he said.

It was pure luck.

At the crack of dawn, curler still in the hair,

suitcase in the hand, no money, no car.

Then the continuity. Because of an earring.

Us actors were responsible for all the accessories and clothing.

We were always concerned about these things.

A dress had to work for many movies.

We sewed sleeves, attached flowers,

cleared the back, then again a d�collet�.

It was used again and again.

There were absolutely no filters.

There was no blue light filter, no 85er, no diffusion.

So we used tulle curtains, this thick.

Nor were there any color filters.

We bought colored gelatin plates from the pastry.

They couldn't stand the heat of the lamps though.

How much equipment and personal fit into a minibus?

Raw film was only available in limited quantities. The producer only gave you 2000 meters.

We were totally limited in our acting.

It always had to go very fast.

The director couldn't repeat a single scene.

I'll replace it as soon as I can. I'm in trouble.

I would like to help you. Afterall it's just two cans of negative film.

But I'm filming as well at the moment.

You could import recorded films as much as you liked.

The goverments import quota only concerned unrecorded material.

Negatives, positive und audio tapes.

The goverment had the monopol on foreign exchange for imported goods.

For each movie they only allowed the importation of 5.000 metres of negative film.

Thus they specified, how much film you are allowed to use.

Isn't this censorship?

I heard that nowadays, you spend 350 reels of negative film on a single movie.

I had to finish a movie with 25 reels.

Just a single reel more and they kick you out.

Because of the import quota you only got raw film on the black market.

It was smuggled like drugs.

You gave the cameraman a film reel

and suddenly they called from other film sets and asked for 10 meters.

So you used 25 reels instead of 30

and after five movies you could film another one.

People rehearsed a lot and worked very concentrated.

They hardly repeated any scenes.

That's how you could cope with 35 reels.

Film was expensive, whether colored or black-and-white.

The colors often differed, because the quality varied.

One reel was smuggled from Poland, another one from the GDR.

"Here, I found a film reel", he said to me.

"How did you do that?" I asked him.

"I combed through every photo shop this morning

and put together a film reel out of all the photo negatives."

Maybe this story helps you to understand the adversities from back in the day.

- He will screw up.
- We're filming this now, no matter what happens.

- I turn on the light.
- Turn it on, whatever.

Ready.

Camera!

Don't go. Your friends are dead. They'll kill you as well.

- I'm dying for my people.
- No, for the terror!

- Thirteen meters left.
- Let me go. -No!

Let him go, the film is going out..

- This idiot!
- He fell outside of the picture.

Five meters left.

- Cry!
- Films out.

Fine, we will freeze the last frame.

Lights out.

With such a small budget, you had to be inventive all the time.

On a running train for instance, you got in without permission.

Because we could not stop the train,

the actor really drove off and came back later.

Here we are on the balconcy of the Galata Tower.

Yildirim Gencer floats unsecured at a height of 30 meters.

Here we film a fighting scene on the lead roof.

That's two meters.

We're standing here with the camera on edge, on opposite side.

I couldn't get enough.

Don't do it!

Is this a European tie or is it from here?

- I only wear European ties.
- Oh no. They tear so fast.

I filmed in the West.

They won't even let the main actor jump half a meter.

Professional stuntmen do this job there.

They invest millions in the actor.

When I thought something was too dangerous, they said: "But you are C�neyt Arkin".

In the West actors are not exposed to dangers.

We shoot the movie, whatever the circumstances.

Movie scripts never get changed in the West.

We on the other hand come up with new ideas during the film shooting.

We always lacked everything.

No food, no money, no staff.

You demand from the actor that he should jump out of the window, just like that.

Jump, simple as that!

The passers-by say: "They are crazy. Where should he even jump?"

Three man are holding the jumping sheet, the fourth one is missing.

Then you shout at him that he should jump carefully so that the sheet doesn't tear.

Damn, power failure, again.

It's Turkey. Be glad that we're still alive.

For example we hit real windows with our fists.

We hit with the elbow first

but it still looked like it was the fist.

In one movie I had to fall down with a rifle in my hand.

The executive producer told me that I should be careful, the rifle was only borrowed.

I fall on stone and he's just worried about his rifle.

I broke my shoulder just to save it.

The dynamite didn't detonate. The director sent me to pick it up.

So I dived into the water, reached for it and it exploded.

We strained the rope.

And because of my weight it ate into the old columns.

It lost its tension and I was sagging in the middle.

The people were shocked and petrified.

No one had thought of a jumping sheet.

I swung my leg up, climbed back slowly

and repeated the scene later.

I never used the European one.

You can't change the habits of a lifetime.

I came up with this by myself.

The fuse exploded.

I've never shown that to anyone, otherwise I would become unemployed.

Doesn't matter anymore though.

What else do you want to see?

A horse-drawn carriage.

Brawls.

A slap in the face!

A punch!

Our sound engineers were terribly pragmatic.

Due to the One-Channel-Techology every effect, music and dialog

had to be recorded at the same time.

There was only one microphone in the studio.

All speaker were standing around this single microphone.

At the same time the sound enginner put on some records,

and the special effects guy made sounds.

All these sounds came together at the same time.

It was that hard with the technology back in the day.

When in doubt, you'll have to use your brain.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

How do you warm your kids without a stove?

You come up with something.

You burn paper, or warm them with your breath.

Our filming was just that.

These dollies back then were up to twelve meters long.

Two colleagues poured water into the rails.

The actors are over there

and move here at the directors command.

You have to pull me back real slowly.

I could give you an order like in the old days.

You can cut to an appropriate movie then.

I've been looking forward meeting you for a long time,
King of Villains.

I already killed your stubborn father.

Will you be next?

So we sold 15 color movies to the Black Sea - Region.

But only 13 movies were finished.

Meanwhile I also filmed two Black-And-White movies.

We have to deliver 15 color movies, but we have no time to finish the last two.

So we hop into the studio and color the movies.

We create a Black-And-White Positive,

mix the solution with paint and thereby color the films.

They are colored,

but they are monochrome.

We liked to use sepia.

During the night we run out of color. What do we have left? Violet. Well, violet it is.

The distributor is asking about the colors.

I answer him: "That's Monocolor. Brand-new from Japan."

The film brands are varying in price.

You've got this movie pretty cheap, therefore: Monocolor.

He agrees and leaves.

Ten days later there was an outcry.

The projectionist is furios. He's completely yellow.

The colors have come off in the heat of the projector.

The poster said "Monocolor". That guy bought it as colored.

Job completed!

Yesilcam always found a solution.

No matter how, there was always a way.

They were full of unqualified people, but they were witty.

You were filming and you needed something that was nowhere to be found,

Yesilcam got it for you.

Maybe it robbed a house, maybe it knocked on a foreign door,

but they got it for you.

No matter what.

- Shall we take off the shoes?
- Nah.

- How shall we do it?
- Let's go in first.

You are the directors, what do I know?

You're playing James Bond and secretly film from behind.

Don't film my bald head though.

You stay there and I open the record cabinet.

The pride of the Turkish cinema from a musical perspective,

way into the 90s.

Here "Sunflower".

I've got this record from France.

There he is! The father of all Turkish soundtracks.

Yes, my son.

Can be found in almost every movie.

In tragic scenes,

when the boy is released from prison.

You can find this one in almost every movie as well. "The Sicilian Clan".

A great movie.

And this is "Enter the Dragon",

Used mostly in fighting scenes.

This is "Violent City" with Charles Bronson.

Found in almost every movie as well.

A movie with Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

That one was remaked with C�neyt Arkin.

That may well be. It was about cheating in horse races.

"Planet of the Apes", the first one with Charlton Heston.

We also used "Jaws" many times.

In countless movies.

Elm Street.

Nice chase-music.

In love scenes.

Suspense music

For funny scenes.

This one cost 7 Dollar 49 Cents.

The price tag is still on it.

I left it on to not feel guilty.

"From Russia With Love". Used it in my Superman.

A movie called "Blade Runner".

There was not much to be gained.

Don't get fooled by the pictures,

the music is no good.

- You even used "Platoon"?
- Sure, why not?

After all they composed it for us.

"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".

I don't even have money for catering, how should I pay for an orchestra?

We used all these records.

For car chases and explosions

I sometimes used scenes from other movies.

In "Turkish Star Wars" I pretty much exclusively used somebody else's material.

"Turkish Star Wars".
C�neyt Arkin.

Is Planet Earth the only humanoid planet?

Who were the mysterious gods then, visiting us with their space gliders?

"Turkish Star Wars"

During the night we let them steel the film reels of "Star Wars"

We bribed the security guard and cut out the scenes.

At five o'clock in the morning the copy went back.

That's what you call filmmaking.

Do you think the Americans will give you that willy-nilly?

We stopped a biker and seized his helmet.

Attention, they are coming.

I'm going down.

One is behind you.

In "Turkish Star Wars"

I have found quotes and scenes from nineteen movies.

Scenes from "Star Wars" and from "The Black Hole",

but also some plots are from scripts of existing films.

Soundtracks from eight different films

and additional disco records were used.

Look,

"Turkish Star Wars".

It was sixteen films.

The critics don't know that.

They think everything was out of "Star Wars" because these are the longest scenes.

I did that out of necessity. How was I supposed to build these sets?

We actually had everything prepared,

but we ran out of money. Some other things went wrong as well.

That's why Cetin had to use other footage.

But he made his own effects as well.

For example, I have to shoot you with the laser pistol.

He drew the line of the laser onto the negative, frame by frame.

After 24 frames it looked like a shot.

He did that directly on the negative.

Cetin was a film-acrobat.

Of course he was funny as well.

During the night we sewed the costumes of the monsters,

during the day I shredded them.

The emotions in this movie are important to me.

You can feel the craze and the belief in opportunity.

It does not matter for what purpose they filmed it.

For me the wealth of emotions is important.

They do it in obsessive ecstasy, with an unshakeable faith.

Under the toughest conditions they have to improvise, be creative.

You even feel it beyond the movie screen.

This movie has no answers, it's asking questions.

This movie is by no means a remake of "Star Wars".

Becaues it contains many other elements,

from mystical Islam, to Christianity and Buddhism,

the script is packed with extremly bizarre things.

Something like that can not be found in "Star Wars".

It's strangely bizarre.

But despite its quirkiness it pulls you in.

It is marvelous and absolutely unique.

Whether you like it or not, we are influenced by the West.

Everyone applauds the good examples and makes fun of the bad ones.

Joe, when the ionic radiation is ready, give energy!

It is a culture of adoption or of localization.

It only exists because it has a powerful counterpart,

the West.

I don't understand you Mr. Tourist. Here the mind comes first.

And at our place the appetizer comes first.

Pardon?

There is no way around the West, so you have to counter it.

Sometimes you borrow something, sometimes you steal or you play with the genres.

There aren't many one-to-one copies in Yesilcam Cinema.

There are many references though.

They merged several different Comic-Heroes into one superhero.

"The Biggest Fist" for example.

Don't ask who I am. I just want to help you.

Alright, but why these clothes?

When the time is right,
you'll understand.

He is wearing the Phantom mask,

the Superman logo on the chest,

on the belt the Batman emblem.

Three in one.

Super-Bat-Mask.

He couldn't fly though, only fight.

Such a pompous appearance, but not able to fly.

In "3 Dev Adam" three heroes clash.

Captain America, Spider-Man and the Mexican wrestler "El Santo".

This movie is also considered cult abroad.

In this one Spider-Man is the villain.

He is a murdering, bloody, sadistic character.

The director gave him his own, new interpretation.

He didn't simply copy the character.

The fusion of childhood-heroes and Adult Cinema resulted in an extravagant movie,

something an American would never dare to try due to copyright laws.

There is a movie called "Vahsi Kan".

A remake of "First Blood."

The Turkish Rambo so to speak.

But unlike the original, there is a motorcycle gang in it.

The gang members can do karate.

And in one scene, zombies suddenly pop up.

I like the fantastic in this movie

I'm not questioning why the actor is doing this or doing that.

I'm interested in the fantasy world of director Cetin Inanc.

Because we are dealing with a lovable maniac,

who has catapulted the art of collage into unimaginable dimensions.

Why is the Great White Shark in a revenge movie?

Why are there zombies in a Ninja flick?

These are fantastic ideas,

breaking with classical cinema stereotypes.

Cetin Inancs camera shots are killing me.

The energy, the rhythm...

Even the most senseless scenes are driving me crazy.

I feel like I'm on drugs.

And I want to see more. That's most important!

To break down the movie into its components doesn't make sense.

Because there are things beyond logic.

The Columbia University invited me because of "Turkish Star Wars".

They probably thought I'm some kind of famous director.

A giant Univeristy, thousands of film students,
posters of the movie everywhere.

Someone asked me if I filmed it.

I thought we'll get a beating right away.

But he did not accuse me of anything.

He just wanted to know how I came up with this.

Look how far they are.

He isn't saying,
"Shame on you, using a foreign film for hat"

"What kind of a filmmaker are you?"
or stuff like that.

He's asking: "How did you come up with his?"

Even that fills you with pride.

Here I'm only getting slammed.

What did I do? Murder somebody?

In one way or another, all films are copies of each other.

There are the classic genres like war movies.

In this genre one repeats itself constantly.

It is similar with literature.

Think about the ten minute long "Hamlet" version.

The TV series nowadays repeat themselves as well.

I have already filmed the core stories of some series several times.

Good stories are rare,

and you have to bring them up to date for new generations.

Lets look at the ratings of last weeks rising TV series.

Karadayi, Umutsuz ev kadinlari, Sefkat Tepe went up.

Ucurum, Sultan, Agir Roman went down in the rating.

The Advertising-, Series- and cinema industry in Turkey

has an annual volume of two to three billion dollars.

About two billion belong to the series market alone.

About 150 series are shot annually.

Some are getting canceled after a couple of episodes.

But there is an immense amount of production.

We're leaving.

Atat�rk Culture Centre Taksim Square, Istanbul
Shortly before the Gezi Park Protests Departure Meeting of Television Crews and Extras

Guys, your car is waiting.

Make us famous, my friend.

That's your bus.

(Names of TV series are called)

She's still very young.

You wanted him didn't you, you stupid.

Now, who is this girl?

She's the devil.

She was Cinar's sister-in-law, but now she married him, right?

She married Cinar and gave birth to a son.

The child is terminally ill, now she hopes for the help of her rival.

The child needs a bone marrow donation.

Toprak is also pregnant by Cinar.

Because the newborn will be the stephbrother of the sick child,

she hopes for a bone marrow transplant.

What was her name again?

Cinar slapped Yesim so bad.

That was so satisfying.

Is Cinar the good girl?

I was delighted!

Is this still the summary of the last episode?

You'll have to film until eleven o'clock at night.

How long is the recap?

Almost as long as the movie.

From eight to nine. It takes an hour.

How long is the episode?

One and a half to two hours.

"Of course Cinar, I swear I'm inncoent."

Look at this liar. God shall punish you.

"You didn't play any games with me, right?"

Slap her once more!

You are saying this. 3,2,1 Action!

I understand. I will stick to it.

Please leave!

We'll let you know the time and place.

Back in the days we had to finish a movie with 27 reels of negative film.

We couldn't even film trailers.

For the slate we shot single frames, manually.

Nowadays we're even worse off than the directors back then,

who had to film a movie in ten days.

Now we only have six days, for 120 minutes.

We used to feel sorry for them because of 95 minutes.

We didn't take their movies seriously.

Nowadays we film 120 minutes long episodes in just six days.

We are out.
You are running away now.

3, 2, 1, Action.

The scene is done.

Fortunately, without an accident.

That's it.

A group of filmmakers protested at Taksim Square.

The protest was directed against the duration of TV series.

Due to the hard working conditions, people are dying at the sets.

Out of stupidity and indifference.

Sometimes they work 24 hours a day.

As an actor, I often work three days straight.

The movie set staff on the other hand never sleeps, they're not allowed to go home.

They have no social life and decline at the sets.

The arm was cut open up to this point. At first they wanted to amputate it.

I was completely exhausted,

my reflexes were slow, the knees were shaking, no attention.

Absentminded I lit the gunpowder with my cigarette.

1. May 2011 - Labour Day, Istanbul

We do not work uninsured! We don't want to be exploited!

There is a shortage of professionals at the moment.

Every three to five years, there is a generation swap because people can not stand the pressure.

Look how few are coming to the Labour Day.

Before they develop an awareness of their rights, they are already gone.

We demand healthy and safe working conditions,

the end of shadow economy and subcontracting.

A minute's silence for our killed revolutionary comrades.

Yesilcams downfall is easily explained.

In the 70s, the political situation became more tense.

Political murders were the order of the day.

The social peace was destroyed.

And the television.

People were worried about the violence on the streets.

Going to the cinema became a dangerous affair.

So people stayed at home and watched TV.

Politically, there were big problems. The social issues were unresolved.

The trade union alliance was always on the agenda,

but it was never strong enough.

There was an atmosphere of violence that culminated in the 1980 military coup.

During this time film production regressed.

The quality of the films steadily decreased.

Yesilcam was finished. The television destroyed us.

But not only the television, the Sex-Boom as well.

Even I filmed one.

- What, you too? - Yes, one.

But that was adventure and sex, no pornography.

- I can not remember. - Adventure with a little bit of sex.

I took off the actresses clothes a little bit.

It was not just about sex.

WE SHOW EROTIC FILMS.

At that time only on New Year's Eve a belly dancer was allowed to appear briefly on television.

Even today a female body in a film doesn't leave me cold.

Let's be real, right?

Birsen Kaya filmed innocent, family-friendlich erotic.

That was before the Sex-Boom.

Family means woman.

Later they knew no bounds,

and thus drove off the families from the cinema.

You creep, dragging uns into such films.

Deat mother-in-law, let me explain.

The producers greed destroyed them.

For a few more bucks they just pushed it too far.

I stopped, became unemployed.

Most colleagues stopped.

What they demanded from us was no longer feasible.

In the end, they even did it with animals.

We present a great Sex-Comedy.

"The Meighbor's Hen".

To all men!

In this movie all holes belong to you.

What are you doing there?
- Oh, I'm just changing his diapers.

The movie was unimportant. It was all about the hardcore scenes.

These scenes were even planted on normal movies.

There were always two projectors in the cinema.

While one was projecting the normal film, the porn-flick was already waiting in the other one.

Out of the blue they played it, in the middle of the normal film.

Even in religious movies they blended such scenes.

During a car ride a tire bursts. The actor is supposed to pump it up.

Because it's summer he should take off his shirt.

The pumping looks like he's copulating.

Later you can use the scene in various ways.

These films were shot when the Far-rights were in power.

You can't be more conservative than that.

Well? Nobody stopped it.

They let pornography pass,

and they were supposed to be faithful right-wing conservatives.

However, with the slightest criticism of the system,

they came with the scissors, mercilessly.

- Which films were affected? - All of them.

Well, what do you say about the script?

A dangerous project. You're portraying the terrorists as heroes.

- The censorship finishes us off. - Censorship is not like it used to be.

The biggest plague of Turkish cinema was censorship.

Ridiculous objections, about Metin Erksans' famous movie for example.

"The grain in the field looks puny. This damages the public image of Turkey."

These were government- and police officials,

who hadn't the slightest idea about cinema.

Beforehand, the scripts were censored.

If the script was approved, only then they were allowed to film it

The Turkish police doesn't run. A doctor doesn't do this.

A soldier doesn't do that.

This person is not corrupt.

A couple goes swimming.

He goes into the water and shouts to his girlfriend

"The water only reaches up to your knees."

This movie will be prohibited.

It will tell the enemy strategic points of the Bosporus.

At the end of a movie, the police had to catch the criminals.

A uniformed man was not allowed to be shown in a nightclub.

Throw away the weapon Kilink!

You have underestimated the Turkish Police.

I surrender.

I always got away, I even tricked Interpol.

But the Turkish Police is too big for me.

Bravo Kilink! You are a good sport.

I warned you about the Turkish Police.

The microfilm is useless now.

If I ever get out, I'll avoid the Turkish Police.

I give the microfilm to the Turkish people.

The Turkish Police is the most intelligent in the world.

You can't simply fool them.

This Kiling-Story is now over. Take him away!

Keep your hands off the military, police, justice etc.

What is left?

The blind girl, the crippled boy.

Our pseudo period films, with their chauvinism,

that exercise a bad influence over the uneducated people.

In the name of the law.

- Cemo! - Cemile!

Because of that movie I was beaten for 15 days in Ankara.

They beat me for 15 days, the men from the censorship office.

The board recjected the movie.

They called me a traitor of my country, because I showed a bank robbery in the movie.

At that time not a single bank had been robbed in Turkey.

Treason was a serious crime because of the political unrest.

I had to cut out so much the movie became a plucked chicken.

The bank robbery had to be replaced.

We had found ways to circumvent censorship.

We sent uncompleted films to the office,

we wrote harmless Censorship-Scripts.

We wrote under pseudonyms when the authors were registered.

But we couldn't change the mentality.

The censorship is a ring around your head. I can not do this and that.

This ring has settled with the scriptwriters and directors.

"That's not going through, so I'm not even trying this."

That's why no free cinema has been able to evolve.

I gave up filmmaking at the age of 47.

I didn't want to shoot movies anymore according to the wishes of others.

And nobody wanted to realize my movies.

The most radical among us,

"Direction" comes from "directing". It is a monopoly of the individual.

It means God and King.

It is said that cinema is a collective work. That's not true!

Cinema is an art form, that is done under the direction of a single person.

the most independent,

the most individual,

A relationship between me and your image is none of your business.

I'm in love with your picture.

Metin Erksan.

But even he...

1964/GOLDEN BEAR FOR "DRY SUMMER"

Even he shoots melodrama.

- Right.

Even he films "Daglar Kizi Reyhan".

- A disaster. - No, absolutely not.

That was the system.

I went to apprenticeship with the two most important Turkish directors of that time,

Atif Yilmaz and L�tfi Akad.

Together with Metin Erksam we founded the first film union.

My first movie was burned and my idealism was gone.

They destroyed the negative.

Mind you, I'm a boy from Istanbul.

I was broke, had debts, at home they were starving.

Why I am that stupid to shoot such movies.

Sure, I'm filming Western movies. I film them better than others.

Sure, I'm shooting "The Three Musketeers"

I had ideals. But they were trimmed.

The censorship was like an executioner.

I always had to shoot three different finals.

Under the Islamist Government, I ended every movie with the prayer call.

We showed them 50 minutes, in the cinema they became 110 minutes.

I'm sitting in the editing and Yilmaz G�ney shows up with his milestone "Umut".

"Come down, look at what I filmed", he says.

I'm watching his movie downstairs, he's watching mine upstairs.

We were that collegial back then.

"Stop shooting these movies." he said. "That's my breadwinning." I answered.

"Don't leave me!" he said.

Cannes. Mayis 1982.

At the film festival Turkish regime opponents are demonstrating.

Reason for the demonstration: Yilmaz G�ney, 45 years old. The biggest star and most well-known director of the Turkish Cinema,

and at the same time one of the most prominent opponents of the Military junta, shows his movie "Yol"

For which he is awarded a few days later, the main prize: the Golden Palm.

G�ney had spent more than 11 years in Turkish prisons.

The movie was, like some others before, designed right down to the last detail during imprisonment

and then secretly shot by an employee.

In the fall of 1981 G�ney was able to escape and finished the movie in the West.

The material had previously been smuggled out of the country.

After the 1980 coup, they confiscated all Yilmaz G�ney movies.

Even his early apolitical movies were banned.

Nobody knows what happened to them.

So many important movies just disappeared,

countless movies.

A pile of films were burned in a depot fire of the city administration,

several thousand movies.

The few movies that are still available today,

were either in the cinema at that time or in the editing process.

You are from Germany.

The Turkish films in Germany are no longer found in Turkey.

We've got "Aslanbey", nice.

This might be interesting.

These movies were sold off by the sackload to Germany.

- That's erotic as well, right? - Look at the label.

These are all C�neyt Arkin movies.

So much for the producer clique in Turkey.

No goverment after Atat�rk had attached importance to the cinema ever again.

Istanbul is ours. Investors out!

All of Istanbul is a shopping centre.

The Emek is ours. Istanbul is ours.

Under the guise of "urban renewal"

whole neighborhoods and historic buildings are getting demolished.

People are driven out of their homes,

the Taksim Square and the Gezi Park are getting destroyed.

The destruction of the Emek-Cinema is just a small part of this development.

Defending the Emek means defending this city.

The Emek is a place of our collective memory.

We visited festivals, watched movies and dreamed there.

After the 1980 coup, Labor Day was celebrated there.

Here we saw movies, that inspired us to other movies.

This hall is the temple of our cinema.

It belongs to the public.

This is called vandalism!

When I visited my children in America, they dragged me to Hollywood.

Before that, we went to Orlando to the Universal Film Studios.

They have a show there where they reenact scenes from different movies.

When we got out of there, I started yelling.

"Why oh why did I become a filmmaker?"

I paid twenty dollars for a picture in Spielbergs director's chair.

Just imagine. We are both directors.

That means we can not compete with them.

If we come to a similar level, culturally and economically, then yes.

- My son!

Cinema is a labor of love.

If you have money, the possibilities are as great as the seas.

You can do whatever you want.

Maybe I talked too much, but I want to get this off my chest before I die.

I have not shot a single proper movie yet.

I could never realize my ideas because there was always a lack of everything.

I wanted to film this glas,

either the spoon was missing or the glass was broken.

So I did it for the sake of livelihood.

Like a singer in a drinking hole.

Others brag that they did it this way and that way.

We did it this way.

END