Golden Orange Film Festival 2022 – © frantic00/Shutterstock
The prestigious Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival will not be held this year. reason? The controversial decision to exclude the documentary “The Decree”, which talks about the taboo subject of the consequences of the crackdown after the failed anti-Erdoğan coup in 2016
The 60th edition of Turkey’s prestigious Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival was scheduled to be held from October 7th to 14th. We should be proud of such an established film festival where the highest standards of domestic films compete. But the shocking cancellation of this year’s festival after a week of bitter controversy revealed painful truths about censorship and freedom of expression in Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The controversy began when a documentary was removed from the festival’s program. In response, the jury resigned, and most directors and producers subsequently removed their films from the competition. After festival organizers tried to calm the storm by promising to eventually screen the documentary, various government departments withdrew funding. The documentary was then picked up again. The entire festival was canceled on September 26, as there were almost no films to be screened or jurors left.
At the center of this storm of controversy is documentary filmmaker Nejira Demirci. In an interview, she described the absurdity of the situation: “Let’s think about a big country, the Republic of Turkey. And in this country, just one small person who thinks about himself can create a documentary film. It is this person that the state is messing with. Who is doing this? The Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice. They are making statements and I am watching in utter bewilderment,” she told an opposition TV channel.
Controversial Turkish legislation
Demirci’s documentary The Decree (Kanun Hükmü) follows a cardiologist, the director’s sister Yasemin Demirci, and elementary school teacher Engin Karataş in the picturesque Aegean city of Bodrum. Both men were fired from their jobs on government orders.
Under the state of emergency declared by the Turkish government after the failed coup attempt in 2016, presidential rulings by legal decree (known by their Turkish initials, KHK) became common. It has been widely criticized for restricting fundamental rights and circumventing normal judicial checks and balances.
After the state of emergency was declared, many teachers, doctors, and other civil servants were fired without trial. Most were accused of being part of the now-banned organization of Fethullah Gülen, the U.S.-exilic preacher whom the Turkish state holds responsible for the coup attempt. However, as in the case of the two men whose stories are told in the decree, many of those fired and expelled from public office were not involved in the Gülen movement, but were simply left-wing or otherwise critical of the government. there were.
Years later, Yasemin Demirci returned to work at the Bodrum State Hospital, while Karataş, known for his creative protests, wrote the words: “I want my job and my students back!” . Civil service employment is still prohibited throughout the city of Bodrum.
Festival management cancels, withdraws, and cancels again
The Decree was just one of several films entered into the Golden Orange National Documentary Competition, but festival director Ahmet Boyajoglu mentioned the ongoing court case. announced that the film had been removed from competition. He said the film will be shown after the trial concludes.
The first response came from director Demirci, who explained that there was no ongoing trial. This was just an excuse for censorship.she He went on to argue that the film’s removal from the festival is a blow to all who believe in democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.
The only lawsuit directly related to the film occurred during its initial filming. Demirsi had applied to the Bodrum regional governor for permission to shoot in the city. Despite repeated applications, he received no response and was ultimately denied. She appealed to Turkey’s Constitutional Court, which ruled that her right to free speech had been violated.
The judges then issued a statement saying they were withdrawing from the festival. “This position, which seeks to identify criminal elements in films and normalize censorship measures, is unacceptable,” the signatories wrote. The group, which includes actress Demet Akbar, director Ozkan Alper, and writer Sema Kaigus, vowed to “fulfill their jury duty only if the film is returned.”
This was followed by a joint statement from the directors and producers of some of the most anticipated films in the festival’s main event, the National Feature Film Competition. They said the removal of the decree was a “direct threat to freedom of artistic expression.” Furthermore, the filmmaker who produced all of his short films and six of his eight documentaries also no longer produces films. until the law is reinstated .
In response to this solidarity from other participants of the festival and the general public, Mr. Boyacıoğlu made another announcement, stating that he had recently been informed that there have been no active lawsuits involving the subject matter of the ordinance. Therefore, there were no obstacles for the documentary to enter the competition again.
The filmmakers and jurors rejected the apology and again criticized the decision to reopen the film on such a flimsy excuse, but nevertheless celebrated the decision to show the film. However, the cries of victory from Demirci and movie lovers across Turkey did not last long. Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a statement saying it was withdrawing from the festival. They said showing the documentary would tarnish the memory of “the epic struggle for democracy that our beloved country waged on July 15,” the day of the 2016 coup attempt. insisted. Following this, the Ministry of Youth and Sports’ statement was also retracted. Sponsoring events. Minister of Justice Yilmaz Tunç declared that it would not be allowed for “traditional festivals like the Golden Orange Film Festival to be used for propaganda by terrorist organizations.”
In the face of this backlash, festival director Boyačoğlu again backtracked, saying that festival management had once again removed the documentary from competition. He said there were safety concerns after an investigation had been launched against the festival and threats had been made against him and his team. He also complained that the festival does not receive enough support from the film industry.
After jurors and filmmakers involved in the festival again vowed not to take part unless the decree was reinstated, opposition Antalya provincial mayor Muhittin Beçek finally announced the festival had been cancelled altogether.
history of censorship
This is not the first attempt to censor a movie in Golden Orange. In 1979, three films were excluded from competition because they failed to pass the censorship board that existed in Turkey at the time. The last time Golden Orange was completely discontinued was in 1980, after a military coup took power in the country. But less than a decade later, films critical of the government began to emerge, such as 1989’s Best Film winner, Don’t Let Me Shoot the Kite, about a left-wing activist imprisoned in a women’s prison after a coup. There is a possibility that it will be screened at film festivals again.
In 2014, a documentary directed by Leian Tuvi, which focused on the previous year’s Gezi Park protests, was removed from the competition on the grounds that it violated Turkish criminal law. At that time, the juror again protested and resigned. After minor changes were made to the film’s subtitles, festival organizers reinstated the film.
The current situation is even worse. “We don’t know what’s going to happen next. We’re in the middle of a Kafkaesque situation. Who can comment on a movie they haven’t seen? This is about two people’s lives. , a funny, human and earthy documentary. Are we committing a crime by showing it?” said one film festival employee. told Turkish columnist Ismail Saimaz. The same official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the debacle showed the Ministry of Culture and Tourism would refuse to fund festivals and events it didn’t like the subject matter of the film.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also weighed in on the debate, declaring in parliament on October 1 that “targeting the will of the nation under the pretext of art is unacceptable.”
Current status of artistic freedom in Türkiye’s new century
The surprise announcement that this year’s Golden Orange would be cancelled came amid news of the outcome of a lawsuit against prominent civil society activists, including the filmmakers. Upheld the conviction of five out of eight activists in the infamous Gezi Park trial. Despite the strong judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe against these convictions, these civil society figures were held responsible for masterminding the popular 2013 protests against the destruction of the park in Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The judgment was upheld.
Among those sentenced was film producer and journalist Sigdem Martel. A documentary film about the Gezi Park protests that she never produced was used in the case against her. A conference she held or planned to hold at an international film festival overseas to screen an unfinished documentary was used as evidence of the crime.
Mayor Becek of Antalya announced on September 30 that under a new film festival management system, the 60th Golden Orange Film Festival will be held by the end of 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, without expecting any support from Turkish ministries. I vowed to hold it. Regardless of whether the festival takes place this year, today’s increasing restrictions on freedom of speech and artistic expression are a grim sign of what the country’s situation will be like in the next century.
I will go beyond the limits of possibility and comment to provide the most important information. The required tempo changes depending on the various operations.Vai Alla Nostra Policy
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