Turkey thrives
If a film industry's well-being is to be judged by box office takings alone, Turkish cinema could easily be seen as in rude health.
As announced by the country's culture and tourism minister Ertugrul Gunay at the national Yesilcam Film Awards in Istanbul two weeks ago, Turkish productions generated 54 per cent of ticket revenues in the country's theatres last year - not exactly a sensational figure, but still an enviable feat for filmmakers working in markets dominated by Hollywood.
In addition, the five highest-grossing films of the year were all homegrown: the best-performing production, the US-set heist flick Five Minarets in New York, yielded US$20.1 million - more than the combined takings of Inception, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One.
Dig deeper, however, and the numbers reveal a much more nuanced picture for Turkish filmmakers. While seven out of the top-10 2010 films were Turkish, the hit rate plummeted as one surveys the listings. Barely half of the top 20 films were Turkish; 16 featured in the top 50, and a mere 25 in the top 100. Of the five films which triumphed over Inception last year, two were thrillers (Five Minarets and the police procedural Hunting Season) while the other three were crass comedies: Recep Ivedik 3 is the third instalment of a hit franchise based on a TV serial's oafish lead character; Eyvvah Eyvah revolves around the adventures of a clarinet-playing country bumpkin in the bright lights of Istanbul; and Yahsi Bati is an action thriller about two Ottoman empire special agents trying to recover a diamond in the American wild west.
Turkish filmmakers who thrived on the film festival circuit hardly made a dent in this rich list. Take Semih Kaplanoglu, who won two awards - the Golden Bear and the Ecumenical Jury prize - at the Berlin International Film Festival last year with Bal (Honey), a moving film about a six-year-old boy's struggle with a speech impediment, which began when his father vanished from his life. Screened as part of the Summer International Film Festival last year and then the Hong Kong International Film Festival last month, it will make its third appearance here on Thursday as part of the second Hong Kong Turkish Film Festival - but it took only US$185,700 back home, placing it at number 142 in the year-end revenue rankings.
It's the films overlooked at home which represented Turkey overseas. Indeed, mention Turkish cinema to cinephiles and what comes to mind would be festival darlings such as Kaplanoglu, Nuri Bilge Ceylan (two-time winner at Cannes, with his new film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia nearly a dead-cert for this year's festival), Yesim Ustaoglu (with awards at Berlin and San Sebastian) and Zeki Demirkubuz (appearances at Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam and Cannes).