Why does it always fall upon me to write the character assassination of an entire culture? Previously, it was for the “So Sorry” roundtable, and now, once again, I find myself called upon to assault an entire people — one my grandfather used to tell me made necklaces out of the ears of German soldiers during WWII.
Exploring the strange and wonderful world of Turkish cult cinema has not traditionally been an easy task. For decades, most of us had no idea there was even a Turkish cult cinema to be explored. But then, round about 1999 or so, something amazing happened. Bootleg copies of a film known only as “Turkish Star Wars” started circulating. The rest, of course, was history, because cult film fans knew that where something that bizarre existed, other equally bizarre films were sure to dwell. And so the Great Game was on once again, as fans scoured the back alleys of Ankara and the black markets of Istanbul in search of something that featured Captain America punching out Spider-Man — for what we quickly learned was that Turkey was the film industry copyrights and intellectual properties went to to die. Nothing was off limits; no character, no soundtrack…heck, they’d devote half a film’s running time to using footage from some other film.
And so the B-Masters have gathered to celebrate the meager bits and pieces of Turkish cinema that have been made available in these past few years. Given the Turkish disinterest in preserving their own movies, this exploration can often be frustrating, or at the very least, incredibly grainy and possessed of numerous tracking problems.
I will state, by way of a disclaimer, that I’m sure Turkey produces many wonderful, thoughtful, insightful, and artistic films of great merit. But you know us: when the choice is between watching a touching exploration of the duality of Turkish cultural identity, with one foot in Western Europe and the other in Muslim central Asia, or watching a movie where a chain-smoking Spider-Man in combat boots shoves a lady’s face into an outboard motor — well, you know. – Keith, Teleport City
[TABLE=2]