Fatih Akin’s Film on Armenian Genocide Opens in Turkey amid Security

December 5, 2014 By administrator

ISTANBUL—German Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin’s movie “The Cut” premiered in Turkey on Thursday amid high security and high praise. The Radikal newspaper reported that Akin was accompanied by seven bodyguards at the premiere of the movie and the following evening. The premiere of the movie with a total budget of $20 million was attended by a number of celebrities. Prominent Armenian photographer from Istanbul Ara Güler was also present at the event.

Several Turkish actors and directors shared their opinions of the film in interviews with Agos Weekly following the preview in Turkey. The actors and directors have praised the film devoted to the Armenian Genocide.

“The film presents the historic events that have been completely overlooked. It’s safe to say that it was a very daring film. It’s very hard to make a film that presents a tragedy,” Turkish actress Serra Yılmaz said.

The story offers a window onto the Armenian Genocide which started in 1915 and led to the death of 1.5 Million Armenians and consequently their displacement across the world.

The story follows Nazaret Manoogian, an Armenian blacksmith played by Tahar Rahim, who is separated from his family when he is forced into labor for the Ottoman Empire. He survives the mass killings but loses his ability to speak and begins to search for his family members who he learns were on a death march. When he finds out that his daughters are alive, he resumes his journey searching for his daughters once again.

The film follows Akin’s previous films, Head On (2004) and Edge of Heaven (2007), as the third installment in a semi-connected series.

As we follow the journey, and witness the atrocities, we are speechless just like Nazaret who lost his ability to speak, as though he is also simply just watching like us as the tragedy unfolds.

Fatih Akin’s Genocide film to be screened in Turkey’

November 29, 2014 By administrator

German-Turkish director Fatih Akin’s movie featuring episodes of the Armenian Genocide is going to be screened in Turkey on December 5, Daily Sabah reports.
The publication’s website quotes the director as saying that he earlier planned to produce another movie but found no actor agreeing to play the role of Hrant Dink, the assassinated editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.
Oscar-winning director Martin Charles Scorsese lauded Akin as a unique, open-minded and good-fashioned character.

The movie, entitled The Cut, features actors Tahar Rahim, Simon Abkarian, Hindi Zahran, Kevork Malikyan and others.
The plot is based on the 1915 mass killings and deportation of the Armenians. The southeastern Turkish town of Mardin has been selected as the scene of developments.

Cairo International Festival of Cinema: Ode to Suffering The Cut (injury), Armenian genocide

November 22, 2014 By administrator

The opening film of the Cairo Film Festival, The Cut (injury), forcing the director Fatih Akin being exposed to ultra-nationalists of his country, Turkey. A work on the Armenian genocide in 1915, but also the contemporary political wars and conflicts

A subject taboo, forbidden and dangerous, but I have the courage to tackle it on the screens in favor of those who lost their lives free. “ Thus, the German director of Turkish origin Fatih Akin, describes his film, The Cut (injury), screened at the opening of the 36th Cairo International Film Festival.

The Cut is the third part of the trilogy of Fatih Akin on Love, Death and the Devil, and after Head On the other hand, winning at Cannes. Making his first international this year’s Venice Film Festival, The Cut back on the Armenian genocide of 1915 that caused the death of nearly one and a half million Christians, mostly Armenians, but also Greeks.

During World War I, the Ottomans killed 1.5 million Armenians, according to them and speak of “genocide”. Turkey, it refuses the term and denies that figure, arguing that there was a maximum of 500,000 Armenian victims and they perished in battle or died of starvation. The Cut then tells the story of a man who lives in Mardin, a city in south-eastern Turkey, which had escaped the massacre of Armenians in 1915 and went in search of his daughters.

In the international press, Fatih Akin said that Turkey is “mature enough” to receive and accept this film. “I tell those who are afraid: It’s only a movie. But I am sure that the Turkish society, including myself, is mature enough to welcome “. However, the film starts, and not surprisingly, strong criticism in Turkey as to assert its director death threats.

Faced with such difficulties, it took eight years for Akin to accomplish this project, as it has faced many obstacles, including the inability to find a Turkish actor to play the lead character in the film.

The young filmmaker insisted that the role to be played by a Turk, believing in the importance of “a Turkish film”. “A French or American actor could not play the character of Hrant Dink,” he said before the screening of his film at the Venice Film Festival. “It is up to us – the Turks – confront us with this issue,” he said.

But finally, he gave up the lead role entrusted to a Turk, being obliged to give it to Tahar Rahim, a young French actor of Algerian origin. The latter excelled embody Nazaret young blacksmith, a victim of the Turkish army in 1915.

As its name suggests, Nazaret Manoogian has the misfortune to be part of the Christian Armenians. One night, the army knock on his door to incorporate strength. After a few dozen months breaking stones in the desert, he was offered as to other prisoners to convert to Islam. Disobedient as he unfortunately slain but Nazaret falls on a sensitive executioner let him live, but not without him anyway split the vocal cords, reducing him to silence for the rest of the film.

Released Nazaret discovers that only his twin daughters survived the horrors of war, and he began to find them during a trip that will take him to Cuba and in different states of America Florida.

Sumptuous but bland Illustration

Side forms, co-written by Martin Mardik scenario brings some visual beauty and a panoramic photo 35 mm, to give the film touches of Hollywood blockbuster. However, sometimes it during the 140 minutes of the film, printing a succession of scenes exposure, almost all at the same pace. Moreover, the dialogue is sometimes oversimplified, and the fact of the Armenian characters speak in English, while all other languages are subtitled, was not the right solution to make the attached or nearby public content.

Akin clearly seeks to address a contemporary audience, either through dialogue or through an electric musical band’s wrong with this kind of historical films. Moreover, some images remind wars underway in the Middle East, with the refugee camps and the suffering of free citizens, but an own perspective to the director.

Regarding the interpretation in this epic, Rahim proves once again its abilities to change depending on the character’s skin, or rather by the challenge. He excels at using his talent to face this almost silent role, thus requiring a physical game worked well, despite some moments of flatness in rhythm. Because the scenario can be summarized in a series of sometimes excessive testimonials. However, this does not affect the quality of the film, entered as a good example, even though direct perfected.

http://hebdo.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/0/5/25/7457/Festival-international-du-cin%C3%A9ma-du-Caire—Ode-%C3%A0—.aspx

The Cut, Fatih Akin, the film is going to cringe in Turkey

November 9, 2014 By administrator

Presented for the first November 7 in Paris, the film German-Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin, may grind more than one tooth in Turkey. It should indeed out on the screens of 5 cities, 5 December, Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya and Eskişehir.

In France, the film will be screened in 120 theaters, on January 15, 2015, with dialogue dubbed in Armenian, Turkish and Arabic subtitled in French. Distribution Pyramid Films.

At the end of the projection preview, Fatih Akin was willing to bend the game of questions and answers asked by reporters about the shooting conditions and the Turkish-Armenian issue (see here). Of these, the question of whether he was worried for directing this film, Fatih Akin says that only “fascists” Turkish threatened.

Jean Eckian

My film is not is not devoted to Genocide, says Turkish director (it is against Taboo)

October 21, 2014 By administrator

Fatih Akin, the Turkish-German director whose movie “The Cut” stirred up anger over the Genocide issue in Turkey, has complained about facing threats.

In an interview with Evrensel, Akin said the film is neither political nor devoted to the Armenian Genocide per se. He said he was inspired by book written by Hassan Cemal, Cemal Pasha’s grandson.

“If the grandson of someone who was responsible for the era uses the word, why shouldn’t I use it? The book is on sale in book-stores and displayed on shop-windows,” he noted.

“I didn’t search the topic; it found me itself. As a child of a family from Turkey, it was always of interest to me, especially when it turned into a taboo. When something is banned, you become curious and studious. ”

Asked whether the topic still remains a taboo in Turkey, Akin said he sees that a lot has changed since the assassination of Hrant-Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.

“If, seven years ago when Hrant Dink was killed, you tried to speak about the Genocide in any café, those sitting at the table would show resistance. You can now speak about it without whisper almost everywhere,” he answered.

Akin blamed the Turkish propaganda for diverting the Turkish society from the historical truth.

“If one nation was permanently cheated by historians and politicians [who said] ‘nothing of the kind happened; it’s a big lie’ etc., and heard nothing else from families, textbooks and newspaper, I cannot blame them.

“But the politicians calls for leaving history to historians is wrong. History belongs to us, the people …” he added.

“The Cut” Genocide drama removed from Turkish film week entries list

September 13, 2014 By administrator

September 13, 2014 – 17:56 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Award winning director Fatih Akin’s Armenian Genocide drama “The Cut” was removed from the list of entries for Filmekimi Istanbul-hosted autumn film week.

Earlier, the drama was posted among the film week participants on the Facebook page of the event organizer Istanbul Foundation For Culture & Arts.

According to the Foundation, the film was removed from the list at the request of foreign representatives of the film who were unwilling to see a major gap between the film’s first screening and its premiere at the cinemas, which was slightly delayed.

According to Ermenihaber, the move carries no political motifs.

“The Cut” tells the story of an Armenian man, Nazareth Manoogian, who after surviving the Genocide learns that his twin daughters may be alive, and goes on a quest to find them. Nazareth’s journey takes him from his village Mardin to the deserts, to Cuba and finally North Dakota.

The Cut review: Fatih Akin’s Armenian genocide epic draws blood

August 31, 2014 By administrator

By Peter Bradshaw in Venice for the Guardian

Tahar Rahim is a mute father searching for his children in the aftermath of a conflict cinema has tended to neglect. His story is compassionately handled, but the film lacks the subtlety of Akin’s earlier, non-English language workEchoes of Pasolini’s Christ in the Gospel According To St Matthew … Rahim with daughters in The Cut.Photograph: Indiewire

“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” asked Adolf Hitler, and this mass murder in 1915 by the Ottomans of the minority Armenian population is still a hugely controversial subject, especially in Turkey where there is resistance to assuming a retrospective burden of genocidal shame. Fatih Akin, the German-Turkish film-maker, has made it the starting-point for a heartfelt, if soapy Zhivago-ish quest epic, his first English-language movie; he directs, produces and co-writes with Mardik Martin, the veteran screenwriter who worked with Scorsese on Raging Bull and Mean Streets.

It’s a big, ambitious, continent-spanning piece of work, concerned to show the Armenian horror was absorbed into the bloodstream of immigrant-descended population in the United States, but it is a little simplistic emotionally, especially in its latter half as the film trudges across America with its hero. It doesn’t have the sophisticated nuance and wit of Akin’s contemporary German-language movies, like Head-On (2004) and The Edge of Heaven (2007).

6246ca20-550d-4f94-8440-dad810ddaf4c-460x276 — A still from The Cut Photograph: Indiewire

This horrifying historical episode is neglected in the cinema — although Atom Egoyan addressed it in his 2002 film Ararat; Akin takes it on in good faith, although Armenian communities may take exception to the fact that he actually dramatises, on screen, the brutal deaths of 30 or so victims. The part can stand for the whole of course, but the total numbers involved are not specified.

Tahar Rahim plays the embattled hero Nazareth, a blacksmith and Armenian Christian who is torn from his wife and twin daughters by the Ottoman authorities for a supposed military conscription which is nothing more than slave labour on a work gang and a forced march heading to racial annihilation. But he encounters decent Turks: a civilian prisoner who pretends to cut his throat at the orders of a soldier, but merely stabs him in the neck, leaving Nazareth alive but mute. Nazareth scrambles away, an undead fugitive from history: a crew of Turkish army deserters help him with food and water.

He is finally taken in by a soap manufacturer: the ambiguous metaphor is there if we want it — the soap which genuinely cleanses, or merely something with which powerful people will wash their hands of responsibility. The manufacturer attempts to give some of his wares to soldiers, and calls after them: “The whores of Aleppo will thank you!” Poor, mute Nazareth becomes obsessed with one thing: finding his daughters, now young women, a mission which will take him on a journey of thousands of miles.

A still from The CutPhotograph: PR

It is this journey which is frankly the film’s weaker aspect. There is little historical or political contention in it, and not much actual drama; the horror itself recedes in the memory to be replaced by a long search and a long haul, with disappointments verging on the farcical, in the course of which Rahim’s character does not grow or change that much. He remains pretty boyish-looking, despite some grey hairs at the end. (At the beginning of the movie, in fact, he has a look of Pasolini’s Christ in the Gospel According To St Matthew.) And he is mute, of course, which means that there is not much in the script for Tahar Rahim to work with, and he gives what amounts to a very subdued performance although interestingly one moment when he does comes alive is in his entranced reaction to a silent movie show: Chaplin in The Kid. Nazareth’s eyes light up like a child’s.

But otherwise the movie is not much leavened with comedy or happiness. It’s understandable. The Cut can mean the brutal act of murder itself; it can mean the division of husbands from wives, parents from children, and it can mean the present from the past, the insidious amputation of memory. Whether The Cut encompasses this last sense is up for debate, but it is a forceful, watchable, strongly presented picture and a courageous, honest gesture from Fatih Akin.

Turkey: threats to the first Turkish film on the bottom of the Armenian Genocide (Video)

August 16, 2014 By administrator

Armenian Life Magazine 1429 – Writing

August 13, 2014

The German-Turkish director Fatih Akin and the Armenian-Turkish bilingual weekly Agos received death threats sent by nationalist Turks, Agos who last month published an interview with the director about his new film. The content of the messages, massive support for making the threats and the passivity of the authorities are grim illustration of the current atmosphere in Turkey. Death threats are an omen for next year, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Akin – author of the films “Head On”, “Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul” and “Soul Kitchen” – was awarded on July 30 a long interview about Agos “The Cut”, his new focus on film Armenian Genocide. The interview, which was met with great interest has interesting revelations.

For example, Akin said he thought a film about the life of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the former editor of the newspaper Agos who was assassinated in 2007, but no actor he approached had agreed to hold the role.

Akin subsequently began work on a new project: the story of a Turkish-Armenian who, having escaped the massacre of 1915, began the search for her daughters worldwide. Akin wrote the script in German, but was later determined to filming in English. He asked this participation Mardik Martin, an Armenian American and Iraqi writer roots that contributed to the scripts of films by Martin Scorsese. According to Akin, Martin has not only translated; he modified and given the intensity to the script.

The film – with French actor of Algerian origin Tahar Rahim and Turkish Bartu Kucukcaglayan actor – was shot in Jordan, Cuba, Canada, Malta and Germany. His first showing is scheduled for next Venice Film Festival and only the trailer is now available.

Akin told Agos he did not consider “The Cut” as a film about the Armenian Genocide, but as an adventure film. He said not to have had to do so politically motivated and that he hoped the film “will receive the welcome in Turkey and should be projected in large rooms.”

Akin was aware that the fate of his film would not be the same as that given to others in Turkey, even if it is not based on the theme of genocide. “The Cut”, after all, is the first film of a director that addresses the Turkish 1915 events The filmmaker, however, remains optimistic in his view, the film in Turkey will be without problems. “I trust; Turkish people, myself included, is ready for this kind of movie, “he told Agos.

However, since the publication of this interview, a tweet from the Pan Association – Turkist Turanian Akin showed he may have been too optimistic.

We read in the message: “The process is triggered under the direction of the newspaper Agos, for the screening of Fatih Akin on the so-called Armenian Genocide ‘The Cut’ in Turkey. ‘The Cut’ is the first link in the chain of a plot to gain recognition by Turkey of the Armenian Genocide lies before 2015 … and we will not allow it to be screened in Turkey. We openly threaten the newspaper Agos, Armenian fascists and complacent intellectuals. This film will be screened in any room in Turkey. We follow the development of our white wearing berets in the Azeri golden banner. We will see if you are able! “.

The metaphor of “white cap” becomes a sinister message. Samast, the alleged murderer of Hrant Dink, wore a white beret when he shot in the neck Dink outside the offices of Agos in central Istanbul, 19 January 2007 The white cap has since become the frequently raised by participants in the demonstrations racist and anti-Armenian nationalist symbol.

The threat of Turanian Association was relayed on social media by the messages of support from other ultranationalist groups.

The events that followed showed that the Turkish authorities have learned nothing of the murder of Hrant Dink, who was preceded by similar threats. According to the Turkish penal code, these messages is a criminal offense for many reasons, from the threats they have to hold a hate speech. Prosecutions against the perpetrators do not imply that complaints are filed by the victims; the law gives prosecutors the power to initiate criminal proceedings. Unfortunately, hate speech against minorities retains no attention of the prosecutor.

In an advertisement in Al-Monitor reaction, the editor of Agos Robert Koptas said the publication had become accustomed to receiving threats, given the passivity of the authorities as the norm. “For us, the situation is not extraordinary. And the fact that the situation is not extraordinary in itself is an indication of the atmosphere in which we live “Has he said.

“We had to once again make a complaint, despite the fact that the police and justice were supposed to have been seized with these offenses. We are not asking for special protection, but we are a publication whose editor-in-chief was murdered outside his own office. Also, the threats we receive are supposed to have a special significance for the police and prosecutors, “said Koptas. He added that no government official had called him about the threats or make any public statement on this.

Threats indicate that some tensions and turbulence is expected in Turkey in 2015, the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The debate on the Armenian Genocide in Turkey became free as it has ever been. The commemorative events are now held across Turkey on 24 April, Genocide Remembrance Day. Although the latest incident shows that ultranationalist groups are on alert, the anniversary approaching.

Threats against Akin’s film shows that some circles in Turkey have lost none of their intolerance and emboldened by the failure to act of justice, feel free to take who they want. It seems that no lesson from the past have not been learned.

Gilbert Béguian translation Armenews

German-Turkish director Fatih Akın threatened by ultranationalists “The Cut,”

August 4, 2014 By administrator

An ultranationalist Turkish group has threatened famous director Fatih Akın for his upcoming movie “The Cut,” which explores controversial themes regarding the Armenian issue.

A magazine named Ötüken, the publication of the Turkish Turanist Association, has released an online statement, saying it would not allow the movie to be released in Turkey after it discovered that the German-Turkish director conducted an interview with the Armenian weekly Agos.

“We openly threaten Agos Newspaper, Armenian fascists and so-called intellectuals,” the message read. “That movie will not be released in a single movie theater in Turkey. We are following the developments with our white caps and Azerbaijani flags.”

The white cap is a clear reference to the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed in broad daylight in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007, as the hit-man, Ogün Samast, was wearing a white cap when he murdered the editor-in-chief of Agos.

In the new Akın movie, Tahar Rahim, a French actor of Algerian origin, plays an Armenian man living in Mardin, located in the southeastern part of Turkey, who survived the killings of 1915 and begins a journey that takes him to America in a search for his two daughters.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in 1915 and 1916 by the forces of the Ottoman Empire in what many around the world have termed a “genocide,” which Ankara denies. Meanwhile, Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that only 500,000 died while also denying that the killings amounted to genocide, attributing the toll to fighting and starvation during World War I.

Earlier this year, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a statement of condolences on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the deeply contested deaths, unexpectedly describing the events of 1915 as “inhumane.” However, some U.S.-based Armenian advocacy groups continue to claim that the words were “cold-hearted and cynical.”

The Turkish ultranationalists have claimed that the movie was the “first step of several steps to make Turkey accept the so-called lie of the Armenian genocide,” a statement by the group read.
The movie is expected to be out in the fall.

In his interview with Agos, the 40-year-old filmmaker said he was preparing a movie on the life of Dink. However, Akın, best known for his movies depicting Germany’s cross-cultural lives, such as “Short Sharp Shock,” “Head-On” and “The Edge of Heaven,” said he failed to find a Turkish actor willing to depict the influential writer.

“I planned to shoot a movie about Hrant Dink after ‘Soul Kitchen’ [in 2009]. I wrote a scenario based on 12 articles by Hrant Dink, which were published in Agos. I don’t know whether it would have been a good movie. But I could not persuade any Turkish actor to perform as Hrant. They all found the situation too heavy [to handle]. Then I had to freeze the project,” he said. Hamburg-born Akın won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival with “Head-On” and the Best Screenplay award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival with “The Edge of Heaven.”

August/04/2014

Director Fatih Akın suspends Dink film idea after actors rejected role

July 31, 2014 By administrator

ISTANBUL

Despite suspending his movie about Hrant Dink, Fatih Akın tackles the Armenian Genocide in a new movie called ‘The Cut.’

Turkish-German director Fatih Akın has said he wanted to shoot a film about assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink but had to freeze the project after Turkish actors refused the role.

“I planned to shoot a movie about Hrant Dink after ‘Soul Kitchen.’ I wrote a scenario based on 12 articles by Hrant Dink which were published in Agos [Dink’s Turkish-Armenian newspapers]. I don’t know whether it would have been a good movie. But I could not persuade any Turkish actor to perform as Hrant. They all found the scenario too heavy. Then I had to freeze the project,” Akın told weekly Agos in a recent interview.

“I did not want any actor to get hurt. But a movie about Hrant had to be a ‘Turkish film’ as well. An American or French actor could not act as Hrant. We have to deal with this issue ourselves. But it means that the time has not yet come for this,” said Akın.

Responding to Akın’s comments, two younger Turkish actors both lamented that they could not fit the role. “If I were the right age, I would have wanted [to play Dink],” said actor Rıza Kocaoğlu, who is played in a number of films and series.

“I wish I could play [Dink],” tweeted another prominent actor, Sarp Akkaya.

Dink, the highly esteemed former editor-in-chief of Agos, was murdered in broad daylight in front of his newspaper’s building on Jan. 19, 2007, by a 17-year-old Turkish nationalist. The triggerman, Ogün Samast, was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to 22 years and 10 months in prison after a two year-trial, but lawyers representing the Dink family have repeatedly expressed their dismay over the way the investigations and the trial were conducted.

Akın said he had conducted research about Armenians as he was working on Dink’s articles, adding that he had another scenario in mind. “A story about the Anatolian travelers who went to America, a kind of western. I mixed some parts of the Hrant’s scenario with this film and then we had ‘The Cut.’”

‘The Cut’ is a co-production between Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Canada and Turkey, and received funding from the Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, among others. It is scheduled for release in Germany on Oct. 16 by Pandora Film Verleih.

Akın said he was influenced by the research of Wolfgang Gust and Taner Akçam while writing his movie.

In the new Akın movie, Tahar Rahim, a French actor of Algerian origin, plays an Armenian man living in Mardin, located in the southeastern part of Turkey, who survived the killings of 1915 and starts a journey that takes him to America in a search for his two daughters.

Akın said he was also satisfied with the performances of the Turkish actors in ‘The Cut.’

“Bartu Küçükçağlayan is in a key role. Bartu acted with passion and intelligence. At the same time, [he acted] with such innocence… My friend Önder Çakar, who wrote the Turkish dialogue, also performs in the movie. Also, Turkish actors from Germany such as Numan Acar, Korkmaz Arslan, Mehmet Yılmaz and a Brit from Cyprus, Akın Gazi, are also in the film,” he said, adding that he wanted to cast Gazi as legendary Turkish-Kurdish actor and director Yılmaz Güney in a future film.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in 1915 and 1916 by the forces of the Ottoman Empire in what many around the world have termed a genocide, which Ankara denies. Turkey also disputes the figure, arguing that only 500,000 died while denying that the killings amounted to a genocide, ascribing the toll to fighting and starvation during World War I.

July/31/2014