Antalya Film Festival screening of Ai Weiwei film halted after walkout

ANTALYA

A screening of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s “Human Flow” saw a walkout among viewers at the 54th Antalya Film Festival on Oct. 22, after which the screening was cancelled due to “technical difficulties.”

The walkout came after a scene shot in southeastern Turkey, in which the word “guerilla” was used in the subtitles to refer to an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant.

The screening of the film continued without subtitles for a few minutes after the protest, after which it was halted in the 60th minute on grounds of “technical problems.”

The documentary “Human Flow” was on screen at the open-air movie theater set up next to the Glass Pyramid Fair and Congress Center in Antalya, southern Turkey.

Officials said the film will be shown again once “technical difficulties” are solved.

“We cannot continue screening the film under these
conditions. But it will be shown again and we will invite
viewers again to the screening in a few days. Viewers will be able to use the same ticket,” one official said.

Weiwei’s “Human Flow,” an epic 23-country documentary essay on the global refugee crisis, made its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 1.

“The film is trying to give refugees a more historical [context], humanity and to relate to daily life: How a woman holds her child, how a child puts on his shoes, how a man lights a cigarette,” the director said in Venice.