Film on ‘Istanbul United,’ alliance of rival fans during Gezi protests, to be shown at festival

ISTANBUL

Rival football club supporters joined forces during the street protests.

A film on Istanbul United, an alliance of rival football fans that formed during last year’s Gezi Park protests, will be shown at the Istanbul Film Festival next month.

German film directors Olli Waldhauer and Farid Eslam shot the movie “Istanbul United” after gathering the money by crowdsourcing on the web. They immediately flew to Istanbul after the rallies in the city last year.

On May 31, supporter groups of Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, the top three football clubs in Turkey, joined the Gezi protests in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, which turned into nationwide anti-government rallies after a violent police crackdown on a peaceful park sit-in against a city center renovation plan.  One Beşiktaş fan quoted in the movie speaks about the link between football and politics, saying: “Whatever is going on in the world, I can shout it out in the stands.”