Turks choose to see their own movies, says culture minister

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay speaks about the recent developments in Turkish cinema and the ministry’s plans for the next year.

Turkish cinema was ‘at the bottom’ 10 years ago, “but Turkey has succeeded to draw its own audiences to its own cinema. This is where even French cinema was not able to succeed,” the Turkish culture and tourism minister has said.

 The number of Turkish film viewers exceeded 20 million, Ertuğrul Günay added, speaking about the recent developments in Turkish cinema and the ministry’s plans for 2013.

He said the ministry had provided some 100 million Turkish Liras for Turkish cinema since 2006. “The number of films produced in a year was under five. The number of Turkish film viewers was nearly 2 million. But cinema took advantage of this amount of money. In recent years, we have been producing more than 50 films in a year.”

Günay said he was proud of the fact that the success of Turkish cinema was recognized in the world. “We won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival last year. We previously won this award in 1965. We have also won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, the best director, the best documentary as well as the best short film awards.”

He said the ministry had a view against bans. “We had controversial films in previous years; the ones that our bureaucrats attempted to ban. I watched these films and they were not controversial. I don’t understand this bureaucracy. It cannot clear itself from old reflexes.”

Resource for veterans

Günay said they would give more opportunities to the veterans of Turkish cinema with a new cinema law. “But giving social rights to workers is the mission of the Ministry of Labor. We are jointly working about this issue. We try to find a new resource for those who are in financial need.”

Günay spoke about the Turkish Museum of Civilizations, the construction of which will begin in 2013 as one of the largest museums in Turkey and Europe.

“It is in the project stage. If we finish it in the first months of this year, we will be able to start the construction at the end of the year. It will have a 10,000-square-meter closed area, library, conference rooms and food courts,” Günay said.