The Çanakkale War through eyes of teens

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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A film that tells the story of the Çanakkale War through the eyes of children will begin shooting next month on the Gallipoli Peninsula, near the northwestern city of Çanakkale.

"Yarım Kalan Masal" (The Unfinished Tale) is directed by İsmail Altınata, the grandson of İsmail Altınata, who died during the Çanakkale War, which is known in other countries as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli. The movie will be the first feature children’s film on the battle to be made in Turkey.

Altınata, who came this week to the village on the Gallipoli Peninsula where the film is to be shot in order to do some preliminary work, said the movie would be a sensational one, both a historical movie and a children’s film. "Many films and documentaries have been made on Çanakkale," he said. "But we will show what happened behind the front of the Çanakkale War through the eyes of children."

Message and fun
The director said his film would not only convey significant messages but also entertain children while teaching them about village culture. The content of the movie, he added, has been prepared with input from a professional team, including historians, teachers and education experts.

"We don’t want to make a mistake about the content and the message we want to deliver, so we have a very good team that is filtering everything," he said. "We have also chosen stories for the movie from Rumi, so children will also encounter his work through the film."

The film will not show war scenes, but instead focus on dramas behind the front, Altınata said, adding that his crew had searched for available locations before filming began, but discovered different places during their final visit. "The scenario was already done, but we will revise it because we found more beautiful places on this trip," he said. "Being here is different and changes many things. Çanakkale is a very nice place. You can understand why people lost their lives for its sake."

Because he thought that well-known actors would not be interested in a period film, Altınata cast mostly unknowns, including people living in the Çanakkale region and children who live at dormitories run by the Turkish Social Services and Protection of Children, or SHCEK. "This will be a first in Turkey, and it will enable children with acting abilities to show themselves on the silver screen," he said.

Mevlana İdris and Erol Hızarcı wrote the screenplay for the film, which is being produced by Medyainnova and is scheduled for release in October. The cast will be announced at a press conference to be held in the coming weeks.

About the film
The Çanakkale War, which took the lives of thousands, ended in a traumatic defeat for the British Empire and France and a big victory for the Turkish troops. Looking back almost a century later, thousands of stories, dramas, tragedies and legends have emerged about this time period.

"Yarım Kalan Masal" tells some of these stories through the eyes of children and other residents of a village very close to the front. In one, a father, who tells an ongoing story to his child each night, decides to go to the front when a bomb falls into the family’s village, and thus into their lives. While the child waits to hear the end of the story, his heart began to be shaken by sunflowers, bombs and a deep sorrow.