{"id":47005,"date":"2010-10-11T10:33:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T10:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/2010\/10\/11\/antalyas-golden-orange-festival-marred-by-politics-as-kusturica-leaves-turkey\/"},"modified":"2010-10-11T10:33:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T10:33:00","slug":"antalyas-golden-orange-festival-marred-by-politics-as-kusturica-leaves-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2010\/10\/11\/antalyas-golden-orange-festival-marred-by-politics-as-kusturica-leaves-turkey.html","title":{"rendered":"Antalya’s Golden Orange Festival Marred by Politics as Kusturica Leaves Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica left Antalya on Sunday, just one day after the southern city\u2019s Alt\u0131<\/span>n Portakal (Golden Orange) International Film Festival, where he was going to serve as a member of the international feature competition jury, opened its 47th year with a ceremony marked by controversy, reports Today’s Zaman.<\/p>\n

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The famed director of such critically acclaimed films as \u201cUnderground\u201d and \u201cThe Time of the Gypsies,\u201d labeling reactions to his being a member of the jury at the festival as \u201cbarbaric and primitive,\u201d said he was withdrawing from the jury and canceling the rest of his program in Antalya, which also included workshops with film students.<\/p>\n

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Speaking in a press conference on Sunday at an Antalya hotel, Kusturica said: \u201cI don\u2019t even want to make a plea, but \u2026 I\u2019d like to thank Mayor [Mustafa] Akayd\u0131<\/span>n and the people of Antalya for the warm reception. As for the culture [and tourism] minister of this country, I now see him as an enemy because he deserves this,\u201d referring to Culture and Tourism Minister Ertu\u011f<\/span>rul G\u00fc<\/span>nay\u2019s protest against him by not attending Saturday\u2019s opening gala of the festival.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday Kusturica also noted that just a few months ago he and his No Smoking Orchestra, which also performed on Saturday in Antalya, visited the northwestern city of Bursa for a live performance as part of the city\u2019s annual festival, where they were greeted warmly and enthusiastically by the city\u2019s officials.<\/p>\n

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Dismissing accusations that he was supportive of war criminals, Kusturica added: \u201cA person who has dedicated his life to opening new horizons to humanity cannot be supportive of any kind of crime. \u2026 I am known to be anti-imperialist. I have built my life and profession on this basis. \u2026 What I was fighting for [during the time of the Bosnian war] was a united Yugoslavia,\u201d the filmmaker said.<\/p>\n

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Minister G\u00fc<\/span>nay was quick to reply to Kusturica\u2019s \u201cunfortunate statements\u201d on Sunday. \u201cI suppose [interpreters] provided him with false and exaggerated translations [of what happened]. I\u2019m guessing that\u2019s why he made those unfortunate statements while he was leaving. I wouldn\u2019t want to speak behind an artist\u2019s back. I wish this debate had never taken place. I wish we only watched his films [in the festival] and a politically motivated debate had not been triggered,\u201d the minister told the Anatolia news agency. \u201cI hope these arguments do not overshadow the Antalya film festival,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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On Saturday Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Antalya City Council member Re\u015f<\/span>at Oktay protested the festival\u2019s organizers for inviting Kusturica to the festival, shouting his objection while Akayd\u0131<\/span>n was about deliver his opening speech at the festival\u2019s opening gala at the famous Glass Pyramid. Oktay was immediately taken outside the hall by security personnel. Outside the hall, Oktay told reporters that he staged the protest \u201con behalf of the citizens of Antalya.\u201d Claiming Kusturica was a \u201cracist \u2026 who had no respect for Bosnian Muslims,\u201d Oktay said: \u201cArtists have to have universal [appeal]. An artist cannot be racist. I made this to condemn a person who supports massacre being invited to this festival. As a member of the Antalya City Council, I was elected by the citizens of this city. I condemn Akayd\u0131<\/span>n for inviting this man to the festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Antalya Foundation for Culture and Art (AKSAV), an Antalya Metropolitan Municipality-affiliated body that has been organizing the Alt\u0131<\/span>n Portakal for the past two years, had announced Kusturica\u2019s taking part in the festival in late July. However, his presence in the festival sparked ire during the past week, with several Bosnian cultural associations based in Turkey and a number of Bosnian women\u2019s associations voicing criticism of AKSAV for inviting the filmmaker who once made comments supportive of war criminals responsible for the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 during the Bosnian war, to Antalya.<\/p>\n

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AKSAV, dismissing criticisms and protests, said in statements last week that the festival is \u201conly interested in Kusturica\u2019s persona as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Upon AKSAV\u2019s reaction, Semih Kaplano\u011f<\/span>lu, the director of the Berlin film festival Golden Bear-winning drama \u201cBal\u201d (Honey), announced on Thursday that he had withdrawn his film from the festival, where it was originally scheduled for a gala screening on Monday out of competition. Kaplano\u011f<\/span>lu and the members of \u201cBal\u2019s\u201d cast and crew, in a statement issued Thursday, said they will not be attending any of the events during this year\u2019s festival, as AKSAV did not backtrack from its plans to have Kusturica on the jury for the international competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica left Antalya on Sunday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[16927,11175,16926,14951,16925],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}