German cinema stops airing Turkish movie

Cinemaxx stopped airing the film "Kurtlar Vadisi" (Valley of the Wolves: Iraq).

Kurtlar Vadisi - Irak (2006)

Plot Summary: A record breaker on Turkish TV for three seasons and now a phenomenon, "Valley of the Wolves" is now preparing to shake the world with the movie...

Andy Garcia and Sharon Stone have starred on the famous TV series of Valley of the Wolves, which this film originated from.

The film hit the cinemas on 9th of February in Germany and has been seen by more than 250.000 people since then.

What they said:

Süddeutsche Artikel

Eberhard Sinner / CSU: "Clear decision for the empathy and against radicalism and violence…"

Edmund Stoiber / State President / CSU, has demanded that the film should not be aired, furthermore he said that Turkey's membership to EU should be reconsidered taking into account what this film is representing.

Markus Söder / CSU: "Defending such a racist film that is against USA and Christianity, will negatively effect Turkey's membership to the Union."

Rainhard Bütighofener / Die Grünen: "Cinemas should give up making money from a film that imposes hate against the USA."

On the other hand:

Turkish Newspaper Cumhuriyet (Republic): "The film is no different than American action films, which show Arabs or Afgans as terrorists and enemy. These films are aired everyday in Germany and are seen by millions. If this film were to be made by English or the French, it would have been complimented… Same politicians who have spoken against the film in Germany have also made statements defending freedom of speech during the recent crisis."

Keenan Kola / Turkish Union in Germany: "That just increases the interest for the film. A democracy must be able to handle films that it doesn't like…"

@borracuda

Just curious: Have you seen the movie yourself? What do you think about it?

That's a good question actually. I have not seen it myself and was not planning to (I didn't like the series).

But after this, I definetely will..

just wondering how this is a "freedom of speach" controversy. Is it not up to the cinema itself which films it shows? or did the government ban the film?

The cinema can air whatever it wants. The film has not been banned at all.

Sure. It is up to the cinema which film it shows.

I didn't say the film was banned.

The targeted audience was 500.000 in total in whole Europe.
The film made half of it in 2 weeks in Germany alone. It was making good money. The reason why they stopped airing it was what the politicians have said.

why not show the film as part of a multi feature along with "Birth of a Nation", "Rambo", and (insert movie title here for a film which portrays "arab" people in a terrible, terrible characature)? it could be a comparative study for the students of propaganda...

Out of all the reasons I have heard against Turkey's joining the EU, this is the lamest by a very long shot.

Hear hear...

There are arguments to be had (human rights being the main one) sure, but the CSU (CDU to a lesser extent) will do ANYTHING to try and stop Turkey joining the EU.

If Germany is so arsy about Turkey joining the EU based on some TV being anti-USA, then FFS, they should ban the effing news over here.

Liberty cabbage for all!!!

Is this being shown with German subtitles, or just in Turkish?
I'd like to see it and compare with something like Rambo or Missing in Action where Vietnamese are indiscrimintly killed. Or indeed True Lies. When Jamie Lee Curtis drops the machine gun, it goes off and wipes out about a dozen Arabs, followed by a big smile on her and Arnie's face.

In the SZ on Saturday a Prof for Turkology who had seen the film said it was anti-american, anti-arab, anti-kurdish, but not anti-semetic. Interesting I thought.

I agree.

This film is suppose to be very powerful. We were discussing it in Frankfurt just last weekend. I definitely want to see it as some people think that it will further enrage the Muslim world.

It's on at the Mathäser - in Turkish with German subtitles.
Three showings: 5pm; 8pm; 11pm

I wouldn't mind going, actually.
Am thinking maybe Tuesday 8pm

Having read this, because I had no idea of this film's existence before today, I am highly sceptical.

Tin-hat on, I'm sniffing a fairly confusing, poor copy of the macho 'Rambo's Full Tin Jacket Apocalypse' without much plot and with the twist of being from a falsely, yet widely percieved 'Other Side', that havin' gone commercially tits-up in its home market, used the most brilliant thing about the movie so far... its marketing, to stir up a bit of controversy.

Get yourself banned. Suddenly EVERYBODY wants to spend their hard-earned to come see you.

Respect.

Well, I'm sceptical, too, but I'm not going to let the ranting of one person on IMDB stop me going to see it. I'd rather judge for myself.

Do let me know if he's spot on or wide of the mark Tops me old love.

mmm... maybe some people should protest on the streets. Maybe start a few riots, burn a few Turkish embassies around the world. Then maybe Turkey could re-release the film, plus Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia could do the same. Then people would get really mad and burn some more things.

Is anyone else suddenly reminded of some crudely drawn cartoons?

errrrm not really, no - in what way?
in fact it's not similar to that at all, not in the slightest

a parallel might be Midnight Express, though - I don't believe there were any riots in Turkey at the time that was released

Well think about it; not long ago images(cartoons) were produced and released by the "Western" media dipicting the supposed violence and corruption in "Eastern" society. The reaction to this was uproar and violence.

Now here are more images(film) produced and released by the "Eastern" media dipicting the supposed violence and corruption in "Western" society. The reaction is pending.

The CSU are condeming this film, saying that it incourages hatred, the same people who jumped on the band-wagon defending the cartoons as a free speech issue.

Know what I mean?
Or am I talking shit?

The cartoons were attacking Islam, they weren't attacking "Eastern" society as such they were basically racist depictions of every moslem as a lunatic suicide bomber.
The film is a political critique of US foreign and military policy and comes out of a secular state (Turkey).

I can see what you are getting at, but I think you're comparing things that are completely different.

Turkey may be a secular state, but it is a secular state which is 95-96% Muslim.

"The film is a political critique of US foreign and military policy"---What? It's an action film, critique my arse! Its like "24" or "Rambo". If you are looking for a critique check out "The Road To Guantanamo", and check out what happened to some of the stars of the film here!

OK, so it's an action film then...
that means it's got even less to do with racist cartoons, I would've thought

I realise that cartoons and films are different, but they are still part of the same mass media.
Sometimes they can cross medias, Spiderman cartoon to Spiderman film, Ghostbusters film to Ghostbusters cartoon.

It's not to do with cartoons vs films, it's a political vs. a religious statement.

For instance, I just came out of the cinema having watched Syriana, which IMO is a film which criticises the politics of both America and the Middle East - there were no riots or demonstrations in either region resulting from that film.

If you are a devout muslim (or a fanatic muslim) then the cartoons were deeply offensive.
Making a political statement is a different thing, IMO.

A bit late to the party again, but...

Would you like freedom fries with that?

Cant see what the problem is with this film, is a historically flawed, action film from a Muslim country really any worse than a historically flawed action film from Hollywood? (and there are certainly enough of them) I think if I get the chance (and if there is a subtitled version) I'll watch this if only to see what all the fuss is about.

Edit to add: also if it were to be banned it would reflect poorly on all those up in arms about freedom of speech at the moment.

@Topsy
So was Syriana any good? Might go today.

Yeah, its a good film. Worth checking out.

I thought it was excellent. It was definitely one to set you thinking.
A better film than Munich, imo. At times while it was going on I wasn't sure that I was following it - but it comes together at the end (more or less).

It only set you thinking about the cute guys in the film...

well, I must admit, the middle-eastern eye-candy was an unanticipated added bonus
even without the hot dudes it was a good film, though

Check...

Check... (Or maybe not, I have not seen the movie, but judging from the TV series, I am fairly sure the plot won't appeal to me to say the least)


Now wait just a minute there... First off, if a movie goes tits-up in Turkey, it doesn't stand a chance of being marketed internationally, because by that time the producers are not even able to afford guerilla marketing tactics.

And second, the movie is a HUGE success in Turkey (to my dismay), just like the crappy TV series it was based on.

So, nope. I don't think it is a marketing ploy, although it helped for sure.


Booya...

So was Team America, World Police