Horror of a different kind: dissonant voices of the new Turkish cinema

Abstract

The article presents information on the Turkish films. Popular Turkish film of this period is generally called "Yeşilçam films." In 1966, Turkey was fourth in terms of world film production after the U.S., India and Egypt, making 229 films. Turkish film also became very popular in other Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt, Iran and Iraq, but after this period of successful commercial growth Yeşilçam had, by the 1980s, practically died away. The prime reason for this downfall was the paradoxical situation that there had never been a truly powerful film industry in Turkey, despite the appearance of commercial vitality in popular films. As a result, whilst this commercial vitality during the 1960s and the 1970s made certain producers and stars rich, the foundations of the film industry remained vulnerable to fluctuations in the market. After a decade of severe recession, the mid 1990s bore witness to a remarkable revival of Turkish film in two distinct areas: a new popular films achieving considerable box-office success and what might be called an "art films" receiving critical acclaim and awards at national and international festivals.