|
On Turkey's big screen, America cast as
villain
15.2.2006
By Karl Vick
|
|
|
|
ISTANBUL - In
''Valley of the Wolves: Iraq," US soldiers shoot
small children at point-blank range, harvest kidneys
from Iraqi prisoners for shipment to Tel Aviv, blow
a Muslim cleric out of his minaret and, to top it
all off, display utter contempt for Turkish foreign
policy. The feature film set a box office record in
its first weekend, after opening in more theaters
than any movie in Turkish history.
Meanwhile, the American television series ''24" did
not open at all in Turkey last fall, despite high
ratings over the three previous seasons for agent
Jack Bauer and the swashbuckling Counter-Terrorist
Unit. The problem: In season four, the terrorists
intent on destroying America were Turks.
''It's kind of like firing missiles at each other!"
Yasar Aktas said of the pop culture war now playing
between the United States and Turkey. The unemployed
cook was one of 1.75 million people who saw ''Valley
of the Wolves" in its first six days in Turkey. It
opened last week in Europe, where the US Army issued
a notice warning service members to stay away from
affected multiplexes and ''to avoid getting into
discussions about the movie with people you don't
know." |
Valley of the Wolves Iraq film poster
Photo: AFP |
That two NATO allies that often speak of mutual
respect regard each other so darkly on-screen says a
good deal about the uneasy state of relations
between Turkey and the United States.
None of the atrocities in ''Valley of the Wolves"
shocked Ulas Aker.
''These are things we knew were going on anyway,"
the cafe owner said, as he emerged from a Thursday
matinee in downtown Istanbul, where the movie was
playing in 63 of the city's 72 theaters.
US troops strafing an Iraqi wedding? It was two
years ago that Turkish newspapers splashed news of
an aerial bombardment of a wedding that US
commanders insisted was a gathering of insurgents.
Organ harvesting? Aker said he had heard rumors, and
in the movie's surgery scenes, a stocky female
American soldier strips Iraqi soldiers for stacking
in a human pyramid.
A TV series inspired the movie. The move to the big
screen was to avenge the notorious events of July 4,
2003, which went largely unnoticed in the United
States. That day US troops arrested a team of
Turkish special forces in northern Iraq. The Turks
were smuggling arms to ethnic brethren squared off
against the Kurds, who were allied with US forces.
Photos of handcuffed Turks with bags over their
heads deeply humiliated and angered the Turkish
public.
www.boston.com
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 