Τετάρτη 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2017

Documentary Film "Silent Balkans"

This documentary film tries to depict life of ordinary people before but also after Balkan Wars and First World War. The question is if there was a type of coexistance before the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire between different milets? The producers and the scholars of the documentary explain to the audience that "we don't need to create a common balkan past, because there is"..

Propaganda american film about Turkey and Mustafa Kemal. But why?

The film The Incredible Turk, a documentary of CBS channel published in 1958. 

During the same year 1958, Time article depicts Turkey as a good ally in contrast to Arab nationalism and anti-imperialism wave. Turkey stands as a masculine man who protects the borders from the enemy (Russia).  
The film called The Incredible Turk is on the same wavelength. The young turks guard the borders between Turkey and Russia. 
Turkey entered the NATO in 1952, as an equal member and became officially part of the "West". So this film is a typical Cold War film that tries to create the "courageous" new ally and the "dangerous" enemy of America but also of the whole world. 


Bibliography:

Perin E. Gürel, Limits of Westernization: A Cultural History of America in Turkey, Columbia University Press, 2017