Could be the most expensive production in the history of Turkish cinema

The previous evening I watched the movie “Atatürk” with a very small group of journalists, which has been the most controversial topic of recent months.

This is the scene from Dan in Sofia, the first photo from the movie Ataturk, after the short sequence in the trailer.

It was a very impressive and beautiful scene and you are seeing it for the first time.

Let me put it this way, no one from the state has seen this movie so far, except for a few people at the directorate level.

Even the producers watched it with us for the first time on the big screen.

My mood when I went to watch it was like this

Secondly, let me tell you with what psychology I went to watch this movie.

I went with a lot of prejudice.

Because every day I was losing more and more faith that a proper “Atatürk movie” would be made in this country.

Especially when I saw the “Atatürk photos” shared on Instagram on the last August 30, my hope was completely gone.

By using the possibilities of digital technology to the fullest, such an Ataturk icon was created…

I have to admit, I liked it too, but when I saw these things, I couldn’t imagine how this expectation would translate to the cinema.

Abdülhamid to the Hamidists, Atatürk to the Kemalists

Second.

In such a polarized country, not being able to get both sides to like the film meant risking being lynched, let alone criticized.

In my opinion, it was impossible to explain Atatürkto the Kemalists and Abdülhamidto the “Sultan Abdülhamidists” who were mesmerized by the series “Abdülhamid slapped the ambassador”, in short, to both sides…

When the producer showed the first version of the movie to his father on the small screen, his first reaction was this:

“Atatürk wouldn’t do that…”

And I still remember the beating Can Dündarreceived for his documentary on Atatürk.

In short, the screenwriter had a difficult job, the director had a difficult job…

I think the most difficult person was the actor who was going to play Atatürk…

The other night, when the movie ended, my feeling was “I was so prejudiced…” Because the people who made the movie Atatürk did it. And he did it very well. Personally in the movie, (*) I learned many things I did not know about Atatürk. (*) In some scenes I admired his human side. (*) In some scenes, my admiration for his personality since I was a little girl was very much aroused. (*) I watched with more interest through my sociologist’s lens how his leadership qualities were formed step by step. (*) But my last impression when I left the movie was this: “My admiration for this person since childhood was not unjustified…” Some scenes awakened the son of Fatihan in me I cried. I cried in four or five places. (*) Some scenes awakened the “Evladı Fatihan” in me. (*) In some scenes, I cried when I remembered my father’s words, “Son, this is our last homeland. We have nowhere else to go.” I cried in moments when he reminded me of his will as a Rumeli immigrant, and made my patriotic side, which rejected Red Crescentism, proud. When I was leaving the hall, the most sincere feeling I had was this: “I needed this movie…” That’s why I wanted to tell you what I learned about this movie the previous evening and the scenes that impressed me. It’s going to be a bit long… But I think you’ll be interested…

Could be the most expensive production in the history of Turkish cinema

We heard the cost of the movie for the first time from the mouths of its producers Saner Ayar and Hakan Karamahmutoğlu:

16.5 million dollars…

It may be small for Hollywood, but it is a big number for Turkey and even Europe.

I can’t imagine how this money will be extracted.

The movie was first offered to HBO

The movie was first offered to HBO, the most popular production company in the world.

They were warmly welcomed.

When HBO gave up on entering Turkey due to the crisis in the “streaming market” and stopped local productions in most of the countries outside the US, it was abandoned.

Then Disney, who had come to Turkey, stepped in.

However, when Disney, like HBO, started to experience financial difficulties in streaming, they also stopped local productions.

October 29th in Turkey, early November across Europe

After these developments, the producers made a bold decision to release the movie all over the world.

The movie is in two parts. We watched the first episode last night. This was from Atatürk’s childhood to the beginning of the Gallipoli War.

The first part of the film will be shown on Fox TV on the evening of October 29, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic.

In Turkey and 30 other countries in early November The next schedule is as follows: (*) It will be released in Turkish cinemas on November 3 and in 30 countries in November. (*) The second film will be released on January 5 and then again in 30 countries. (*) Both movies will be broadcast on Fox TV in Summer 2024. (*) They are also in talks with Amazon and Netflix to broadcast it in 6 episodes.

45-minute segments filmed in “magic light”

The most interesting information I learned from the producers was this.

Especially the Çanakkale scenes of the film were shot in what filmmakers call “Magic Light”, the two 45 minutes when the light is at its best.

These moments were “45 minutes each” during sunrise and sunset.

For this, the actors start preparing after midnight. They’re doing test shoots. And in those 45 minutes, there was actual filming.

3,000 real soldiers, 1,500 real weapons

3,000 real people acted as soldiers in the battle scenes of the movie.

For a person who has seen the battle scenes in Christopher Nolan‘s “Dunkerk”, it is almost impossible to be satisfied with the battle scenes in any other movie.

“Digital duplication” technique was not used in the movie Atatürk.

Instead, 3,000 different people acted as soldiers.

The two digitally constructed scenes were the British warships at Gallipoli and the train at Sirkeci station.

1,500 real weapons were used in the movie.

Atatürk’s ties and the secret of his wardrobe

All my life I have admired Atatürk’s style of dressing.

The fabrics, cut and sewing of the dresses, especially the Neapolitan-style fine workmanship on the jacket collars always attracted my attention.

But what caught my attention most of all was their ties and the way they tied them.

I’ve never seen anyone tie a tie as well as he does.

That’s why my eyes were always on his clothes in the movie.

I’ll tell you right away, it was very successful.

Wool from Australia, yarn in Kayseri, dyeing in Uşak, sewing in Istanbul

Special wool was imported from Australia to make the thicker fabrics of that period.

This wool was spun into yarn in Kayseri.

Painted in Usak

Fabric was produced from these yarns and sewn in Istanbul.

Another thing that caught my attention was that the tie was tied a bit loosely in many scenes in the movie.

Whereas in his photographs we always saw tightly tied ties.

Gamze Kuş is the costume designer.

Now let me come to the movie itself and the people who made it…

Atatürk on one side and Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ on the other

For me, the person who did the most heavy lifting in this movie was Aras Bulutwho played Atatürk…

He had these challenges ahead of him.

There was a historical character like Atatürk who had become legendary, untouchable and whose human side had been left behind.

Secondly, in the past, giant Shakespearean actors such as Lawrence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh and Sean Connery were considered worthy of this role.

In Turkey, almost 80 percent of the public had an image of Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ in their minds.

And the producer and the director gave this job to a 33-year-old young man.

Aras! Don’t try to play Ataturk, you will be crushed

I have to admit, when the first trailer for the movie was released last spring, I was disappointed.

The trailer showed Atatürk climbing over the trenches at Gallipoli in the first scene of the movie.

That scene seemed very theatrical to me and I said, “It’s not right.”

I was wrong.

Aras Bulut has done this very well.

Together with the producer, screenwriter and director of the movie, he spent months talking to historians.

But the most important thing was when the director took him aside and said:

“Don’t try to play Aras Atatürk. You will be crushed under him. In this movie, you are playing ‘Mustafa’ as written in the script. Try to play him.”

I think it is a very good warning.

I had a very hard time in the parts where we describe emotional moments.

After the movie, we chatted with Aras Bulut at dinner.

My daughter Smile is a television producer. I often hear from him. Aras Bulut is a very popular and admired actor in producer circles.

He is aware of the difficulty of the job he has taken on…

“Because I have such a strong Atatürk in my own head,” he says…

Despite all his success, he knows that he will receive a lot of criticism from some fanatical Atatürkists and liberals who say “Atatürk should also be criticized”.

I asked him about the most difficult scenes.

“I had a hard time with his emotional moments. The way he looked at his mother, his relationship with his sister, his loneliness, his momentary anger,” he said.

By the way, Mehmet Günsurplays Atatürk’s father Ali Rıza Efendi, Songül Ödenplays his mother Zübeyde Hanım, Sarp Akkayaplays Enver Pashaand Esra Bilgiçplays Madame Corinne.

How ready are we to see a mischievous, anxious, aspirational Atatürk?

He is quite right.

Because it’s not that hard to play the clichéd aspects of a legendary personality.

But as for the human side underneath it…

The biggest challenge is whether we, as Atatürk’s fans, are ready to see his deepest human side…

I’m not so sure…

That Atatürk had worries, desires, weaknesses as much as we do, and most importantly, that he had a mischievous side, that when he had his first photo taken with his friends in his military uniform, he teased them like a high school kid of today…

Atatürk’s director turned out to be the screenwriter of my favorite movie

Mehmet Ada Öztekin, the director of the movie, was sitting next to me at the dinner after the movie.

I had a long conversation with him.

It turned out that he was the screenwriter of one of my favorite films in Turkish cinema, “The Losers Club”.

I had seen that movie many times like “The Big Lebowski” and I always enjoyed it the same way.

I admired your script.

Going from there to directing a movie like Atatürk is a really interesting career trajectory…

When he was offered this movie, his opinion was the same as mine.

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to make “an Atatürk movie in this country”.

As I said, he handled it well.

In the first 20 minutes of the movie, I realized that my suspicions were right

The first 20 minutes of the movie gave me the feeling of “I was right in my suspicions”.

The part about Atatürk’s childhood and his relationship with his father Ali Rıza Efendi and mother Zübeyde Hanım was a bit theatrical.

But it is in the part of Atatürk’s life after he graduated from the Monastir Military Idadisi that we begin to see the real Mustafa Kemal.

Scenes in the movie that left me confused Don’t worry, I won’t spoil your viewing pleasure by going into too much detail about the movie. But I will share a few personal feelings. I will write about the scenes that affected me the most in the movie in the order of their impact: (*) The scene where his sister Makbulewins his heart…There is the way he hugs his sister and especially the way he pinches her nose between his two fingers… Older boys who have a sister understand her very well… It made me cry (*) The dance scene in Sofia: Arriving late to a reception in Sofia dressed as a janissary and on purpose, surprising everyone, meeting and dancing with Dimitrina Kovachev, going to the opera together, listening to Carmen… Atatürk, like Sultan Abdülhamid, was a fan of opera. (*) The scene in Tripoli when he had a conversation with Ömer Muhtar, a teacher and one of the leaders of the Arab tribes with whom he was going to fight against the Italians, and he said, “Come on, let’s have dinner together with the children we will send to die tomorrow”… (*) And his “I promise you death and victory” speech to the soldiers who were freezing cold before the Battle of Çanakkale in Thrace… I cried a lot in those scenes…

Another detail that impressed me a lot: Atatürk and his dog Alp

In the movie, Atatürk’s love for animals is also portrayed in a very impressive and emotional way.

When he brought home a kitten he found on the street one evening in Thessaloniki as a child.

Taking in a puppy she found in Sofia.

The fact that he named him Alp and took him with him even in the Gallipoli War…

They were images that made one love Atatürk even more…

Health to everyone who contributed…

Now let me give you some backstage information outside the first screening.

Backstage 1: Decisions taken at the meeting with the Minister in Bodrum

After Disney Plus decided not to broadcast the series, Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Ersoy stepped in.

Ministry Advisor Tayfun Topal did it first.

Then he met with two producers of Fox in Turkey.

Then Cenk Soner and Mehmet Icağasıoğlu, two executives of Disney in Turkey, were invited to the Minister’s house in Bodrum.

The biggest issue was the digital rights to the movie.

Since it had already been bought by Disney, it would not be available on other digital channels.

With the Minister’s initiatives, the digital rights of the movie were released, paving the way for talks with Amazon and Netflix.

Backstage 2: The film premieres on October 23rd in the biggest hall of AKM

What surprised and delighted me the most was the decision to hold the premiere of the film at the Atatürk Cultural Center in Istanbul.

It will be screened on a giant digital screen on October 23 in AKM’s 2200-seat largest hall.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism launched an application called “My Film Heritage”.

All documentary films of Atatürk were colorized and cleaned with today’s technology and put into this application.

I announce it to anyone who is interested.

My last word is this.

I hope this movie will contribute to the formation of a common feeling of unity in our country about Atatürk and the Republic he left us 100 years ago.