Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite

Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite (Turkish: Uçurtmayı Vurmasınlar) is a 1989 Turkish drama film, co-written, co-produced and directed by Tunç Başaran based on a 1986 novella by Feride Çiçekoğlu, featuring Nur Sürer as a female political prisoner who befriends the child of a fellow inmate. The film was screened in competition at the 26th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, where it won Golden Oranges for Best Film, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography, the 10th Mediterranean International Film Festival, where it won 2nd Best Film, and the 8th Istanbul International Film Festival, where it won Best Turkish Film. The film was selected as the Turkish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[1]

Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite
Theatrical film poster
Directed byTunç Başaran
Produced by
  • Tunç Başaran
  • Jale Onanç
Written by
  • Tunç Başaran
  • Feride Çiçekoğlu
Starring
Music byÖzkan Turgay
CinematographyErdal Kahraman
Production
company
Magnum Film
Release date
  • 1989 (1989)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryTurkey
LanguageTurkish

The film is set in 1984 Ankara, during the aftermath of the 1980 Turkish coup.[2][3] It is currently available to legally stream with English subtitles through the German media website Pantaflix.[4]

Plot

When a woman is sent to prison for drug smuggling, Barış, her young son, is sent with her, as is the custom in Turkey. Inside this all-women’s penitentiary, Barış (Ozan Bilen) searches for companionship and guidance—and finds them both in the form of Inci (Nur Sürer), a political prisoner with whom he forms a very special bond. A beautifully observed, tender story of the growing affection between a woman and a child who is not her own, Tunç Başaran’s film, with a screenplay by Feride Çiçekoğlu based on her novel, builds an effective counterpoint between the prison world, with its discipline, intrigues and threat of violence, and the private space Inci and Barış manage to create for themselves. Voted Best Turkish Film of the Year at the 1989 Istanbul Film Festival. Venue: Walter Reade Theater, Howard Gilman Theater

Cast
  • Nur Sürer as İnci
  • Ozan Bilen as Barış
  • Füsun Demirel as Fatma
  • Rozet Hubeş as Zeynep
  • Güzin Özipek as Sultanteyze
  • Güzin Özyağcılar as Selma
  • Yasemin Alkaya as Filiz
  • Meral Çetinkaya as Safinaz
  • Hale Akınlı as Sümbül

Production

The film is based on a 1986 novella by Feride Çiçekoğlu,[5] who was inspired by the four years she spent as a political prisoner following the 1980 Turkish coup.[6][7][8] Director Tunç Başaran's wife, Jale, served as the film's art director.[9] The film was produced on a very limited budget, as was common in Turkey at the time. Başaran remarked, "If I were given $1 million to make a picture, I would use the money to make four films."[9]

Although the film is set in Ankara, many of the prison scenes were filmed in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Jail.[2][6] Ankara's Ulucanlar Prison has also been identified as one of the filming locations.[10]

Critical reception

In The Routledge Dictionary of Turkish Cinema, Gönül Dönmez-Colin calls Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite "one of the classics of Turkish cinema",[3] and in World Film Locations: Istanbul, Özlem Köksal writes that "[Baris] leaning against the imposing prison wall with hands in his pockets is definitely an iconic image in Turkish cinema."[6]

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times named Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite as a highlight of the 1990 L.A. Film Festival.[11]

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See also

References
  1. Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  2. Pelin Başcı (24 October 2017). Social Trauma and Telecinematic Memory: Imagining the Turkish Nation since the 1980 Coup. Basingstoke: Springer Nature. pp. 131–132, 155. ISBN 9783319597225.
  3. Gönül Dönmez-Colin (4 December 2013). The Routledge Dictionary of Turkish Cinema. London: Routledge. pp. 66, 317. ISBN 9781317937265.
  4. "Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite - watch online | Pantaflix". Pantaflix. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  5. Elizabeth Sleeman (2001). The International Who's Who of Women 2002. Psychology Press. p. 105. ISBN 9781857431223.
  6. Özlem Köksal (2012). World Film Locations: Istanbul. Intellect Books. pp. 38, 109. ISBN 9781841505671.
  7. "Curators Turkish Pavilion". metalocus.es. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  8. Emel Anil (12 January 1990). "Turkey makes its first bid for an Oscar nomination". The Globe and Mail.
  9. Vernon Scott (1 February 1990). "The worst thing to happen to Turkey since the..." United Press International. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  10. Koldemir, Eren (June 2012). "Acıların ve Hüzünlerin Müzesi: Ulucanlar Cezaevi". E-Bülten (in Turkish). Atılım Üniversitesi (26). ISSN 1306-3472. Archived from the original on 17 March 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  11. Michael Wilmington (15 April 1990). "L.A. Film Festival Comes of Age From Friedkin to Donen and the whole world in between, the Fest list includes 200 films from 40 countries: [Home Edition]". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 281053391.
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