HOLLYWOOD -- The worst thing to happen to Turkey since the fall of the Ottoman Empire was the movie 'Midnight Express.'
The 1978 film dealing with a young, arrogant American dope smuggler incarcerated in prison depicted Turkey as the hellhole of the world, its inhabitants as sadistic murderers, its officials cruelly corrupt.
Now comes a movie from Turkey, the first ever entered for consideration for an Academy Award for best foreign language film.
Titled 'Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite,' the story is set, alas, in a Turkish prison, as was most of 'Midnight Express.'
This time, however, the prison is not a figment of Hollywood's imagination. Also, this time the director was not Alan Parker but Tunc Basaran, a distinguished Turkish filmmaker.
Basaran, soft-spoken and gentle in nature, was accompanied to Hollywood recently by his wife, Jale, who was art directer of 'Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite.'
Their story deals with a 4-year-old boy who is imprisoned with his mother (a not uncommon practice in Turkey) and is befriended by another female inmate, a political prisoner. They form a touching bond.
The picture has won awards in festivals in Turkey, Montreal, Sweden, Greece and Portugal.
''Midnight Express' was very terrible for our country,' Basaran said. 'It was a disaster for us. It portrayed Turkey and its 60 million citizens in a very bad light throughout the world.
'There wasn't a single Turk in the picture the audience could sympathize with.'
Basaran does not portray his native land as heaven on earth, but he very much resented Parker's treatment of Turkey, which he thinks was grossly unfair and misleading.
Some 100 films a year are made in Turkey with budgets ranging up to $200,000. They are exhibited almost exclusively in Turkey, but the Basarans hope 'Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite' will find wider distribution, including in the United States.
Their picture manages to project some criticism of the Turkish government, which would not have been possible in the recent past.
'It's not uncommon these days for Turkish films to criticize the political system,' he said, 'but essentially my film is a tender and unusual love story.
'It would mean a great deal for the Turkish film industry if our picture is accepted in other countries. Our motion pictures are limited by our budgets. If I were given $1 million to make a picture, I would use the money to make four films.
'Because financing is so difficult, our stories are limited to personal human relationships. It is too expensive to make action or adventure films that require large casts, elaborate sets and fancy costumes.
'I believe our film depicts our people and customs in a fair and accurate light, but that was not the intention. The relationship between the boy and the woman is something that could take place in any country of the world.
'It is not true in the United States, I understand, but in many countries a child born of a woman prisoner continues to live with his mother until she has served her sentence. It's a terrible thing for a child.'
Although 'Midnight Express' was never distributed in Turkey, some 200 American movies are exhibited in that nation annually.
Because Turkey is a Moslem country, it has traditionally observed more puritanical film standards than Europe or the United States, but attitudes are changing.
'The Turkish people love Hollywood action and adventure films,' Basaran said, 'and we like musicals, too. We have grown moreliberal when it comes to the sex, nudity and violence of American movies. Those elements were once heavily censored. Now only certain nude sceens are clipped out.
'There is more concern about such things in the villages where more censorship is exercised. In the cities, we see films without major censorship.
'American films are subtitled in Turkish, which is helping Turks learn English, and that is good.'
adv thurs feb 1 or thereafter
