Six great Hollywood-inspired Turkish movies to watch at the Cinema Museum in Kennington, South London, as part of the Remakesploitation Fest 2022 this weekend!
The Turkish film industry of the 1970s-80s was notorious for reworking Hollywood. From Star Wars through to Some Like it Hot, filmmakers in Turkiye would produce their own unofficial remakes of the latest imported blockbuster movie.
For many years, these films only circulated in low-resolution bootlegs watched by Turks. However, they have since acquired cult status among international film aficionados and more recently they have now been lovingly digitally restored in HD with all-new English subtitles.
On the weekend of 9-10 April 2022, The Cinema Museum in London is hosting a film festival featuring five of these restorations – some of which have never been screened in the UK before.
This one-off festival will feature HD restorations of the Turkish remakes of Star Trek, The Exorcist, Some Like it Hot, Death Wish, and Star Wars, along with the documentary Remake, Remix, Rip-Off that provides an overview of the phenomenon.
This is a unique opportunity for audiences to see these films on the big screen, and to gain an insight into the ways in which Hollywood films were being adapted, reworked and transformed by the Turkish film industry.
Did you know, for example, that a Turkish remake of The Exorcist closely recreated the William Friedkin original albeit with the Catholicism replaced with Islam? Or that a Turkish reworking of Star Trek was filmed in the ancient ruins of Ephesus?
The Remakesploitation Film Club are hosting the event and it will include eight special guests who are coming over from Turkiye, Germany and the USA especially for this one-off festival. They include Cem Kaya (director of Remake, Remix, Rip-off), Ahmet Gürata (author of Imitation of Life: Cross Cultural Reception and Remakes in Turkish Cinema), and Ed Glaser (Author of How the World Remade Hollywood).
The festival’s organiser Dr. Iain Robert Smith says: “I have been writing about these films for over 20 years, so it is a dream come true to finally see them on the big screen where they belong. I remember first watching these on terrible quality unsubtitled bootleg VHS tapes, so to see them in these HD restorations with all new subtitles is a revelation.”
The festival was only made possible with the generous support of King’s College London, the Yunus Emre Institute in London and Turkish Airlines.
King’s College London have been supporting the restoration and archiving of this neglected period in Turkish cinema.
The Yunus Emre Institute – Turkiye’s equivalent of the British Council – have joined forces with the festival to help promote Turkish culture more broadly. Their support includes bringing over special guests from Turkiye to contextualise the films and providing complementary Turkish snacks for all ticket holders.
See below for film screening details.
Film Festival Details
Title: Remakesploitation Fest 2022
Date: Saturday 9 April to Sunday 10 April 2022
Time:
- Saturday – doors open at 4.30pm and the event starts at 5pm
- Sunday – doors open at 3.30pm and the even starts at 4pm
Venue: Cinema Museum 2 Dugard Way, Kennington, London SE11 4TH
Tickets and Pricing:
- Weekend Ticket £30
- One Day £20
- Individual film £8
Tickets are bookable here.
All proceeds from the festival go to supporting The Cinema Museum as part of the ‘Save the Cinema Museum’ campaign.
Saturday Screenings
17.00 Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema (2015) – 1hr 36m 
Remake, Remix, Rip-Off tells the bizarre history of 1970s and 80s Turkish remakes of Hollywood films like The Exorcist, E.T., Rambo, Superman, and Star Trek.
Turkish-German filmmaker Cem Kaya’s documentary charts this little-known period of film history with some truly incredible interviews and clips, highlighting the passion and dynamism that went into producing these remakes, and giving a genuine insight into this overlooked era of global exploitation film production.
Followed by Q&A with Cem Kaya & Pete Tombs.
19.15 Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda AKA Turkish Star Trek (1973) 1hr 11m
Directed by Hulki Saner, this is technically the first Star Trek feature film, preceding Star Trek: The Motion Picture by six years, this hilarious parody of the Star Trek series closely recreates the Man Trap episode from the original series.
Starring Turkish comedy legend Sadri Alişik in the central role of Turist Ömer, the film follows his adventures with Kirk and Spock as they investigate a series of mysterious deaths on an alien planet – actually shot in the ancient ruins of Ephesus.
Followed by Q&A with Nezih Erdoğan and Savaş Arslan.
21.00 Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam AKA Turkish Star Wars (1982) 1hr 38m 
Notorious for the ways in which director Çetin İnanç edited footage from Star Wars into his own film, along with music from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Flash Gordon, Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam is the holy grail of remakesploitation cinema. For many years, the film circulated only in low-resolution bootleg copies but in 2016 a 35mm print of the film was discovered and a digital scan has been made so that the world can finally see the film the way it was intended.
Our special guests speakers are: Cem Kaya (Director of Remake, Remix, Rip-off), Pete Tombs (Author of Mondo Macabro), Ed Glaser (Author of How the World Remade Hollywood), Rob Hill (Author of The Bad Movie Bible), Ahmet Gürata (Author of Imitation of Life: Cross Cultural Reception and Remakes in Turkish Cinema), Nezih Erdoğan (Author of The First Years of Cinema in Istanbul), Savaş Arslan (Author of Cinema in Turkey), and Tuğçe Bıçakçı Syed (Author of Theorising Turkish Gothic).
Sunday Screenings
16.00 Fıstık Gibi AKA Turkish Some Like It Hot (1970) 1hr 15m 
Never before subtitled into English, Fıstık Gibi is actually the second Turkish film to rework Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot after an earlier black-and-white attempt in 1964. Starring Turkish Cypriot actress Feri Cansel in the role made famous by Marilyn Monroe, this was directed by one of the true legends of Turkish remakesploitation, Hulki Saner, who not only directed reworkings of Star Trek and Some Like it Hot, but was also producer on the remake of The Exorcist.
Followed by Q&A with Ahmet Gürata and Ed Glaser.
18.00 Cellat AKA Turkish Death Wish (1975) 1hr 20m
Directed by Memduh Ün and stylishly shot and with a charismatic central performance from Serdar Gökhan in the Charles Bronson role, Cellat transfers the iconic Death Wish revenge narrative from New York to Istanbul. Perhaps the most professionally produced of all the Turkish remakes, Cellat follows Gökhan as he takes his vengeance on a series of low-life criminals – with increasingly elaborate methods of execution.
Followed by Q&A with Tuğçe Bıçakçı Syed and Rob Hill.
20.00 Şeytan AKA Turkish Exorcist (1974) 1hr 40m
Şeytan is a near shot-for-shot remake of The Exorcist but with the original’s Catholicism replaced with Islam – necessitating some fascinating changes to the plot and iconography. Director Metin Erksan is one of the most celebrated Turkish filmmakers, winning the Golden Bear at Berlin for his earlier film Dry Summer (1964), but here he sticks fairly close to William Friedkin’s template, even making use of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells on the soundtrack.
Our special guests speakers are: Cem Kaya (Director of Remake, Remix, Rip-off), Pete Tombs (Author of Mondo Macabro), Ed Glaser (Author of How the World Remade Hollywood), Rob Hill (Author of The Bad Movie Bible), Ahmet Gürata (Author of Imitation of Life: Cross Cultural Reception and Remakes in Turkish Cinema), Nezih Erdoğan (Author of The First Years of Cinema in Istanbul), Savaş Arslan (Author of Cinema in Turkey), and Tuğçe Bıçakçı Syed (Author of Theorising Turkish Gothic).
