Category: HP Culture

HP Culture
‘All change’ for Djanan Turan, performing new music at Friday’s BaBa ZuLa concert

One of the main faces of London’s underground Turkish psychedelic folk scene, Djanan Turan is undergoing a musical reinvention. Fans attending Friday’s concert at the Jazz Café, where the singer-songwriter shares the bill with BaBa ZuLa (the kings of Istanbul psychedelia), will be able to listen to Djanan’s new musical direction, an altogether mellower and […]

Festivals
Cambridge to host new Turkish film festival Taste of Anatolia

  Film charity Balik Arts is launching a brand-new film festival in the heart of historic university city Cambridge. Taste of Anatolia – Films from Turkey will run for three days on the first weekend of September 2018. Award-winning actor-turned-director Onur Saylak is among the special guests confirmed as attending. Running from 31 August to […]

Guest Views
Turkish and Greek Cypriot negotiation strategies compared

  As the British High Commission forecasts “tough choices and compromises ahead” if the UN Talks are to succeed, and Secretary General Guterres fails to mention Greek Cypriot obstruction in his latest report, former TRNC Chief Negotiator Ergün Olgun says more than compromise may be needed for success, and that the UN itself is part […]

Film
Turkey’s Mr Gay Syria wins Best Documentary at Milan film festival

A film made in Turkey about the lives of gay Syrian refugees has picked up the Best Documentary Award at the Mix Milano Film Festival. It is the latest accolade in a string of awards and honourable mentions for Mr Gay Syria. Producer Ekin Çalışır posted the news on Facebook and wrote: “So proud to […]

Books
Burhan Sönmez’s Istanbul Istanbul wins EBRD Literature Prize

  Earlier this week, the London Book Fair announced Turkish author Burhan Sönmez’s Istanbul Istanbul, translated by Ümit Hussein, had won the inaugural EBRD Literature Prize. Judged by historian Peter Frankopan, poet Gabriel Gbadamosi, Lucy Hannah, who founded and manages the Commonwealth Writers platform, and journalist Rosie Goldsmith, the prize awards €20,000 to the winning title, which is […]

Festivals
Documentary on Turkey’s ‘Ugly King’ Yılmaz Güney to be screened at the East End Film Festival 2018

  A young filmmaker sets out to walk in the footsteps of Yılmaz Güney, the legendary Turkish-Kurdish director, actor and activist. Güney’s films are described as “the essence of life” by Austrian auteur Michael Haneke. Born in Adana, southern Turkey, in 1937, Güney made a name championing Turkey’s most marginal citizens on and off the […]

Film
East End Film Festival to screen Onur Saylak’s hard-hitting refugee drama Daha/More

Released last year to critical acclaim, Turkish actor Onur Saylak’s directorial debut Daha (More) puts the spotlight on the smuggling of refugees from the war-torn Middle East into economically ravaged Greece. The story is an impressive screen adaptation of Hakan Günday’s award-winning thriller of the same name, told from the point of view of a […]