A British Turkish Cypriot film director has set out to do what has rarely been done before: to produce a balanced and comprehensive account of the Cyprus conflict. Arriving in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the 1974 War, Cey Sesigüzel’s new 90-minute film The Divided Island uses archive footage, expert commentary, and testimony from […]
International broadcaster TRT World will be televising a new six-part documentary called The Forefront: Cyprus covering the Mediterranean island’s recent tragic past. The first episode will be screened on Wednesday 15 November 2023, a date which marks the fortieth anniversary of the declaration of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. Describing its new series, TRT […]
An award-winning British Turkish Cypriot filmmaker has set out to do what most documentaries on the Cyprus Problem fail to achieve, to create a balanced and historically accurate film about this long-running, complex political dispute. Londoner Cey Sesiguzel started his film, The Divided Island, back in 2020 and is now in the final phase of […]
A Spanish filmmaker is seeking to raise nearly £11,000 for a new documentary, Constantly Flying, which tells the incredible story of BaBa ZuLa. Formed in Istanbul in 1996, BaBa ZuLa brings the popular Turkish psychedelic music of the 1970s, known as Anatolian Rock, into the 21st century, fusing Eastern influences with electronica and dub, to create […]
A documentary filmed by the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations UK (CTCA UK) to celebrate the centenary of Turkish Cypriots in Britain will make its television debut this weekend. On Friday night, 27 November, BRT – the state broadcaster for the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) – will screen ‘My Heart Belongs To….100 years […]
In 2018, the United Kingdom held its first Windrush Day to recognise the contribution of migrants to British society. The date – 22 June – now celebrated annually, marks the day in 1948 when the Empire Windrush, a passenger liner docked at Tilbury, East London, bringing the first big group of post-war migrants from the […]
There have been many harrowing scenes from the Syrian conflict, but perhaps one of the most affecting concerns the Syrian city of Kobane. Lying a kilometre away from the Turkish village of Maheser, both are home to predominantly Kurdish residents who have been separated by a century old border that emerged after the collapse of […]
Londoners, if you missed the recent screening of Kedi at the BFI, you have another chance! This must-see film for cat and Istanbul lovers offers an intimate and fascinating tour of the streets, alleys and enclaves of Turkey’s biggest metropolis from a cat’s-eye-view. Roaming the streets of Istanbul, director Ceyda Torun follows seven felines […]
Thousands of street cats have lived in the city of Istanbul for centuries, roaming freely and unencumbered virtually anywhere. Neither wild nor tame, locals take care of them – or maybe it’s the other way round, with the human characters highlighting the redemptive benefits of taking care of these homeless felines. Dubbed ‘the Citizen […]
There doesn’t seem to be a day when Turkey is not in the news and for the most part, it’s often pretty negative. These days the UK, like the rest of the West, is preoccupied with lambasting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his authoritarian ways and inflammatory comments, a far cry from a […]
