Ara Güler is one of the greatest photojournalists of all time. For decades his lens captured the lives of Turkey’s working class, its cultural sights and natural beauty, along with famous actors, artists and politicians such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Alfred Hitchcock, Maria Callas, Bertrand Russell, Sophia Loren and Winston Churchill. Nicknamed ‘the eye […]
Serkan Nihat has worked on some of the UK’s most successful TV dramas such as Broadchurch and Taboo. Since switching from editing to directing, he has also filmed commercials and short films for major beauty, fashion and corporate brands. In 2018 he won a Cannes Silver Dolphin award for a Barclays Bank campaign. The North […]
This Friday, the V&A – one of London’s premiere museum spaces – will screen Hala, or paternal aunt in Turkish. The work of talented young artist Şenay Camgöz, who specialises in moving image and performance, Hala is “a fierce, intelligent and resentful woman, a powerful and enduring archetype”. The actor-turned-filmmaker says she created the character “to explore […]
Following its debut in December 2018, the 2nd London Turkish Film Week (LTFW) springs back to life at the end of April. Organised by the Yunus Emre Institute in Fitzrovia, the film festival takes place from 24 to 30 April 2019. Twenty new features, shorts and documentaries, representing a feast of films that have found favour […]
Independent London publishers Saqi Books will release a new book focusing on the Cyprus city of Nicosia, the “world’s last divided capital”, in June. Nicosia Beyond Barriers: Voices from a Divided City brings together “writers from all sides of the divide” to “reimagine the past, present and future of their city”. The city has been […]
“When Olive, my grandmother died in 1998, I came across a diary she had written between 1945-46. What she wrote inside exploded everything we thought we knew about how my father came into the world. “Her words conjured into life the daily struggle of a single woman seizing every moment as the bombs rained down […]
A new edition of the internationally bestselling biography of Latife Hanım, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s wife, will be released next month Madam Atatürk The First Lady of Modern Turkey by İpek Çalışlar will be available in paperback format from 10 May. The book will cost £12.99, London-based independent publishers Saqi Books said this week. “Kemal Atatürk was […]
Turkish soap operas have been appealing to global audiences for some time, but seldom have any generated the levels of fandom that Diriliş Ertuğrul (Resurrection Ertuğrul) has. Even more significantly, it is the first to have seriously penetrated the UK. From talks up and down the country, to arranged travel tours to the set, there […]
If you live in or near London, and are looking for something a little different to do with your children this Easter vacation, why not treat them to a performance of one of Turkey’s most famous shadow puppet plays? Dating back to Ottoman times, the story of Karagöz and Hacivat remains a firm favourite for […]
Ten days ago, Nilüfer Yanya’s eagerly awaited debut album Miss Universe finally dropped and already fans and music critics are going mad for it. In its review, US music magazine Pitchfork said: “The rapturous debut from the British singer-songwriter takes adventurous pop-rock crucibles to new heights with her illusory songwriting and stunning voice.” The UK’s […]
