A nostalgic glimpse at Şimuni and Hurmüz Diril’s last reunion with their family in their home village of Meer (Kovankaya), one of the only remaining Chaldean Catholic villages in Türkiye today. Director Etna Özbek films the family as they prepare for the winter season, stocking supplies and wrapping up the fine honeycombs to share out […]
On Sunday evening, 3,500 lucky Londoners had the chance to hear the King of Arabesque, İbrahim Tatlıses, live at Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith. The entertainer performed his classic songs of the past five decades in a show that ran for over two hours. It was the singer’s first concert in the capital in 19 years, […]
PRU is a BBC Three comedy series revolving around four teenagers Halil, Jaeden, Sienna and Belle who find themselves navigating through the trials and tribulations of teen life in a Pupil Referral Unit, or PRU for short, under the guidance of two teachers, who are more like the parental figures these kids need. Think of […]
Among heaps of colourless films on Netflix, Paper Lives (‘Kağıttan Hayatlar’) stands a lustrous tree topper awaiting to be watched. Paper Lives unquestionably swings in as one of the finest Turkish films to be released in the past two years. Director Can Ulkay and writer Ercan Mehmet Erdem unveil a reality through the eyes of a […]
Summer is here, and the sun is shining. Maybe you’re chilling on the beach in North Cyprus or Turkiye or Britain (yes, for a change, the UK is having a proper summer!)? Or perhaps your mood craves something altogether more lively? For those of you who enjoy exploring new sounds and indie artists, this is […]
Grudge is a film that starts off beautifully, bearing a plot twist with so much potential. Yılmaz Erdoğan, who both stars in the film and also penned its script, could have done a first in Turkish cinema had he taken a more adventurous direction when developing the crime mystery set around officers of the Istanbul […]
An eclectic crowd in East London were rocked by the new masters of Anatolian psychedelic pop, Altın Gün, on Friday night. From the euphoric reactions of the sell-out crowd at EartH, the long-awaited return (three years!) of the band to the British capital, fully loaded with their trademark synthesizers, mouth organ, maracas and unmistakable wah-wah […]
A cursory glance at the poster of My Father’s Violin / Babamın Kemanı (2022) as you scroll through Netflix suggests a nostalgic dive into a virtuoso’s life. Whilst this new Turkish movie doesn’t take the ‘Whiplash’ route into an upcoming musician’s world, as Engin Altan Düzyatan portrays an already esteemed violinist, this film not only […]
‘In Good Hands’ (Sen Yaşamaya Bak) is a Turkish drama/romantic comedy on Netflix. My excitement of watching this new release transpired to be misplaced, as the film is rather underwhelming. The plot is spoon-fed to us right off the bat. Melisa (Aslı Enver) learns that she is terminally ill with “give or take 4 or […]
Metin Murat’s page-turner debut novel is an ode to all the people of Cyprus and their culture. A self-declared work of fiction set against the historic and political realities of the last 80 years between his ancestral home of Turkish Cyprus and London. The novel starts in 1930s Cyprus and Bamyakoy (based on the author’s […]
