Category: HP Reviews

Community
Review: Turkish Cypriot Cultural Festival 2023 was fabulous and fun, but not without its flaws

Ersin Tatar, the President of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC), was among the thousands of people to enjoy this year’s Turkish Cypriot Cultural Festival on Donkey Lane, North London. After an absence of four years due to the pandemic, this family-friendly one-day festival organised by the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations UK (CTCA) […]

Books
Book review: Hafsa Lodi’s ‘Modesty: A Fashion Paradox’ is essential reading, but omits details about Turkiye’s vital contribution

UAE-based American journalist Hafsa Lodi’s ‘Modesty: A Fashion Paradox’ has become the definitive read on this fast-growing global industry that marries faith with fashion. Published by Neem Tree Press in 2020, this 288-page book explores the big drivers behind the rise of modest fashion, its controversies and the main players involved. While some of the […]

Columnists
Eid in the Square 2023 was amazing, but where were the Turks?

I attended the Mayor of London’s annual Eid in the Square celebration in Trafalgar Square last weekend. It was a joyous riot of colour and noise, and the delicious smells lingering around from the edge towards thousands of people watching the activities on the main stage. The moon was visible overhead in the clear blue […]

Books
Review: poetic, immersive and original, Tice Cin’s debut novel Keeping the House has broken new ground

British born, Turkish Cypriot inter-disciplinary daughter of a Tottenham DJ and artist, Tice Cin weaves a quirky, beautifully poetic depiction of a community and world hitherto unrepresented in English literature. Both lyrically and visually, Keeping the House is full of evocative descriptions of ‘Turkish Cypriotisms’. Could this be the only widely publicised, mainstream British novel […]

Film
Film review: plants replace women in Biz Susunca (Without Them), a powerful short film about our patriarchal world

A dystopian patriarchal world, where in the absence of women, plants are the substitutes for men to fully control. Each man owns an empty pot called a ‘void’, which they must fill with a plant purchased from the “Board of District Void and Matchmaking Administration” at some point and take care of it’s living conditions. […]

Film
Film review: Nosema – a compelling documentary about a family from one of Turkiye’s last Chaldean Catholic villages

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 […]