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4 articles from 2006

23 June 2006 | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

A Muslim film festival, which opens in San Francisco on Saturday, will be highlighted by a screening of the Turkish film Valley of the Wolves, an anti-American docudrama that hinges on a July 4, 2003 incident during the Iraq war when U.S. forces captured 11 Turkish soldiers who were actually members of coalition forces. The incident sparked outrage in Turkey after the soldiers were shown with hoods over their heads being marched out of their headquarters at gunpoint. The villain in the film is played by Gary Busey, as a doctor who removes organs from Iraqi prisoners and sells them to hospitals abroad. The $10-million film is the most expensive Turkish film ever made and is one of the country's biggest hits. Last February, one woman, emerging from a theater showing the film in Istanbul, told a BBC reporter: "If I see an American when I get out of here I feel like taking a hood and putting it over their head." »

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24 February 2006 | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

Germany's largest movie chain, CinemaxX, has pulled the hit Turkish film Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, following accusations that the film is anti-Semitic and anti-American. The film depicts American soldiers in Iraq as villains, with Billy Zane playing a sadistic U.S. officer and Gary Busey, a Jewish doctor who harvests the organs of Iraqi prisoners and sells them to clients in the West and in Israel. "The controversy surrounding this film has really heated up," CinemaxX spokesman Arne Schmidt told today's (Friday) Hollywood Reporter. "We didn't want to add oil to the fire, so we decided to pull the film." Earlier this week, Bavarian state premier Edmund Stoiber called on all German theater owners "to pull this racist and anti-Western hate film immediately." However, Anil Sahin, head of Maxximum, the film's distributor, told the trade publication. "This is being used as a political football to score points. I wonder if any of the politicians has [sic] actually seen the movie. It's just a fun, silly action flick -- Rambo told from the other side." »

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23 February 2006 | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

U.S. officials are keeping a low profile regarding the Turkish movie The Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, even as the film continues to attract huge audiences in Turkey and Germany. Today's (Thursday) European edition of the U.S. Army newspaper Stars and Stripes quoted Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying, "It is a fictitious movie. ... It clearly does not have any basis in fact, and there is no reason for us to comment on fiction." In fact, however, the movie is based on an incident that occurred on July 4, 2003 when U.S. soldiers arrested 11 Turkish officers, pulled bags over their heads, and detained them for questioning. (The action was never explained; the officers were later released.) Other characters in the film, however, are clearly fictional, including a murderous U.S. officer played by Billy Zane, and a Jewish doctor, played by Gary Busey, who harvests the organs of Iraqi prisoners, which he sells to wealthy clients in Israel and the West. In the conservative National Review, writer Jim Geraghty commented, "Pardon my French, but Billy, Gary... you're whores. You will contribute to the vilest propaganda for a pile of cash." The BBC's Middle East expert, Cengiz Candar, remarked, "This film poisons the climate in a way that it enhances jingoistic nationalism among Turks." But the English-language Turkish publication Dogan Daily News said on its website today, "However hostile the film may be, it is more likely to be the product of anti-American feelings in Turkey than the cause of it. A study shows that favorable views of America declined from 52 percent of Turks in 2000 to 15 percent in 2003." And Bulent Arinc, president of the Turkish National Assembly, praised it in an interview with the Anatolia news agency. "It is an extraordinary film that will go down in history," he said. »

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20 February 2006 | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

The premier of the German state of Bavaria has called upon German cinema owners to stop showing the Turkish movie Valley of the Wolves -- Iraq, which depicts U.S. soldiers in Iraq as murderous villains. In an interview with the Bild am Sonntag, Edmund Stoiber described the film as a "racist and anti-Western hate film" and charged that it was intended to sow "hate and mistrust against the West." The $10-million movie, the most expensive ever produced in Turkey, is based on the July 2003 arrest by U.S. troops of 11 Turkish soldiers serving among coalition forces, who were held for two days with bags covering their heads. The incident threw a monkey wrench into Turkish-American relations. The U.S. has yet to offer an explanation for the incident. According to today's (Monday) Washington Post, the U.S. Army has warned service members abroad to stay away from theaters showing the movie and "avoid getting into discussions about [it] with people you don't know." »

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4 articles from 2006