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Mustafa Stirs Controversy
Mustafa, Can Dundar’s controversial film about the life of Ataturk combined original footage with dramatic recreations of episodes from the leader’s life. Within three weeks of its 29th October release – days before the 70th anniversary of Ataturk’s death on 10th November 1938 – the film had reached one million admissions in Turkey, and even managed to out-gross Quantum of Solace, the latest in the long-running James Bond franchise.
The film’s subject matter was always going to make it controversial in a country known as the gateway between Europe and Asia. The population is largely split into two ideological camps: those who follow the secularist philosophy of Ataturk who founded the modern Turkey in 1923 following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and those who subscribe to the more Islamic outlook of the governing AK Party. Criticism was aimed at Dundar for portraying Ataturk as a heavy-drinking, chain-smoking womaniser, and for humanising him by referring to him by his first name and having a Greek actor play him as a child.
The controversy was so hot that the film’s initial sponsor, the domestic mobile phone giant Turkcell, backed out. Funding of the $1.2 million (£795,200) film was eventually provided by the Turkish satellite broadcaster NTV and Sabanci Holding. [ADD]
(Source: Variety)
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