Director withdraws film from screening

ISTANBUL-Hürriyet Daily News

The film will be shown in Anatolian festivals for free and DVDs will be released.

Lufti Kara announced he has withdrawn his 2.6 million-Turkish Lira film “Ayaz” from screening as it was only given 50 theaters, shortly after the film’s gala night March 21 at Istanbul’s Nişantaşı Citylife movie theater.

 “One of the most important problems of the cinema sector in recent years is the lack of theaters. The budget of this film was $2.6 million. After finishing the film, we negotiated with officials to release the film on March 23, but they gave us 50 theaters and wasted our labor. Other big productions are given an unlimited number of theaters but independent films are not given this right. This made us very sorry.”

He said the goal of the decision was to draw attention to the monopolization of big companies operating big movie theaters.

He said they would show the film in Anatolian festivals for free and release DVDs.

The film stars Cemal Hünal, Çiğdem Aysu, Arda Kural and Gökhan Tepe.

On the other hand, speaking to daily Radikal, the head of the film’s distributor, Pinema Film’s Uluç Küçüközcan said there was no problem of distribution. “We had 70 movie theaters for the film, including prestigious groups like Mars, Cinecity and Prestige. But the production company wanted more and this is why the film screening was cancelled,” he said.