Turkish Cypriot actor to perform in ‘The Dervish with a Blue Motorcycle’

Turkish Cypriot actor Hüseyin Köroğlu will play the leading role in a movie titled “The Dervish with a Blue Motorcycle,” which will portray the turbulent period in northern Cyprus before 1974.

The movie will start filming in the spring and is scheduled to be completed within two months, said the Anatolia news agency.

Köroğlu and the movie's director, Şükrü Türen, held a press conference on Tuesday and said the film would reflect life in northern Cyprus before 1974, providing a means of questioning the situation of the island today.

Noting that the movie would be filmed in outlying villages, Köroğlu said most of the scenes would be shot in the Gönendere, where the actor was born, and the villages of Karpaz, Girne and Belpais.

“I'm so excited. We are taking the first steps of a new journey, which will make the voice of Cyprus heard not only on the island and in Turkey but also all over the world,” Köroğlu said.

Meanwhile, Türen, who is also the producer of the movie, said they managed to realize their project of shooting such a film step by step after four years of painstaking work.

“I believe the movie will not only attract the attention of people at the local level but it will be of major interest to all of humanity. This movie, thus, will be a movie of the Mediterranean as well as a movie of the world,” Türen said.

“Everybody who watches the movie will learn something from it, and many things will be laid out for discussion after its screening at movie theaters,” Türen added, but said he did not want to give a detailed account of the screenplay.

Türen said it was important for them that the movie be embraced by Turkish Cypriots. He said the film has a budget of $2 million. They are using a local crew and the scenes will be shot entirely on island. Türen said there would be many Turkish Cypriot actors among the cast of around 200.

“We will do our best to make the movie a real Cyprus movie,” Türen said.

Türen said the film would premiere in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC).