District mayors ban Turkish director Kırmızıgül’s new film

ISTANBUL

The mayors of two Turkish districts have said they will impose bans on a latest film by Mahsun Kırmızıgül from being screened in movie theaters in their districts.  

Mehmet Türe, the mayor of the Anamur district of the southern province of Mersin, who is from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), released a statement on his social media account saying, “As long as I am here, a film like ‘Vezir ParmağI’ [Vizier’s Finger] by someone like Mahsun Kırmızıgül, or something similar, can never be screened within the boundaries of Anamur. The film has been canceled in our municipality’s movie theaters.”

The only movie theater in the district of a population of 64,000 is under the control of the Anamur Municipality Cultural Directorate. 

Meanwhile, Mehmet Cabbar, the mayor of the central province of Kayseri’s Develi district, who is from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), claimed that the film would not be screened in cinemas in the district as it undermined national values. 

“Mahsun Kırmızıgül’s ‘Vezir Parmağı,’ which is against our values and mocks our ancestors, will definitely not be screened in the movie theaters of our municipality,” he said on his social media account. 

The film is set in an Anatolian village depicting the lives of villagers in the Ottoman times. The storyline evolves around the disappearance of men who left their village 19 years ago and have never returned or contacted their village since then. The women they left behind want to start a new life but cannot find solutions to their problems. They decide to write a letter to a vizier and ask for help. Upon their demand, the vizier orders his officers to find five strong men to solve the problem in the village. Five people of different ethnic origins take the road thinking they will fight for their country. In the meantime, the village’s abandoned women excitedly await the five men.