Nearly two dozen film-makers and a group of international critics have pulled out of the Istanbul Film Festival after the government prevented the screening of a film about Kurdish militants, in the latest outcry over censorship in Turkey.
At least 22 films from the roughly 200 submitted were withdrawn this week and the festival competition cancelled, according to organisers, over Kuzey/Bakur (the Turkish and Kurdish words for ‘north’), which documents the lives of militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The Ministry of Culture said in a statement the film could not be shown because the producers had failed to obtain the necessary paperwork, adding that ‘PKK propaganda’ had no place in a democratic society.
Festival director Azize Tan said the government rarely asked for such paperwork and did not require it from foreign film film-makers.
“What we are faced with here is an arbitrarily enforced regulation being used to prevent the screening of ‘undesired’ films,” she said.
The International Federation of Film Critics said its members would not participate in the festival’s jury.
“The Ministry of Culture’s censorship harms Turkish film-makers and the festival alike,” it said.
Turkey’s frequent crackdowns on political expression critical of the government’s position – including on social media – have alarmed activists. Last week, authorities blocked access to Twitter and You Tube for several hours to prevent circulation of photos of a prosecutor held hostage at gunpoint.
On Monday, a Dutch journalist was acquitted by a court after being tried for disseminating “terrorist propaganda”. She had been accused of posting messages on social media in favour of the PKK.
The Union of Turkish Cinema Producers said the blocking of the film was the latest example of censorship of cinema and the arts.
Shot in PKK camps in Turkey and parts of Syria and Iraq, the documentary depicts the daily life of militants. Classified as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and Europe, the PKK has waged a three-decade insurgency for greater autonomy for ethnic Kurds.