Film-makers withdraw films from Istanbul festival in censorship protest

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan was one of more than 100 film-makers who published a letter accusing the Turkish government of oppression and censorship. Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

Dozens of Turkish film-makers have withdrawn their work from this years Istanbul international film festival in protest over the removal of a documentary from the programme, as a growing censorship row prompted organisers to cancel all festival competitions halfway through the event.

The documentary, Bakur (North), the first set in the camps of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) in Turkey, had been scheduled to open on Sunday, but was cancelled only hours before the screening after festival organisers received a letter from the Turkish ministry of culture claiming that the film did not have the required registration certificate.

But the organisers decision to comply with the ministrys orders prompted immediate outrage. On Monday, more than 100 film-makers, including the most recent laureate of the Palme dOr in Cannes, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, published an open letter in the Turkish media, accusing the government of oppression and censorship.

We, the undersigned film-makers, oppose the imposition [of this regulation] as a tool of censorship, the letter said, claiming there was a political agenda behind the decision to ban Bakur. The festival programme was announced weeks ago, and other local films that did not have the registration certificate were screened without problems.

In total, 23 Turkish film-makers withdrew their films from the festival, and the festival organisers announced on Monday that all competitions and the closing ceremony had been cancelled.

Ertugrul Mavioglu, journalist and co-director of Bakur together with documentary film-maker ayan Demirel, said he was impressed by the reactions triggered by the de facto ban of his film from the festival.

This is the first time that there is such massive solidarity against censorship, and of course I see this as a positive, he said, adding that he was disappointed by the stance of the festival organisers. They should have cancelled the whole festival immediately instead of complying with the ministrys bogus request, he said.

According to the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), the organiser of the festival, Bakur was removed from the programme because the film-makers had failed to obtain the necessary commercial screening licence for their film. Azize Tan, director of the festival, said that the organisers had previously conducted negotiations with the ministry to change the licence regulation, in place since 2004 and applicable only to locally produced films.

But to Mavioglu, the governments last-minute reminder of the licence rule was a thinly veiled attempt to cover up the outright ban of a film that Ankara might find uncomfortable.

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Film-makers withdraw films from Istanbul festival in censorship protest