Living in Taksim - Daily Report June 4, 2013

Spent most of the day indoors again, my cold is receding though. When I went out to the park at around 20:30, it was even more crowded than the previous days. people are celebrating, singing. There's a field hospital, the kitchen is running, and now there's a small library as well. Everyone is kind towards one another - apparently even on the subway. We went to eat something at Kitchenette on the square, the service, which is usually polite but slow, was kind, fast, and as odd as it sounds, gentle. They let people (and there are tens of thousands on the square) use their bathrooms, let them charge their phones and access free wifi.

The facade of Ataturk Cultural Center is now covered with banners (see pic), which is a little worrying because this movement started from no particular political position, and I think it's important to keep it that way. With the PM out of the country, the media is now discussing the events, but they are still not reporting the ongoing violence in other towns such as Antakya and Dersim. A young man was killed in Antakya the other day, and following his funeral today, the protestors were attacked again. More recent and also very troubling news is that people have been detained for what they have written on Twitter – for “inciting crowds to violence.” 

Another important issue is that the parliament was supposed to discuss the new Law on Nature, which was postponed. This law allows vast forest areas to be opened to construction – if it passes, the damage will grossly surpass the damage planned in the park. Granted, the park has a symbolic position, but this would be a disaster. You may know of the existing plans to destroy the environment in Turkey: 3^rd bridge over Bosphorus, 3^rd airport (to be the largest in the world), a channel parallel to Bosphorus, Hydro-electric centrals in ecologically sensitive areas, a nuclear plant on a fault line… Needless to say, public opinion is being absolutely disregarded in any of these projects.

That’s it for now, we’re hoping some kind of agreement can be reached before the PM comes back, his speeches do not help the situation at all…

Living in Taksim - Daily Report June 3, 2013

I've been away from my blog for far too long. This may be a good time to come back, to post my daily experiences during the most unusual times Istanbul has seen in my lifetime. These are just brief notes, nothing too exciting possibly, but as a resident of Taksim, I have a closer view on the park than most people...

 

I spent most of the day at home, trying to recover from the cold. The good thing about being at home is that I can give support by connecting people, posting news and translating when necessary. Internet/phone connection at the park is almost impossible.

But I really wanted to go out, so I went to the square for a bit in the evening. I walked around the park - some friends were going to bring supplies for the makeshift soup kitchen in the park, but the kitchen was so overloaded with everything, they asked me not to send anything. It was truly beautiful: everyone helping each other, not even a crowd, despite free food and beverages!

As I slowly made my way back home, we were hit by teargas. It was either the wind that brought it, or it was thrown from a helicopter as there was no cloud. I was wearing swim goggles and a scarf around my face, but it still burned. people were still chanting, each time a little more determined after being gassed... a young woman standing in the middle of the street sprayed my eyes with talcid and water, warned me against rubbing my face, and moved on to the next person. I was surrounded by "marginal extremists," among them a young man who was pissed off because he had come to have fun, and it was his luck to be gassed. Also an 8-year-old boy wearing a soccer jersey, with his mom (who was, incidentally, wearing a headscarf).

For those of you who don't know, the prime minister left for a 4-day trip to North Africa today. As soon as he left, all other politicians started making reasonable statements, and the mainstream media is reporting from the square. So we hope he'll never come back. I was worried last night, not sure what today would bring. I thought people might go back to work and not support the park anymore. But today I hear songs and chants from my window, people are happy and hopeful. We’ll see what tomorrow brings – I have more faith now.

Kindle and Me

I love books. I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember. Novels, especially. I’ve loved looking at them, smelling them, flipping through them, and eventually, reading them. I have also believed in reading books as books, and while the whole notion of e-books seemed attractive for practical as well as geeky purposes, I thought it would take me a while to make the (ultimately unavoidable) transition. Until, that is, right before my summer vacation, when I realized that half my suitcase was filled with books and there was no room for any clothing or toiletries (nerds like to dress up too, you know).

So, I decided to take along the Kindle my brother had generously lent me (and by lent, I mean pretty much given away). It’s a Kindle Keyboard 3G (I believe this one), very compact and light (and those will be the keywords for this review).  I found some sites to download the books I had in mind for my vacation. Let’s leave it at that. Then I found a pouch to use as a cover, and voila! I was set.

To keep things from getting overly long: I loved it. Kindle was light, it was easy to navigate, it told me how much of the book I’ve read so far (I used to calculate that as I went along with ‘regular’ books). My concern about dropping it in the sand and/or water proved to be ungrounded with only the slightest amount of attention. Visibility was extremely clear, and the E-ink felt like it was printed on paper. But I experienced the benefits only when I started reading a paperback after my return: it was difficult to keep the pages open, I couldn’t prop it up anywhere, I constantly needed at least one hand to be able to read... It was clear that I had been converted.

After having read two books on Kindle, and with the comparison I was able to make; there are only two possible drawbacks I could think of. One is about the actual physical feel of a book: the content of a book is etched in my memory along with its size and cover, it’s a rounded experience. Maybe I can say more about this when I read a few more books on Kindle, but this may prove to be another unnecessary concern. The second weakness, I realized when I forgot a paperback I was reading in a friend’s bag. If you leave your Kindle somewhere, or lose it, or break it, etc., you lose all your books. So maybe it’s safe to still keep a paperback with you, just in case...

Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being was the first book I read on Kindle - a book from a time when books came only on paper! (and I still haven't seen the movie...)

The Iron Lady

Long time, no blog...

If I were young enough to know 1980s only through films, Phyllida Lloyd's portrait of Thatcher would probably convince me that 'Maggie' was a sweet, if on occasion tough -for the right reasons of course- lady. The film stands at a very conservative point, takes forever to get into action, and swiftly avoids any political commentary over the entire Thatcher era. But all of that is easy to miss, thanks to Meryl Streep's amazing performance. She is indeed likely to receive her third Oscar next month.

For a Turkish summary of all this, let it suffice to boil the film down to one sentence: "Ne güzel başbakanımızdın sen Maggie Abla..."

Outrage

There is nothing outrageous in Takeshi Kitano’s return to Yakuza territory. In fact, it’s surprisingly straight-forward and verging on boring. Several major and minor players scheme to get rid of one another, and nearly everyone dies by the end.

One thing to possibly note is an odd choice of editing. The first third of the film connects different locations through editing and sound bridges. The second third continually uses fade-outs, I’m not really sure to which end. The last third is fairly straight-forward invisible editing, except for maybe one conversation. I’d love to have the old Kitano back, but alas, this is not it.

On a different note, Tetta Sugimoto and Nuri Bilge Ceylan look eerily alike.

Ljubljana report

I have been way too busy to update the blog lately. But I promise to feature a whole new batch of notes, fresh from Rotterdam. Really, really soon!

In the meantime, here's a brief report I wrote after the FIPRESCI Jury duty. It should also appear on the FIPRESCI web site at some point.

Of Children and Parents

The Perspectives section at the 21st Ljubljana International Film Festival offered eleven films of different styles, on different themes. Initially, one would think that the only common denominator is that all of these are the first or second feature films of their directors, according to the festival guidelines. But watching all eleven, I noticed another thread that appeared to be dominant among this year’s crop: children and parents. I think what struck me the most was the neat parallel that appeared among four of the films in particular. Two were about boys, two were about girls. Boys’ films were all about father and son bonding, and the girls… Well, the less father, the better.

Vlado Škafar’s Oča (Dad) from the host country and Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio’s Alamar (To the Sea) from Mexico were little stories of divorced fathers spending time with their sons. Both films shared a strong atmosphere and a lingering camera that appeared to be simply witnessing the warm relationship these men were trying to preserve. The girls were having a much tougher time. Samantha Morton’s The Unloved from Great Britain (the winner of the FIPRESCI Prize) tells the story of Lucy, an eleven-year-old who is placed in a care home after being beaten by her father. She is unwanted (and unloved) by either parent, but finds a way to survive among all the chaos that reigns not only in the care home, but also in the British social system. Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone from the US has a slightly older female character at its core – at seventeen, Ree Dolly takes care of her younger siblings and her mentally ill mother, who is all but absent from their lives. She is searching for her father, who has put up their house for his jail bond and promptly disappeared. It is telling that both of these films are directed by women.

Among the other films in the competition, the theme of children kept recurring. Hector Galvez’s Paraiso (Paradise) was about five teenager friends who strive for a better life in Peru. Los Viajes del Viento (The Wind Journeys) by Ciro Guerra from Colombia followed a troubadour across the country, joined by a young man who saw him as a father figure. In Rigoberto Perezcano’s Norteado (Northless) from Mexico, the children are absent – leaving them behind is the greatest sacrifice the film’s protagonist Andres has to make as he is trying to go north across the border, into the US. But the ultimate children-parent relationship among the festival films belonged to the winner of the main prize. In Yorgos Lathimos’ Kynodontas (Dogtooth) from Greece (now a -very- surprising Oscar nominee), we witness a family where the parents desperately try to “protect” their three children from external influences – even if it means potentially destroying their lives.

Hum Tum

Saif Ali Khan is no Shahrukh, that we know. We just saw Salaam Namaste last week too, but I've been very lazy about the blogging. In any case, it's very difficult to focus on a Bollywood movie when one keeps on wishing it were a different male lead.

Just like Saif Ali Khan is a poor substitute for SRK, Amsterdam is a poor substitute for New York. And Paris. This is the story of a couple that meet on the plane flying from Delhi to New York with a stop over in Amsterdam, which they spend together. Their paths keep on crossing, until (guess what) they realize they're in love with each other, blah blah blah. They spend time in Amsterdam, New York, Paris, Delhi and Mumbai, but all non-Indian locations are shot in Amsterdam. That could be less conspicuous if they avoided landmarks like the Rijksmuseum or the Concertgebouw, but hey, anything goes when they're singing and dancing with cheerleaders in the park.

Also interesting take on a kiss, a widow finding love again and marriage out of wedlock - or not so interesting if you've seen enough Bollywood films: this only seems to happen if the couple is living outside of India.

As a final note, I'd like to remark once again (or maybe for the first time on this blog) that as beautiful as Aishwarya Rai is, Rani Mukherjee has by far the coolest (or hottest) voice in Bollywood.