Remzi Aydın Jöntürk

Remzi Aydın Jöntürk (1936 – 1987) was a prominent Turkish film director, actor, screenwriter, producer as well as a sculptor and a paint artist. He directed more than a hundred and twenty feature films between 1964 and 1987 until his death in a car accident while returning from shooting of the movie Afrodit starring Banu Alkan.

Jöntürk is credited for creating and directing some of the most famous examples of the Turkish psychedelic cinema including Yarinsiz Adam (The Man without Tomorrow) and Yıkılmayan Adam (The Indestructible Man), both starring Cüneyt Arkın as part of his psychedelic social-action The Adam Trilogy

.[1]

He is considered one of the most prominent psychedelic-action film makers of 1970's Turkish cinema during its boom period. This is due to his unorthodox use of psychedelic yet political and criminal themes, as well as over-expressive dialogs in the movies he directed, produced and written.

An alumnus of highly privileged Kuleli Military High School,[2] Jöntürk entered cinema in 1960s heyday for Turkish film industry as a set designer, became assistant director to Sureyya Duru. In 1964, he directed his first film 'Zımba Gibi Delikanlı' starring Palme d'Or winner Yilmaz Guney.

Banning of "Zindan" in Germany

Zindan "Prison" (1974 film), an action film directed by Jöntürk, was banned in Germany in 1988-01-21 and 1988-08-10. Although, currently ban is not in effect, Zindan remains to be the only Turkish movie title ever been banned in Germany due to gore, violence and cruelty it contains.[3]

Political prosecution by military courts

As a result of some of the politically charged lines in his The Adam Trilogy movies, in 1981 Remzi Aydın Jöntürk was falsely accused and prosecuted for promoting communism by infamous The State Security Court established by the 1980 Turkish coup d'état of then General Kenan Evren. However, unlike some of the other left wing artists of the time, Jöntürk had refused to flee Turkey for Western Europe following the Coup, thus, facing the military courts. In 1985, the charges were dismissed following Turkey's return to democracy.

After the charges, however, for a period between 1981 and 1984, he was unable to find major projects to direct as the influence of military continued in infamous and now defunct State Censorship Board where many of Jöntürk's future films failed to pass the censorship board without major modifications to their scripts or post-production edits until the mid 1980s, few years before his death in a car accident returning from directing the movie "Afrodit" starring Banu Alkan.

Below is a narrative excerpt from the final scene of "Yikilmiyan Adam" which was interpreted as militancy by the military courts established after 1980. The scene was shot on a location of a real labor strike organized by Revolutionary Labor Union (DISK). In this scene camera also captures actual wall graffiti that contains motto from leftist movement of the time.

″If we are getting wet under the rain, struggling in the mud,
it is because we are aiming for sunny days.
if we are siding with misery and fighting like heroes,
it is because we want to meet in wealth day. Each day we spend fighting is a progress for freedom,
you expect from tomorrow is to have men live like a man.″

Filmography

Films as actor (5 films)

Films as director (72 films)

Films as producer(5 films)

Films as scriptwriter (44 films)

Films as book author (1 film)

Films as assistant director (1 film)

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ The Routledge Dictionary of Turkish Cinema By Gönül Dönmez-Colin
  2. ↑ Pakistan Defense
  3. ↑ IMDB
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