Return to Europe: Turkey

This film is part of the ten episode documentary Balkan Express - Return to Europe, a German-Austrian co-production, in collaboration with European Stability Initiative (ESI). Heralded as one the "most ambitious TV projects on Southeastern Europe produced in recent years," the series was a...

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Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Beringer, Peter
Institution:Open Society Archives at Central European University
Language:English
Published: Pre TV 2008
Austria
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:eede11d0-9be4-4d7f-a8da-8909dfab8170
Description
Summary:This film is part of the ten episode documentary Balkan Express - Return to Europe, a German-Austrian co-production, in collaboration with European Stability Initiative (ESI). Heralded as one the "most ambitious TV projects on Southeastern Europe produced in recent years," the series was awarded the "Erasmus EuroMedia Grand Award" in 2008. Istanbul, Europe's biggest city and the former capital of two European empires (The Byzantine and the Ottoman) is today the best place to grasp the contrasts, contradictions and promises of modern Turkey at the beginning of the 21st century. The film explores the tensions which lie just underneath the surface of this glittering town. How to deal with a complicated multiethnic past? How to overcome the bitter power struggle – in Istanbul and across Turkey as a whole – between new and old elites? How to define a place for religion in general, and Islam in particular, in a country that seeks to join the European Union? From Rumeli Hisari – a 500-year-old village at risk of seeing its old Armenian population completely disappear – to Kadikoy, a modern district setting new standards for women's emancipation movements in Turkey, the film explores many aspects of life on both shores of the Bosporus.
Published:2008