ISTANBUL (Nov. 21) — A Turkish movie set to be released in January featuring a James Bond-like hero who avenges the attack on the Gaza flotilla is likely to further strain the rocky relations between Turkey and Israel, while dramatizing Turkey’s increasing role as a “big brother” to the Muslim Middle East.
“I didn’t come to Israel, I came to Palestine,” declares Polat Alemdar, the main character in “Valley of the Wolves – Palestine” — who then proceeds in the movie’s online trailer to mow down several Israeli soldiers.
Alemdar, played by Necati Sasmaz, is a character in the tradition of 007, Rambo and Jack Bauer. “Valley of the Wolves – Palestine” is the latest in a series of movies and TV shows in which he takes on enemies as a secret agent, fighting everyone from U.S. forces in Iraq to the Israeli Defense Forces to Kurdish rebels.
“We’re talking about things people don’t want to hear,” Sasmaz said in a recent interview. “Up until now we have seen only Western heroes such as Rambo and James Bond. For the first time in the history of cinema there is an undefeatable protagonist from the Middle East.”
While James Bond killed countless Russian soldiers during the Cold War, there was little real-world reaction behind the Iron Curtain as the British spy racked up high body counts across several continents. The Bond movies starred a dashing womanizer and conjured up a fantasy without delving too far into reality, but “Valley of the Wolves — Palestine” plunges into the cauldron that is today’s Middle East.
The film was written to depict life in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. While still focused on showing that, the film’s producers changed the script after the Mavi Marmara incident last June, which saw Israeli commandos boarding a flotilla carrying humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip and killing nine Turks in the ensuing fight.
The incident is now being used as a peg to attract more people to see the movie, which has Almdar going to Israel and killing several Israeli soldiers in retaliation for the flotilla assault.
“We are aiming at the consciences of all filmgoers,” says Bahadir Ozdener, one of movie’s script-writers in an interview reported in Israeli media. “All we want is freedom for the innocent Palestinians who suffer and live in sub-human conditions in the largest prison on earth.”
The $10 million film is the most expensive to be made in Turkey, which has a growing TV and film industry. In 2009 a popular Turkish TV series called “Separation” showed Israeli security forces kidnapping children, murdering civilians and destroying Palestinian property. Last January, the Israeli deputy foreign minister summoned the Turkish ambassador to complain about the series, refusing to shake his hand and making him sit on a low couch, embarrassing the ambassador in front of reporters.
The release of the new film is expected to tap into anger toward Israel in the Muslim world and is a signal that Turks may not be ready for any kind of rapprochement with Israel, which has refused to apologize for the flotilla deaths or admit to a disproportionate use of force.
“[Turkey’s] new policies are part and parcel of a very ambitious reassertion of Turkey on the world stage,” Dr. Katerina Dalacoura, a Turkey expert at the London School of Economics, said in an interview with AOL News. “I am not one who thinks these policies are to the inclusion of the European option for Turkey. They are trying to achieve a wider reposition of Turkey in Europe and the Middle East.”
Dalacoura said the Turkish leaders were being more assertive in making Israel an issue in order to increase their popularity. “It is part of a wider ideological purpose of the government. It’s a useful card to play,” she said.
via Turkish ‘James Bond’ Takes On Israel and Mideast Strife – aolnews.com
