Product Description
Istanbul is perhaps the most photogenic city in the world. For local filmmakers, it’s a city where every stone and grain of soil is gold… From its inception to the present day, around 7,000 films have been made in Turkish cinema. Eighty percent of these films—whether entirely or just in part—were set in Istanbul.
On the Streets of Istanbul, The Song of the Bosphorus, Time to Love, Birds of Exile, The Pier at Üsküdar, Ah, Beautiful Istanbul, The Backstreets of Beyoğlu, A Beloved Comes to Us from the Islands, The Invisible Man in Istanbul, Istanbul Weeps Blood, Arif from Balat, Flowers of Istanbul, Istanbul Beneath My Wings, A Saint in Laleli, Flying Saucers in Istanbul, Recep from Kasımpaşa, Memories of Istanbul, Tarzan in Istanbul, and others…
Hundreds of films set in Istanbul, taking place on its streets and alleys, in its squares, on its islands, in its mansions, in its shantytowns, along the Bosphorus, and in the Golden Horn…
From its very beginnings, Istanbul has served as a unique natural set for Turkish cinema, offering its unparalleled beauty—both by day and by night—to our filmmakers. This book examines in detail the ways Istanbul has been reflected on the silver screen, delving into the depths of a cinematic archive—comprising countless films—that no other city in the world has been blessed with. Thirteen articles penned by expert writers vividly bring to life our cinema at the heart of Istanbul and Istanbul at the heart of our cinema.
It is the most comprehensive work to date on how the art of cinema has viewed Istanbul and what it has seen—and the richest reference source for both Istanbulites and film lovers.
“You have such eyes… I mean, not just eyes, but another Istanbul.”
(Ver Elini İstanbul, 1962)