GURBET KUŞLARI

A family of six, the Bakırcıoğlu family, migrates from Anatolia to Istanbul to try to make it in the city. When the garage they bought turns out to be a con, the family resorts to working poorly-paid jobs. Whilst the two sons struggle with the urban image of women, the sister makes an acquaintance with the liberal high society. There, one of the playboys sexually exploits the good-natured Anatolian. The situation quickly escalates for all involved.

Around the middle of the 1960s, the filmmaker Halit Refiğ (1934 - 2009) put into practise his own version of a “National Cinema” with Ulusal Sinema. He developed it as a reaction to contemporary Turkish film critics who wanted Turkish cinema to emulate the European model. With more than 60 films and numerous series, Refiğ attempts to elevate and distinguish Turkey’s own culture from the West. Refiğ’s films and texts for Ulusal Sinema functioned as a source of inspiration for several generations of classical film-makers in Turkey.