Activism

The Mavi Marmara is set to hit the big screen in Turkey

Polat Alemdar is back! And this time he’s kicking ass and taking names in none other than the Holy Land.

ValleyofthewolvespalestineIf you don’t know what I’m talking about, Alemdar is the hero of the popular Turkish television show, and now film series, Valley of the Wolves. A 2006 film took aim at the American invasion of Iraq, and the upcoming movie is focused on exacting revenge for the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla.

The 2006 film was criticized for being anti-American and anti-Semitic, the latter charge arising from a Jewish American doctor character, played by Gary Busey, who harvests Iraqi organs to sell abroad. I know that sounds totally unbelievable. I mean really, Gary Busey – Jewish?!

Robert Mackey notes on the Times Lede blog that the film seems to echo Steven Speilberg’s Munich (without the handwringing), and will most likely not help strained Israeli-Turkish relations:

After viewing the trailer for a new Turkish action movie, in which the hero travels to Palestine to exact revenge on the Israeli commander who ordered the raid on the Gaza flotilla, in which nine Turks were killed, the Israeli news site Ynet News suggests, “The already tense relations between Israel and Turkey are about to get even more strained.”

Also, an interesting note on the Valley of the Wolves series from twitter. @hkubra made the following comments which were retweeted by Ali Abunimah:

FYI: Valley of the Wolves is an ultra-nationalist, violence-addicted franchise produced by ultra-nationalist conservatives…its content is often almost racist & full of hate speech on any non-Turkish group, their messages are against a plural Turkey as well

 
 
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