Screening:
Karanlıkta Uyananlar [Those Awakening in the Dark]
"I'm tired of living in an Istanbul where nobody understands me"
Salt Beyoğlu
September 28, 2023 19.00
Walk-in Cinema
Karanlıkta Uyananlar [Those Awakening in the Dark] (1964)
Director: Ertem Göreç
Actors: Ayla Algan, Beklan Algan, Tülin Elgin, Fikret Hakan
114 minutes
Turkish
Set in 1960s Istanbul, Karanlıkta Uyananlar [Those Awakening in the Dark] is the first film that deals with strikes and labor rights in Turkey. Directed by Ertem Göreç and written by Vedat Türkali, the film focuses on the laborers at a paint factory and their young employer, who has taken over the factory after his father’s death. The film depicts the daily lives of the workers and their struggles to unionize, foregrounding the political climate of the period and the relationship between domestic industry and foreign capital.
“[…] I once again saw Those Awakening in the Dark coincidentally in the last few years. I think that all my criticisms were still true, but what rose above all, what went beyond all formal concerns, kept the film standing gloriously even today. That is how a cinema laborer, Ertem Göreç, approached the rights problems of our virtuous people with a warm and equally virtuous heart, believing in the need to say the right things about them with all his sincerity. I believe that what warmed the film, the force that made it shine despite all obstacles, stemmed from this passion.” —Vedat Türkali, Eski Filmler: Senaryolar [Old Films: Scripts], 2003
Organized in parallel to the exhibition No Further Records: Reşad Ekrem Koçu and Istanbul Encyclopedia Archive, the screening is free of charge and open to all.
Limited seats. No reservations.
Karanlıkta Uyananlar [Those Awakening in the Dark] (1964)
Director: Ertem Göreç
Actors: Ayla Algan, Beklan Algan, Tülin Elgin, Fikret Hakan
114 minutes
Turkish
Set in 1960s Istanbul, Karanlıkta Uyananlar [Those Awakening in the Dark] is the first film that deals with strikes and labor rights in Turkey. Directed by Ertem Göreç and written by Vedat Türkali, the film focuses on the laborers at a paint factory and their young employer, who has taken over the factory after his father’s death. The film depicts the daily lives of the workers and their struggles to unionize, foregrounding the political climate of the period and the relationship between domestic industry and foreign capital.
“[…] I once again saw Those Awakening in the Dark coincidentally in the last few years. I think that all my criticisms were still true, but what rose above all, what went beyond all formal concerns, kept the film standing gloriously even today. That is how a cinema laborer, Ertem Göreç, approached the rights problems of our virtuous people with a warm and equally virtuous heart, believing in the need to say the right things about them with all his sincerity. I believe that what warmed the film, the force that made it shine despite all obstacles, stemmed from this passion.” —Vedat Türkali, Eski Filmler: Senaryolar [Old Films: Scripts], 2003
Organized in parallel to the exhibition No Further Records: Reşad Ekrem Koçu and Istanbul Encyclopedia Archive, the screening is free of charge and open to all.
Limited seats. No reservations.