Film to tackle distribution monopoly in Turkish cinema

In 2005, 27 million movie tickets were sold in Turkey. The ticket sales surpassed 60 million in 2015. Turkey takes second place after Russia as the fastest growing movie industry in Europe. Turkey is also the only country in Europe where national cinema takes more than half of the market share. While there were 29 Turkish movies produced in 2005, that number shot to 136 in 2015.

So begins the film "Only Blockbusters Left Alive: Monopolizing Film Distribution In Turkey." Award-winning director and writer Kaan Müjdeci teamed with film critics Evrim Kaya, F?rat Yücel and ?enay Aydemir for a film set to push a few buttons.

After a brief narration highlighting the rosy picture of Turkish cinema both in terms of viewers and film production, the industry's darker side is revealed. "However, there is something wrong with this bright picture," continues the narration. "Date: 2015, the first weekend of December. Only two films were showing in the 1,700 theaters out of about 2,300 in Turkey. The same week, 'Abluka' (Frenzy), the Special Jury Prize winner in Venice, was considered lucky to secure 25 theaters, while the Golden Orange winner 'Sarma??k' (Ivy) could only find 16 theaters for its release."

When the Turkish film industry has been experiencing a breakthrough in the last ten years, how come independent productions find it difficult to secure theaters? How come some films fade into obscurity without ever been seen by audiences? These are some of the questions producers, distributors, and economists attempt to answer in "Only Blockbusters Left Alive: Monopolizing Film Distribution In Turkey."

Abusing power over distribution

The film traces the distortion created by the bad economy that has become an obstacle for freedom of...