Hundreds of movie laborers, movie lovers and screen writers marched from the French consulate to Galatasaray square against cancellation of screening the guerrilla documentary, “Bakur”(North), at the 34th İstanbul Film Festival.

Movie laborers, movie lovers and screen writers marched from the French consulate to Galatasaray square against the denial of screening of the documentary, “Bakur” (North) directed by Çayan Demirel and Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, at the 34th İstanbul Film Festival on the grounds of not having 'commercial screening license'. Hundreds of demonstrators called upon the Ministry of Culture to take necessary steps for the urgent removal of the “commercial screening license” obligation at festivals.

CHP (Republican People's Party) MPs Ercan Karakaş, Melda Onur, movie laborers Lale Mansur, Menderes Samancılar, theater player Orhan Aydın, directors Kazım Öz, Erol Mintaş, Hüseyin Karabey, author Bedri Baykam were in the front lines of the demonstrators joining the protest on behalf of whom actress Defne Halman and director Kazım Öz spoke in Turkish and Kurdish.

Halman and Öz stressed that this wasn't the first time they faced a censor of a movie by the Turkish state, reminding that from Yılmaz Güney to Metin Erksan, from Handan İpekçi to Kazım Öz, lots of valued director's films had been denied meeting with the audience so far.

Underlining that history of the cinema in Turkey was full with voices raised against censor and struggles for freedom of expression, Halman and Öz remarked that “Just like thousands of movie makers who marched to Ankara in 1977, and those who who marched against censor at İstanbul Film Festival in 1988, we are shouting the same thing today: No to censor.”

Halman and Öz remarked that the law on the assessment and classification of movies has been used by the government for political purposes since the very first day it was enacted, and that censorship has become systematized today, and greatly restricted the freedom sphere of festivals.

“We do not accept any restriction by the Ministry of Culture on the freedom sphere of cinema”, Halman and Öz said, calling the Ministry to take the necessary steps urgently to enable the meeting of the 'Bakur' movie with the audience.

Halman and Öz also urged the removal of the 'commercial screening license' obligation imposed on festival movies as a first step of the long-term struggle against censorship.