Original published in the French Turkish Cultural organization Turquoises in Paris .
Article for the great French Turkish cultural association in Paris “Turquoises” ( published October 2020)
(Translation from my original article in French which is my native language )
I trained to be a teacher in French and I also have a master in cinematographic studies. I started my professional life teaching and writing articles for magazines and the radio during the Cannes film festival and organised art and film events. I then became a painter and a textile artist whilst still teaching and writing. I have a passion for words, writing, Art and anything to do with being creative. I love poetry (published two books inspired by opera), films, history, books, music and I am very much interested in creating bridges between cultures.
Countries, landscapes and people are a source of inspiration for me, I turn them into words, drawings, paintings, I wish I had several lives to explore all that moves me.
I have never been to Turkey or Istanbul, they are part of the dream world that has been calling me for a long time. I have been dreaming about Turkey before going there and so here, I write about the dreamlike images that come to me when I think about Turkey. When we had to enter in lockdown in France in February 2020, I was on my way to Istanbul…I will go as soon as This is over.
Istanbul is a dream for me because she is half way between the West and the East, a symbolical bridge between both, a crossroads of several cultures and religions and the capital of three empires Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.
A pathway to Europe, she seems to float and shine on the Bosphorus. From France, I have in mind to go there via land and sea, crossing France and Greece and reach its shores by boat. A journey to celebrate this dreamlike city, a journey towards Beauty.
I first travelled to Istanbul through reading the poetry of Nazim Hikmet , Yunus Emre, Ayten Mutlu et Rûmî who lived in Turkey. Poets, no matter what their culture is, feel and see the essence the soul of a landscape, a culture. So I first reached the shores of Turkey through their words and those of a few writers I discovered along the way, recently Elif shafack that I love. It is in one of her books, The forty rules of love, that I discovered the encounter between the soufi Rûmî and Shams de Tabriz, the whirling dervish. Alas, I can only read translations in French or English but I hope one day to progress in my learning of Turkish, to be able to read this beautiful language from the source. Language is so much a part of understanding a culture.
I also came across Turkish cinema through the Cannes film Festival, which was one of the first, to show Turkish movies for many years. Ceylan’s Winter’s sleep (Kış Uykusu) won the “Palme d’or” in 2014 and also the films of Yilmaz Güney and others that were available in France…
As we are now in the 21st century and live in a world of series and Internet, my desire to go to Turkey has been even more pressing. By chance, I discovered on Netflix France and with subtitles, Kara para Ask, filmed by Ahmet Katikzik and produced par Ay Yapim with Tuba Büyüküstun and the outstanding Engin Akyürek. The story,
( fantastic screenplay), filmed in Istanbul, talks about corruption and love, however it is also a wonderful anthology of Turkish culture: food, simit sellers, çay drinkers, the people, kind hearts and welcoming warmth, the mind blowing architecture, the boats on the Bosphorus, the shimmering nights on the seafront and the perpetual movements of the city. Not only did I watch the 164 episodes (I hardly watched any series before in any language ) but I also started to search all I could find on the main actor Engin Akyürek ( known by very few in France so far). He struck me as an exceptional interpreter of the human soul, with a potential to work internationally and yet so much anchored into his own culture. I searched the web and watched in Turkish or with approximate translations, Fatmagül, Olëne Kadar, Bir Bulut Olsam, his films too and now Sefirin Kizi ( The ambassador’s daughter by Emre Kubakusak) showing now in Turkey live each Monday and which I hope, will be sold in France in 2021.
I realised that the world of series, because of the internet possibilities, opens doors so far inaccessible, as they are shown outside their countries, all over the world and thus are able to be an open door to understanding other cultures and it is the case for Turkey. My friend Zafer Yilmaz from the Hacettepe University in Ankara is, as I speak, doing his own thesis and research on the matter with Engin Akyürek as a case study. Of course those series do not tackle political matters (at least in an open way) but they open doorways, they reach citizens of the world and without knowing maybe, are the starting point for people to explore further. France being a country where the culture press, for which I worked for a while, is more inclined to talk about art movies, it is more difficult for French people to access those series on regular channels ( as opposed to latin American and Spanish countries) . But we would be foolish to ignore them, they convey unexpected gems. Thanks to Kara para Ask, I discovered the association Turquoises in Paris, because I was searching for information about France and Turkey. I started to look deeper into cultural diplomacy and what is happening in Turkey, I read again poets and writers, I discovered the Zeybek, traditional dances, the history of the efes, I met friends online and much more. I am interested in the historical relationships between France and Turkey, I realised that citizens do more than nations to understand each other. This very morning I bumped into a friend I had not seen for a while, who was on holiday in my seaside village in Brittany, France and she ends up telling me she discovered a Turkish series called Black Money Love (kara Para Ask), after I told her my next trip was Istanbul! Time, synchronicity…
I will stop here for now, but I think it is time for the French public to be able to watch Turkish series and films (with subtitles) in France and as a citizen of the world , modestly, with my enthusiasm and words, I would love to contribute to this opening of understanding this culture so remote and yet so close to us.
As we are at the moment not travelling much, it leaves us time to elaborate a project to do so and I am already thinking about it!
We have so much to learn from each other!
Cathie Hubert
Artiste, auteur, professeur de Français, rédactrice Cinéma.
cathiehubertfr@gmail.com
Project: To help French people discover more of Turkey and its culture, via the films and séries of Engin Akyürek, with the collaboration of friends.
A French lady, Sarah Beauvery Joguet, will open a Turkish films and series digital platform in France in November 2020 called MAVIJAAN https://twitter.com/mavijaan