“My Grandfather’s People” (Dedemin insanlari)
Dir: Çagan Irmak, Turkey
2011 Sunday, October 9, 2016 @3 PM
Talbot Auditorium, Luther Bonney Hall, USM Portland Campus
This Turkish film is a popular drama about the ethnic Turks, who had lived for generations in Greece, who were forced to migrate to Turkey during the population exchange at the end of the WW I. It is somewhat the reverse story that is told in the Greek movie, “Politiki Kousina” (“A Touch of Spice”). When Grandfather was just seven years old his family was displaced from Crete to mainland Turkey. Here the family is not fully accepted because they are considered to be Greeks. Yet in Greece they were considered Turks. The Grandpa’s greatest desire is to see the land of his birth before he dies. It is this longing that makes him frequently drop bottles containing letters into the Aegean. The lack of acceptance in the village is particularly hard on the young grandson who acts out. In the light of the current refugee situation in Greece, it is helpful to once again hear this story of when both Greek people and Turkish people were forced to leave the land of their origins – millions of them. Through these population exchanges, people experience what it means to be “the other”. In Turkish, Greek, and some English with English subtitles. 126 minutes.
