A municipality in southern Turkey canceled a 60-year-old film festival on Friday after a controversy over a political documentary. Muhyiddin Bujik, the mayor of Antalya, announced on X, "I regret to inform cinema-goers that we have canceled this year's Golden Orange Film Festival in Antalya, scheduled to take place from October 7 to 14, due to unforeseen events."
The festival, which is Turkey's premier film festival, had excluded the documentary "Law of Rulers" that focuses on a doctor and a teacher dismissed from their government jobs during the state of emergency following the failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016. The festival reversed this decision on Thursday after several filmmakers withdrew their films and members of the jury resigned, stating they were protesting censorship and threats to artistic expression.
The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism withdrew its support for the festival on Thursday, accusing the organizers of allowing "terrorist propaganda." The festival subsequently re-excluded the documentary, leading the municipality to cancel the entire festival on Friday.
Filmmaker Najla Demirci rejected the government's propaganda accusations, stating that none of the individuals featured in the film had been convicted of any crime. Following the 2016 coup attempt, the government dismissed over 125,000 civil servants, claiming they were linked to the coup attempt, and defended the move as necessary for national security. Critics argue that the Turkish government has used the failed coup as a pretext to suppress opposition.
