SHORT TAKES : Turkey Enters Its 1st for Oscar
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ISTANBUL, Turkey — For the first time ever, Turkey is seeking an Academy Award nomination for foreign film, choosing as its entry a stirring drama about the friendship between a female political prisoner and a 4-year-old boy in prison with his mother.
Director Tunc Basaran said it is a major reversal of government policy that will allow his film, “Do Not Let Them to Shoot the Kite,” to compete.
“The history of the Turkish movie industry goes back 75 years,” the 52-year-old filmmaker said in an interview. “And for the first time the government convened a jury to select Turkey’s entry. They would always promise in the past but never did this.”
The movie centers around a child who literally grows up in jail, imprisoned along with his mother for drug peddling. The practice of imprisoning children is common in Turkey because there are no institutions to care for children of imprisoned parents.
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