Making Turkish Star Wars
About this episode
The episode explores the making of the infamous film 'Turkish Star Wars' and its impact on Turkish cinema.
When the set fell apart for an ambitious cinematic space opera that was produced on a characteristically small Turkish budget, nationally famed director Çetin İnanç had to think fast to save his film. What resulted was a domestic hit in 1982, originally called The Man Who Saves the World. Now known as Turkish Star Wars, it's a production regularly referenced as the worst movie ever made. Louis Harnett O'Meara uses an archival interview with İnanç, originally recorded by Turkish movie historian Ali Murat Güven in 2018, to tell the story of a classic in Turkish Copy Cinema - a genre that has faded since copyright laws in Turkey have become more rigorously applied. Presented by Louis Harnett O’Meara and produced by Hunter Charlton. An Ember production. Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories. When you subscribe to Witness History…
More episodes of Witness History
- Bayeux Tapestry: the lost Nazi archive
- The 'moving' statue of Ballinspittle
- Surviving the Long March
- Star Trek: America's first interracial TV kiss
- The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- ‘Genius’ sci-fi writer Octavia E Butler
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Witness History podcast page.