Days Of Fire, Love And Anarchy: The Turkish Sinematek and Onat Kutlar, Önder Esmer, 2023, 76’

Days Of Fire, Love And Anarchy tells the story of the Turkish Cinematheque, a driving force behind the rise of art cinema and the growth of film culture in Turkey, through the life of its founder, Onat Kutlar. After discovering the French Cinematheque while studying philosophy in Paris in 1961, Kutlar decided to establish a cinematheque in Istanbul, and in 1965 he brought together a group of intellectuals to found the Turkish Cinematheque Association. Beyond screening important art films from around the world, the Cinematheque became a hub for an emerging intellectual film culture and a meeting place for new generations of filmmakers, critics, and cinephiles. The documentary traces Kutlar’s literary career and his pivotal role in the Istanbul Film Festival, while also shedding light on the Cinematheque’s history and the various conflicts that arose among actors with differing ideas and political views within Türkiye’s cinema world.