A Turkish international film festival has been canceled after controversy over a documentary about judicial purges that followed a failed attempted coup in 2016, authorities said on Friday.
The controversy centers on “The Decree,” a documentary about the plight of a doctor and a teacher impacted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s sweeping crackdown after he survived the 2016 failed attempted military coup.
The film was initially selected for Antalya’s “Golden Orange” film festival but last week it was excluded from the competition, prompting an uproar from filmmakers who criticized the act as censorship.
The festival’s jury members endangered to draw out if the film was not readmitted and said they “reject the approach that looks for incriminating elements in a film and the normalization of censorship.”
The organizers gave in and reinstated the film, but it was banned again after the culture ministry waded in.
In a social media account X, formerly known as Twitter, the mayor of Antalya said, “I regret to inform film lovers that we have canceled our festival, which was set to take place between October 7-14, due to external developments.”
The Ministry of Culture drew its support for the festival, calling it propaganda for the preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blamed for being behind the coup attempt in 2016.
