SAT-7 TÜRK’s historical feature film, Yakamoz, has scooped up four more awards at two different festivals, as well as being shown as part of a special selection at two other events.
This latest success follows the Jewel Award for best drama at the CEVMA (Christian European Visual Media Association) awards in September.
“It is a true honor to receive multiple awards for our feature film, Yakamoz,” commented Ali Kerem Gülermen, the film’s director. “We worked hard to create a memorable film that highlights an important piece of Turkish history with a message that is relevant today, and it has clearly resonated deeply with a wide audience.”
Yakamoz marks the centenary of the momentous population exchange between Türkiye and Greece, in which over 1.5 million people were forced to move back to their ancestral nations. It tells the moving story of a Christian family from Türkiye and a Muslim family from Greece who are forced to live together for a time, learn to co-exist, and even become friends. The film’s hopeful tone and profound message, which are badly needed in a region that continues to witness hostility and suspicion between different people groups, have been incredibly well-received.
Awards
Yakamoz received three awards at the Antakya International Film Festival, held between October 18 and 24: Best Script, Best Art Director, and the “Yeşilçam Special Prize,” which honors the heyday of the Turkish film industry.
It won “Best Costumes in a First Feature” at the Cyprus International Film Festival, which took place in Nicosia between October 28 and November 2.
For the team involved in Yakamoz, releasing the film has been a special experience. In addition to winning five awards this year, it was featured on the special selection list at the Antalya Altın Portakal Awards and the Göbeklitepe Film Festival in Urfa, receiving fantastic feedback from both audiences.
“For Yakamoz to be honored in such a way, with various awards and positive feedback from a range of film festivals and critics, means a lot to the whole production team and actors who worked on this film,” commented Gülermen.
Special Moments
At the Antalya event, Yakamoz was not eligible to enter the awards because it had been released in cinemas, but it was shown as part of a special selection. “Yakamoz filled the hall completely,” Gülermen said. “The entire audience watched with great attention and pleasure. Half of the audience even stayed for the midnight talk.”
In Göbeklitepe, where another audience was thrilled by the film, a very special moment unfolded.
“The films were held in St. Paul’s Church, which is now used as a cultural center,” explains Gülermen. “But the building was once a Syriac Orthodox Church, until 1924: the year the Greeks left.”
This gave one scene in Yakamoz a particularly strong resonance, he said. “When the night scene near the end of the film was shown, the Hristos Anesti (“Christ is Risen”) hymn was heard again under the dome of a church exactly 100 years later.”
Moments like this remind the SAT-7 TÜRK team of God’s involvement and blessing throughout the entire process of making and releasing Yakamoz, a film that highlights an important piece of Türkiye’s Christian heritage.
