Monday, February 13, 2006

A movie premiere in Antwerp

Yesterday evening, a sick anti-American and antisemitic Turkish film (about which LGF reported earlier) had its Belgian premiere in my hometown of Antwerp, Belgium. The film was shown simultaneously in two theaters, with an attendance of 1,400 people. My local newspaper, Gazet van Antwerpen, today had a report about the event carrying the following headline:

Antwerp Turks also enthusiastic about bloody Iraq-movie.
Applause for dead Americans
Here are a few excerpts from the report:

Sunday night, the Turkish movie 'Kurtlar Vadisi Irak' ('The valley of the wolves, Iraq') was received with applause and cheers in Metropolis in Antwerp. ...

Ranging from veiled mothers to business men, teenagers and even small children, the audience of the Belgian premiere of 'Kurtlar Vadisi Irak' was very diverse. ...

"The last episodes [of the series on which the film is based] were indeed anti-American"[according to one of the many attending Turks]. ...

The Americans are clearly the villains in the film. The chewing guys don't mind if one child more or less gets killed when they invade a wedding with their loaded machine guns. And a dubious doctor - Hollywood actor Garey Busey - cuts the organs from the warm bodies of the Iraqis to help America and Israƫl with fresh donor organs. ...

As the film progresses, the applause gets more and more enthusiastic when another brutal American is shot. The biggest villain gets verbal abuse in Turkish from a visitor. And when at the end of the film the villain is lying dead on the floor, the crowd bursts into applause. ...

The cast has already made a whole tour of gala premieres throughout Europe, but Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands are still on the agenda. "When there is an invitation, we do a galapremiere in that country", [the star actor says]. And adds with a telling smile: "Only from America have we received no invitation yet."