Istanbul Municipality Bans Political Movie Ad

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality rejected a proposal concerning the billboard advertisement of a new movie on Turkish prisons, making no explanations.

A new movie depicting the isolation in Turkish prison has been released today in various movie theaters around Turkey. "F Type Movie", alluding F type isolation cells in Turkish correction facilities, consisted of a compilation of 10 short movies directed by Ezel Akay, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Barış Pirhasan, Aydın Bulut, Hüseyin Karabey, Reis Çelik, Vedat Özdemir, Mehmet İlker Altınay, members of protest band Grup Yorum. Some of the actors included Tansu Biçer, Serkan Keskin, Bülent Emrah Parlak, Gizem Soysaldı, Erkan Can, Fırat Tanış, Civan Canova.

Idil organization, movie producer company, submitted an official request to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in order to advertise the movie on city's billboards and certain street walls.

Municipality officials rejected the proposal in a written statement, saying that "the mentioned proposal was not found suitable by the munipality".

Idil organization staff said they called the municipality for a further explanation but no clarifications were made. (AS)