Turkish Chronicles

Watch Turkish Chronicles in release order: Bosphore (1964), Byzance (1964), Golden Horn (1964), Istanbul (1964), Pehlivan (1964) and Maître Galip (1964).

Maurice Pialat's Turkish Chronicles.

1. 1

   Bosphore 1964

   ★ 6.7/10

   Short doc by Maurice Pialat. The first film in the series set at Turkey, Bosphore, is also the only one that was shot in color.

2. 2

   Byzance 1964

   ★ 6.5/10

   Byzance uses a text by Stefan Zweig to describe the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453. Before he turned to feature filmmaking in 1968 with Naked Childhood, Pialat worked on a series of short films, many of them…

3. 3

   Golden Horn 1964

   ★ 6.1/10

   La Corne d'or is mostly concerned with religious ritual, examining the mosque (and former cathedral) discussed in Byzance. As a contrast against Istanbul's status as a center of historical religious conflict, Pialat —…

4. 4

   Istanbul 1964

   ★ 7/10

   All of Pialat's Turkish films are uniquely interested in the country — especially Istanbul — as it was, not just as it is at the precise moment that Pialat is filming it. History informs these films in a big way, with…

5. 5

   Pehlivan 1964

   ★ 6.8/10

   Pehlivan focuses on a three-day wrestling competition, an ancient tradition that dates back over a thousand years to the time of the Ottoman Empire, originating in the games the soldiers would play to entertain…

6. 6

   Maître Galip 1964

   ★ 7.3/10

   Maître Galip is the most poetic and powerful of Pialat's Turkish Chronicles, using the poems of Nazim Hikmet to accompany a series of evocative images of ordinary working class people in Istanbul. This was the film…