Film to revisit Turkish soldiers’ tragedies during WWI

Singer-turned-actor Özcan Deniz is currently preparing for the lead role in an upcoming film that will depict the Battle of Sarıkamış where tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers froze to death during World War I.

Deniz says the film is going to be the most ambitious movie made in the history of Turkish cinema.
Speaking to reporters in Kars on Monday during a commemoration ceremony honoring Turkish troops who died in battle on Mt. Allahuekber, Deniz said the Turkish cinema would “see a new record in the number of moviegoers” when the film, titled “Sarıkamış Beyaz Hüzün” (Sarıkamış the White Sorrow), opens in theaters.
He proceeded to tell the Anatolia news agency that mostly small-budget productions are being made in Turkey but that “Sarıkamış” would be huge. “Our cinema [industry] usually prefers movies that are prepared and shot in two or three months. Previously nobody wanted to deal with projects like ’Sarıkamış’ because those kinds of films require a lot of preparation. We will shoot the most ambitious film made [in Turkey] to date,” he said.
Deniz, who began his acting career playing lead roles in several TV dramas and continues his music career as a singer of the genre widely known as “arabesque,” said he attended the commemoration ceremony to sympathize with the soldiers on the battleground.
The Sarıkamış Campaign was one of the most tragic battles Turkey fought during World War I. The campaign, aimed at taking back land lost to Russians, was a total failure, not in technical terms but mostly due to bad weather conditions. There are disputes among historians on the number of Turkish soldiers who died during the campaign. Although most sources put the death toll at around 90,000, a few historians argue that these figures are overestimates and the real toll was around 35,000 to 40,000.
Deniz said he will stay in Sarıkamış until filming starts in January. The film’s producer, Mutena Açık, said they were thinking of adding actors and technical personnel from abroad to the film’s cast and crew in order to make the movie a high-quality production. In addition to Deniz, the film’s leading cast will also feature famed actors Fikret Kuşkan, İsmail Hacıoğlu, Güven Kıraç and Altan Erkekli, Açık said.