Remake Remix Rip-off

While the Istanbul-based industry boomed (and even when it didn’t), Turkish filmmakers made deliriously strange Z-movies for uneducated, movie-crazy audiences in the provinces. We’ve seen this kind of loving appreciation of exploitation cinema before, but Turkey went several steps weirder, moving lightly around the country’s volatile politics while gleefully cross-stitching American hits into no-budget frankenmovies (their Rambo has a motorcycle gang and zombies!), complete with stolen Hollywood soundtracks and even pirated reels of film.

In that regard, Çetin Inanç—the auteur behind the notorious Turkish Star Wars—turns out to be a highly self-aware mercenary whose best films suggest the wit and vitality of an American drive-in hero like Larry Cohen, but on a ludicrous fraction of the budget and schedule.

Sunday (December 6).