My Grandfather’s People (Irmak 2012) deals with the aftereffects of the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey that took place during the 1920s. Ten year-old Ozan lives in a village on the Aegean coast. When his peers tease him for being a “infidel” he always retorts angrily that he is a Turk. The film, however, delves into the past of Ozan’s grandfather Mehmet Bey who was forced out of Crete with his family as a child during the same period as Turkey was expelling its Greek inhabitants. Mehmet Bey plays an important role in teaching Ozan about their family history, hospitality, and the multiethnic heritage of modern Turkey. The film’s depiction of the 1980 military coup and the repressive political climate that ensued, questions whether voices like Mehmet Bey’s can continue to make themselves heard.
[The film is in Turkish with English subtitles]
