TAMILLA | 1927 Muhsin Ertuğrul

Muhsin Ertuğrul's 1927 silent film Tamilla, which is thought to be lost, will be screened for the first time in Turkey at the 56th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. Ayşe Tütüncü on piano and Miray Eslek on clarinet accompanied with live music.

Mavi Boncuk |

TAMILLA ‘Тамілла’| 1927 MUHSIN ERTUĞRUL. Written by Muhsin Ertugrul[1], Mariya Moraf Cinematography  by Cezmi Ar ans staring Anna Zarzhitskaya, Mykola Kuchinsky, Matvey Liarov, Hakkı Ali-Zadeh, Ivan Kapralov Silenchuk, Tatiana Tarnowska, О. Nazarova, Boris Shelestov-Zauze

Silent film Tamilla, which is thought to be lost draws attention with the designs of the famous German art director and painter Heinrich Beisenherz [as Georgi Baizengerts ] (1891 – 1977) for its success in creating an atmosphere. 

Adapted from the novel Thamilla: "The Turtle Dove" A Story of the Mountains of Algeria by French lawyer and writer Ferdinand Duchêne, was  of the two films Muhsin Ertuğrul made while he was working at the Ukraine Photo Cinema Administration (VUFKU) in Kiev, telling the story of a Berber woman who was married off at a young age by her family in return for a bride price in Algeria, which was a French colony at that time. 

In 1933-1934, the original film aka "Trizhdy prodannaya" (Thrice Sold) was re-edited into shorter 5-reels version by Ukrainfilm studios to follow an order of Goskino. As a result, the title was changed to "Za chto yeyo sudili" (Why She Was Judged) because this shorter version ends right after verdict scenes, so after the court, Tamilla is not for sell third time. This version was first released in 1934, in Moscow.

[1] The most important figure of the cinema in the Republican Period – just like in the theater – is undoubtedly Muhsin Ertuğrul. In cinema, which he started in 1922, he had almost a monopoly until 1939. He laid the foundations of Turkish Cinema. He produced many important films, from Halide Edip's adaptation of "Ateşten Shirt" to "Istanbul Sokakları", the first sound film of our cinema. (Later, Ertuğrul would direct the first color film of our cinema, "Halıcı Kız".) During his years in the Soviet Union, he worked with the most important names of both theater and cinema such as Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Eisenstein. Afterwards, he directed Darülbedayi and took part in the establishment of the State Theatre. 

With the film Leblebici Horhor Ağa, which he shot with Nazım Hikmet in 1923, he won an award at the Venice Film Festival, making the first film from Turkey to win an international award.