Turkey is run by “mobsters”, says Turkish-German film director Fatih Akin, who has described how he fears ending up in jail if he goes back to his family homeland. Akin spoke out while talking to AFP at the Cannes Film Festival.

The auteur’s manager Ayse Barim has been in prison in Turkey since January. The talent manager is accused of having ordered actors under her management to take part in anti-government protests and support Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the main political rival to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Imamoglu was jailed in mid-March in what is widely seen as a political operation designed to sideline a politician who would be expected to beat Erdogan in an election.

Frequenter at Cannes

Akin, born in Hamburg in 1973 to a family of Turkish migrants, is a renowned movie director who won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival with his film Head-On (Gegen Die Wand/Duvara Karsi) in 2004. He also scooped a best screenplay award in Cannes with The Edge of Heaven in 2007, and the Golden Globe award for best foreign language film with In the Fade in 2017.

Akin, a frequenter at Cannes, was this year present at its film festival with his latest work, Amrun.

Apolitical, neo-liberal capitalist

Barim is “totally apolitical and innocent” of the charges brought against her, Akin also told AFP, adding: “If they put her in prison, what the hell is going on? So, I better not go there. I don't want to take the risk.”

“Officially there is no warrant for me. But to be honest, I don't know,” he added.

Barim is about as far from being an activist as you could imagine, according to Akin.

“She's an agent, a talent manager, a neo-liberal capitalist for heaven's sake,” he also said.

Certain politicians are not even afraid to go to war if this helps them to stay in power and Turkey’s Erdogan is one of them, according to Akin.

Gezi cases, the regime’s panacea

As part of the case of “nonsense” faced by Barim is the statement that she talked 39 times with businessman Osman Kavala (imprisoned in Turkey on similar  charges made up of “nonsense” since 2017) during the Gezi protests of 2013, Akin also told the news service.

“Those 39 times were because of my film The Cut. Kavala financed part of it and she's managing me. So they talked because of me and both are now in prison. I'm the connecting point,” he said.

Court cases related to Gezi are what Turks refer to as “omnibus cases”. Anyone and everyone can somehow be linked to the countrywide mass protests that broke out and the regime repeatedly uses such omnibus cases when it decides to jail someone.

Akin said he suspected that Turkish prosecutors would try to pretend that he was also “part of the [imaginary] gang” that plotted to overthrow Erdogan in 2013.

“A lot of people are proud of me for showcasing Turkish culture and the diaspora. But these people [the Erdogan regime] don't care about that,” Akin remarked.

Accused by government media

Akin referred to the formal charges Barim has faced in court. However, when it comes to the informal accusations against her circulated by government media, the claims are mostly related to the support shown by actors in her stable for Imamoglu during the Istanbul mayoral election re-run in 2019.

Observers of the regime claim that Barim’s arrest in January formed part of the preparations made for the Imamoglu operation put into effect in March. The government, they say, set out to spread fear and anxiety among celebrities that would dissuade them from supporting the mayor once he was arrested.

Film noir: Actors jailed for perjury

On May 23, two actors under Barim’s management, Halit Ergenc and Riza Kocaoglu, were handed prison sentences for perjury related to the Barim investigation.

Following the detention of Barim, prosecutors approached the duo, pressing them to testify as witnesses. According to local media reports, they were pushed to state that they attended Gezi protests on the orders of Barim.

After they told the prosecutors that Barim did not contact them before they joined the protests, legal complaints were filed against them for perjury.

“Mobsters” in Cannes

Turkey’s general directorate of cinema (@SinemaGenelMd) opened a stand in Cannes, the country's culture ministry (@TCKulturTurizm) announced on May 14.