“Get out of the way, Battal Gazi is Coming!”: Turkish films on Byzantium

A conversation with Buket Bayrı about Turkish films that prominently feature Byzantine characters and settings, especially the films about Battal Gazi.

 

Buket Bayrı is a Professor at Koç University, and focuses her research on late medieval epics in the Byzantine and Ottoman worlds. You can learn more about Buket’s work on her Academia.edu page.

See her articles:

‘Contemporary Perception of Byzantium in Turkish Cinema: The Cross-Examination of Battal Gazi Films with the Battalname,’ Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 37 (2013)

‘The 10th International Congress of Byzantines Studies, Istanbul, September 15-21, 1955,’ Yillik: Annual of Istanbul Studies 1 (2019)

Some of the movies discussed in this episode include:

Battal Gazi Destanı (= Epic of Battal Gazi), 1971, dir. Atıf Yılmaz:

Battal Gazi’nin İntikamı (= Revenge of Battal Gazi), 1972, dir. Natuk Baytan:

Battal Gazi’nin Oğlu (= The Son of Battal Gazi), 1974, dir. Natuk Baytan:

Savulun Battal Gazi Geliyor (= Get out of the Way, Battal Ghazi is Coming), 1973, dir. Natuk Baytan:

Kahpe Bizans (= Byzantium the Harlot), 1999, dir. Gani Müjde:

Bizans oyunlari: Geym of Bizans (= Byzantine Games), 2016, dir. Gani Müjde:

Fetih 1453 (= Conquest 1453), 2012, dir. Faruk Aksoy: (English dubbed);

the same but Hindi dubbed (includes scenes removed from the English version):

Byzantium & Friends is hosted by Anthony Kaldellis, Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at The Ohio State University. You can follow him on his personal website.

You can listen to more episodes of Byzantium & Friends through Podbean.

Top Image: Movie posters from some of the films mentioned in this episode – Wikimedia Commons