Murat Uyurkulak, a screenwriter who received an award for best screenplay in Turkey’s most prestigious film festival on Saturday, dedicated his award to Saturday Mothers, who have been demanding justice for the victims of forced disappearances in Turkey since the mid 1990s.
“I dedicate this award to Saturday mothers who have been looking for a grave for their sons who have been lost by the state for decades,” Uyurkulak said during the ceremony of Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
The film’s director Özcan Alper, who co-wrote the screenplay of the movie “Karanlık Gece – Dark Night”, also joined Uyurkulak on stage and expressed his wish to write brighter screenplays in the future.
“As our mayor said, we have ended 100 years of the Turkish Republic,” he said, referring to the mayor of the southern province of Antalya and the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
“In the next 100 years, I hope we will have equal citizenship not for the few but for all, I hope for a country where people do not have to struggle to speak their mother tongue,” Alper said.
