Sümerbank, whose name was given by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, inspired by the Sumerians, one of the first civilizations of the Near East, turns 93. Today, Sümerbank’s archive is kept and preserved under the roof of Beykoz Kundura by Kundura Hafıza, and Nurtaç Buluç* tells its history.
“…For complete independence, there is this rule: national sovereignty must be supported by financial sovereignty. The only force that will lead us to this goal is the economy. No matter how great political and military victories may be, unless they are crowned with economic victories, they cannot endure.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (İzmir Economic Congress, February 17, 1923)
In the 10th year of the Republic, the First Five-Year Industrialization Plan was drawn up, together with plans for the industrialization drive to be carried out through State Industry Programs. Sümerbank was founded on July 11, 1933, “with the aim of serving the collective interests of the nation by carrying out banking activities and the establishment and operation of industrial facilities, wholly owned by the State, in such a way as to achieve the highest efficiency and profitability within a mixed economy.”** Distinguished as the first State Economic Enterprise of the Republic of Türkiye, Sümerbank was named by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself, inspired by the Sumerians, one of the first civilizations of the Near East, who had been identified through archaeological studies as sharing a common language and race with the Turks. Sümerbank would become the principal institution to put into practice the industrial plans and the social factory model of the Early Republican Period.
In the early years of the Republic, building a national economy and securing capital and raw materials were among the state’s founding, protective and promotional policy goals in the economy. In this context, industrialization was seen as one of the most important stages of development. Previously, the Law for the Encouragement of Industry, enacted in 1927, had granted incentives to private investors in industry, but the desired results could not be achieved because of the adverse effects of the 1929 Great Depression; under all these conditions, the principle of statism was adopted in the economy, and a model of factory building shaped by national needs was put in place. Among the enterprises founded in the Ottoman period and transferred to Sümerbank with the Republic were the Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory), the Feshane Textile Factory, the Bakırköy Cloth Factory and the Hereke Carpet and Woolen Weaving Factory. The handful of industrial legacies left over from the Ottoman era did not have the capacity to bring about the development of a newly founded country, so in addition to these factories, Sümerbank established the Kayseri Cloth Factory, the İzmit Paper Factory, the Ereğli Cloth Factory, the Nazilli Cloth Factory, the Gemlik Artificial Silk Factory, the Bursa Merinos Factory and the Karabük Iron and Steel Factory under the First Five-Year Industrial Plan (1934-1939). Over time, the network grew richer as factories opened in different cities producing a wide range of goods, from cotton, wool and silk woven fabrics, carpets, leather, ceramics, porcelain, bricks, iron, steel, cement and hemp to cellulose, sunflower oil and soy.
This new “Sümerbank System” was more than a model of industrialization in the economic sense: it also embodied a model of modernization with socio-cultural aims, seeking to produce the “modern life/modern individual” that the Republic needed. Not only in the field of production, it also ensured that the culture and core concepts of the newly founded Republic took root and were embraced in the regions where it built its factories. As Turkish modernization took shape on the basis of building a nation-state and creating a new national identity, Sümerbank, beyond being a classic industrial enterprise engaged in production, also formed the very core of this new nation-building. Taking its name from the “Sumerians,” Sümerbank also incorporated the “traditional,” the fundamental source of local culture, into its own designs, carrying it into its modern identity and preserving it.
In industrializing, Sümerbank adopted a “human-centered” model aimed not only at economic development but also at socio-cultural progress. With this new model of factory building, which created a qualified, modern public through a system of modernization and enlightenment, it had the structure of a socio-cultural enterprise, providing its employees with shared spaces that met every kind of need, from nurseries to hospitals, from cinemas to festivals, and from staff housing to schools. With the training courses offered to factory workers, study trips at home and abroad and evening classes; with staff housing and dormitories for single workers to meet their housing needs; and with the volleyball, basketball and football teams set up within the factory units themselves and cultural activities such as cinema and theater, Sümerbank factories represented “A World Fit into a Factory”***. Every August at the Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, mass circumcision ceremonies were held for the children of factory workers, and events such as World Children’s Day Week were celebrated. Offering a variety of practices of socialization, Sümerbank factories contributed to the development of social practices through the spatial context they provided, and came to represent the social state.
In 1929, the National Economy and Savings Society was founded with the slogan “national savings” to encourage the use of domestic goods and build awareness of saving. In line with the Society’s activities, Domestic Goods and Savings Week and conferences were organized, and efforts were made to promote domestic goods and spread their use through exhibitions at home and abroad. After its founding, Sümerbank carried on this mission through its own factories and production sites, announcing the campaign to the public in the 1930s and ’40s with slogan-style posters and advertisements. The new national identity that the Republic set out to create was realized simultaneously in the fields of economy and culture, following a model that was national and domestic in production and international in technique and design.
*Nurtaç Buluç: Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Lead
**Kamil Oba, “Sümerbank’ın Kuruluşu ve 32 Yıllık Çalışmaları” [The Founding of Sümerbank and Its 32 Years of Work], Sümerbank Dergisi, 49/52 (1965): 161.
***The exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” opened to visitors by Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research in 2021, brings together traces from the memory of the Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası.
Naz Erayda and Kerem Kurduoğlu, the directors of “Geçen Gün”, on EkoTürk TV…
Director: Serpil Boydak / Interview: Nevra Taşlıdan / Camera: İrfan Yaran / Editing: Ecem Kalay – Furkan Kadir Çam
On the night of December 1, Kundura Sahne witnessed the launch of a legendary album. The famous jazz trio of Don Cherry, Okay Temiz and Johnny Dyani, the Don Cherry Trio, recorded “The ORTF Recordings PARIS 1971” at the ORTF studios in 1971, and the launch concert for this album, considered one of the most important in the history of jazz in Türkiye, took place at Kundura Sahne.
Pressed in a limited edition on the Caz Plak label in October, the album sold out in no time, and this time its performance came to life through Okay Temiz’s music project Okay Temiz plays Don Cherry. Featuring Okay Temiz on drums, Harald Svensson on piano, Ozan Musluoğlu on bass, Tomi Temiz on keyboards, Can Ömer Uygan on trumpet and Çağdaş Oruç on saxophone, the concert gave jazz lovers an enchanting night.
Produced by Kundura Sahne, “Geçen Gün” meets its audience for the first time on the evening of Friday, December 8, at 21:00 at Kundura Sahne. Reuniting in a single project the creators of Kumpanya, Naz Erayda and Kerem Kurdoğlu, whom we know from pioneering works such as “Everest My Lord,” “Vınnlamanın Binbir Yolu” and “Kim O” that turned ways of seeing and perceiving upside down, the play will have repeat performances on December 9 and 10.
Written by Kerem Kurdoğlu and co-directed by Naz Erayda and Kerem Kurdoğlu, the play tells a city story about our everyday states of paranoia, made up of fragments of sound, word and movement. Unfolding between the city and two people and tracing the course of “an anxious love story,” the play features actress and director Esme Madra, known for the films “Majority,” “Until I Lose My Breath” and “Swaying Waterlily,” and Ozan Çelik, who has appeared in the films “Sivas,” “Cemil Show” and “Dark Night.” The duo is also accompanied with music and sound by Tophane Noise Band, one of the most remarkable music groups of recent years, known for the instruments they make from urban waste and for their original performances.
Produced by Kundura Sahne, with Çıplak Ayaklar Stüdyosu as executive producer, the play features movement design by Maral Ceranoğlu and Mihran Tomasyan, lighting design by Utku Kara and sound by Defne Gül and Berkant ‘Doktor’ Kılıçkap. With a poster designed by Maya Kurdoğlu, the play can be seen on December 8, 9 and 10 at Kundura Sahne.
Beykoz Kundura’s cinema Kundura Sinema, whose restoration has captivated audiences, celebrates its 5th anniversary this year with restored classics. Having first opened its doors in 2018 and become one of Istanbul’s most beloved screens thanks to its original content and curated programs, Kundura Sinema brings together a special selection of films from its first-year program. Titled “Kundura Sinema’s Memory”, the program runs until February 2024, bringing a rich and colorful selection of films spanning the 1940s to the 2010s to Istanbul audiences in restored prints.
The films you can watch in December as part of the program include Jules Dassin’s “The Naked City” (1948), Jean Luc Godard’s “Alphaville” (1965), Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” (1976), Jim Jarmusch’s “Night on Earth” (1991) and the film co-created by Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, “Sin City” (2005).
Also in December, Ridley Scott’s masterpiece “Blade Runner” (1985), considered one of the best science fiction films of all time, will be screened in the director’s cut, while Denis Villeneuve’s dazzling “Blade Runner 2049” (2017), set 30 years after the first film, awaits those who want to witness the legend continue.
The program’s Christmas surprise will be the 1960 romantic comedy directed by Billy Wilder and made unforgettable by the iconic performances of Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine: “The Apartment”, which can be seen on December 24 at Kundura Sinema.
Extending into 2024, the program greets film lovers with unforgettable classics from the ’40s and ’50s. You can watch Michael Curtiz’s “Casablanca” (1942), Charles Vidor’s “Gilda” (1946), William Wyler’s “Roman Holiday” (1953), Leo McCarey’s “An Affair to Remember” (1957) and Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot” (1959) at Kundura Sinema.
The famous jazz trio of Don Cherry, Okay Temiz and Johnny Dyani, the Don Cherry Trio, recorded “The ORTF Recordings PARIS 1971” at the ORTF studios in 1971, and the album is considered one of the most important in the history of jazz in Türkiye. Its launch concert comes to Kundura Sahne.
Pressed in a limited edition in October on the Caz Plak label, the album sold out in no time, and now its performance will come to life once again through Okay Temiz’s music project Okay Temiz plays Don Cherry. Featuring Okay Temiz on drums, Harald Svensson on piano, Ozan Musluoğlu on bass, Tomi Temiz on keyboards and Can Ömer Uygan on trumpet, the concert will take place on the evening of Friday, December 1 at 21:00 at Kundura Sahne.
Formed by Don Cherry, the American jazz musician who shaped jazz history with albums such as “Organic Music Society” and “Eternal,” master percussionist Okay Temiz and South African bassist Johnny Dyani, the Don Cherry Trio recorded “The ORTF Recordings PARIS 1971”, regarded as one of its most successful albums, at the famous ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française) studios in Paris in 1971. Featuring original material found in the archives of BYG Records in France and remastered by Mert Üçer, the record is a follow-up to Okay Temiz’s album “Okay Temiz’s Oriental Wind at Montreux Jazz Festival 1982,” released in 2022.
Brought to light by the Caz Plak label in October 2023, the album was distributed to 67 countries in three special editions dedicated to Tokyo, Paris and Istanbul, and sold out in no time. The Türkiye and Japan editions of the album cover, whose creative direction was handled by Haluk Damar, feature a previously unpublished photograph taken by Ara Güler in 1969 and licensed by Caz Plak from the Ara Güler Museum. The Türkiye edition, with liner notes in Turkish and English, was limited to one thousand copies, and the Japan edition, with liner notes in Japanese and English, to 500 hand-numbered copies, while the cover of the album’s European edition features a 70 mm analog photograph of the Château de Versailles taken by Erinç Güzel. This edition, with liner notes in French and English, was likewise limited to one thousand hand-numbered copies.
The new season at Kundura Sahne, Beykoz Kundura’s interdisciplinary stage, opened with a unique dance performance. Bringing together Taldans dancers Filiz Sızanlı and Mustafa Kaplan from Türkiye and the dance duo Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz from Portugal on the same stage, NEVER ODD OR EVEN drew Istanbul’s dance and performance lovers to Beykoz Kundura.
The European Film Academy’s Month of European Film, the event through which the Academy announces Europe’s film and awards season and celebrates the diversity of European cinema, takes place in Türkiye this year at Kundura Sinema. Organized by Kundura Sinema in partnership with the European Film Academy and Creative Europe Media, with the support of Institut Français İstanbul, the Month of European Film program will screen 5 films that rank among the unforgettable works of French cinema.
Jean-Luc Godard’s neo-noir science fiction film Alphaville (1965), winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, will be screened on November 11 and 25, while Agnès Varda’s “Cléo from 5 to 7” (Cléo de 5 à 7, 1962), which takes us on a dizzying journey through 1960s Paris in the footsteps of its heroine Cléo, will meet audiences on November 18 and 26.
One of the cornerstone films of feminist cinema, “Cléo from 5 to 7” is an unforgettable classic, thanks to Varda’s revolutionary camera, which redefined the female gaze in cinema, and the iconic performance of Corinne Marchand as Cléo.
The program will also feature two films by Alain Resnais, one of the pioneering directors of the French New Wave. A debut feature far ahead of its time, with an Oscar-nominated screenplay by Marguerite Duras, one of the most powerful voices in French literature, and innovative editing, “Hiroshima mon amour” (1959) will be screened on November 11 and 18, while “My American Uncle” (Mon oncle d’Amérique, 1980), winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes and a matchless example of Resnais’s genius, with editing that is considered daring even today, awaits the director’s admirers on November 12 and 25.
Another highlight of the program will be Nicole Védrès’s 1947 documentary “Paris 1900” (Paris mil neuf cent), remembered today as a work of editing genius. Praised by André Bazin as “the cinematic equivalent of the profound upheaval Marcel Proust created in literature,” this unique classic, whose production team also included Alain Resnais, brings life in prewar Paris back to the screen through hundreds of documents and images. Depicting Paris in the era of “La Belle Époque” (the Beautiful Era) and tracing the most important figures of Parisian cultural life, from Apollinaire to Sarah Bernhardt and from Colette to André Gide, the film can be seen on November 12 and 26 at Kundura Sinema.
Organized by the European Film Academy, which has been working since 1988 to support the film industry in Europe and to strengthen collaboration by creating meeting points within the sector, in partnership with Europa Cinemas, the Month of European Film takes place in leading cinemas in more than 70 cities, from Istanbul to Athens and from Lisbon to Bucharest. Rather than following a uniform catalog, each cinema in the network takes part with a unique program shaped by its own expertise and curatorial policy, and the event will complete this year’s journey on December 9 at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin. You can find the event’s program and details on its official website.
Kundura Sinema once again opened its doors to the new season with a unique screening. The 1921 silent film classic HAMLET, screened with live performances by jazz legend Okay Temiz and pianist Kubilay Kan, opened Kundura Sinema’s 2023-2024 season.
Kundura Sinema’s “The First Diva of Cinema” selection will feature the films of Asta Nielsen, and taking her unique 1921 “Hamlet” performance as our starting point, we wanted to remember the actresses who have played Hamlet on screen and on stage.
The gender of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s universal character, has in fact been a subject of debate for centuries. His “unmanly grief” was considered “effeminate” by Victorian critics.
Although women playing Hamlet, beginning in the mid-18th century, initially caused a shock, these “unconventional interpretations” came to be accepted over time. As one critic put it, “Rather than imitating masculinity, women universalize the character,” and so perhaps remind us that, regardless of gender, ‘everyone is a Hamlet.’
The first actress in history to play Hamlet was Fanny Furnival, who took on the role at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin in 1741.
In 1775, at just 17, Sarah Siddons played Hamlet nine times in provincial productions, and she continued to play the role throughout her career.
In 1820, Sarah Bartley became the first female Hamlet in America, in a production at the Park Theatre in New York.
One of the celebrated Hamlets of the 19th century was Charlotte Cushman, who played Hamlet in New York and Boston in 1851.
When Nellie Holbrook played Hamlet in New York in 1880, The New York Mirror was scathing, declaring, “This is decidedly a masculine character, and no matter how talented the actress, it is not fit to be played by a woman.”
The French actress and theater director Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet on stage in Paris and London in 1899. Playing Hamlet in the two-minute short film “Le duel d’Hamlet” in 1900, Bernhardt became the first actress to portray the Prince of Denmark on the silver screen.
The Danish actress Asta Nielsen, cinema’s first international star, also played Hamlet on the silver screen. The 1921 German silent film “Hamlet” was a major box-office success and won praise from critics.
In Türkiye, Ayla Algan brought Hamlet to life on the theater stage between 1962 and 1965. In 1976, Metin Erksan directed the film “Angel of Vengeance / Female Hamlet”, in which Fatma Girik played Hamlet.
Frances de la Tour played Hamlet in 1979 in a production at the Half Moon Theatre in London. The renowned British critic Michael Billington described the performance as “Abrasive, mettlesome, masculine and fiery.”
In 1982, the American actress Diane Venora drew the portrait of “a lithe, dark, athletic and aggressive Hamlet” in Joseph Papp’s production of “Hamlet”.
Ruth Mitchell, a well-known Broadway actress and director, played Hamlet in 1992 in the all-female production “The Roaring Girls Hamlet”, staged at the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon.
The German actress Angela Winkler played Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000. The Guardian’s Michael Billington praised the performance, writing, “She does not adopt a superficial masculinity; instead she draws Hamlet’s emotions into her own personality,” and remarked that “women are better equipped to convey the emotional depths of Shakespeare’s troubled hero.”
In 2014, the Dutch actress Abke Haring played the Prince of Denmark in “Hamlet vs Hamlet”, a production by Guy Cassiers, one of Europe’s most important theater directors.
The British actress Maxine Peake won rave reviews for her Hamlet at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre in 2014. The critic Susannah Clapp wrote, “She is an almost pre-sexual, cool, stripling prince who glides along without a hint of girlishness.”
The Olivier Award-winning British actress Michelle Terry played Hamlet in 2018 at Shakespeare’s Globe, where she was also artistic director.
In 2018, in a production directed by Yaël Farber at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Hamlet was played by the Oscar-nominated American actress Ruth Negga.
The British actress Tessa Parr played Hamlet at the Leeds Playhouse in 2019. This adaptation, in which Hamlet was allowed to be fully female, did not receive particularly good reviews from critics.
For now, the most recent actress to play Hamlet on stage is Cush Jumbo. Also known for the series “The Good Wife”, the actress took the lead role in the Young Vic Theatre’s production of Hamlet in London in 2020.
