Midnight Express is a 1978 prison drama film directed by Alan Parker and adapted by Oliver Stone from Billy Hayes's 1977 memoir of the same name. The film centers on Hayes, a young American student, who is sent to a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hashish out of the country. The film's title is prison slang for his escape attempt. The cast also features Irene Miracle, John Hurt, Bo Hopkins, Paul L. Smith and Randy Quaid.
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE was an English actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage. Throughout his career, he appeared in productions in both the West End of London and on Broadway in New York City. He came to wider attention from 1967 in the title role of the British television spy drama Callan, earning him the 1970 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.
William "Billy" Hayes is an American writer, actor, and film director. He is best known for his autobiographical book Midnight Express about his experiences in and escape from a Turkish prison, after being convicted of smuggling hashish. He was one of hundreds of US citizens in foreign jails serving drug charge sentences, following a drug-smuggling crackdown by foreign governments.
Yılmaz Güney was a Kurdish film director, screenwriter, novelist, and actor. He quickly rose to prominence in the Turkish film industry. Many of his works were devoted to the plight of ordinary working-class people in Turkey. Güney won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 for the film Yol which he co-produced with Şerif Gören. He was at constant odds with the Turkish government over the portrayal of Kurdish culture, people and language in his movies.
Cinema of Turkey or Turkish cinema, or Türksineması refers to the Turkish film art and industry. It is an important part of Turkish culture, and has flourished over the years, delivering entertainment to audiences in Turkey, Turkish expatriates across Europe, Balkans & Eastern Europe, also more recently prospering in the Arab world and to a lesser extent, the rest of the world.
Fahrettin Cüreklibatır, better known by his stage name Cüneyt Arkın, was a Turkish film actor, director and producer. Having starred in somewhere around 300 movies and TV series, he is widely considered one of the most prominent Turkish actors of all time. Arkın's films have ranged from well-received dramas to mockbusters throughout his career spanning four decades.
İsmail Metin Erksan was a Turkish film director and art historian.
Ayşecik ve Sihirli Cüceler Rüyalar Ülkesinde is a 1971 film by Turkish film director Tunç Başaran, an uncredited and very close adaptation by Hamdi Değirmencioğlu of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The film was produced by Özdemir Birsel for Hisar (Citadel) Film. It is one of nearly forty films featuring Zeynep Değirmencioğlu as Ayşecik, many of which, like this one, were uncredited adaptations of famous stories, for example, Sinderella Külkedisi (Cinderella), Hayat Sevince Güzel [literally, "Loving makes life beautiful"] (Pollyanna), and Pamuk Prenses ve 7 Cüceler.
Orhan Kemal is the pen name of Turkish novelist Mehmet Raşit Öğütçü. He is known for his realist novels that describe the life of the poor in Turkey.
You Can't Win 'Em All is a 1970 British-American war film, written by Leo Gordon and directed by Peter Collinson. It stars Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson and Michèle Mercier.
Tunç Başaran was a Turkish screenwriter, film director, film producer and actor.
Çağan Irmak is a Turkish film and television writer and director, who has managed to attract a large audience in Turkey and is best known for the TV series Çemberimde Gül Oya (2004–2005) and Asmalı Konak (2002–2004), and for the hit films Alone (2008) and My Father and My Son (2005), for which he received Turkish Cinema Writers Association Awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Director.
Tarık Akan was a Turkish film actor and producer, who started his activity in the 1970s.
Tuncel Tayanç Kurtiz was a Turkish theatre, movie and TV series actor, playwright, and film director. Since 1964, he acted in more than 70 movies, including many international productions.
Ertem Eğilmez was a Turkish film director, producer and screenwriter. He is known as the name behind some of the most popular films in Turkish film history. Many of these were produced by his production company Arzu Film.
Events in the year 1970 in Turkey.
İTÜ TV is the first Turkish television station. The first Turkish television broadcast occurred on July 9, 1952, from a station at Istanbul Technical University's electrical engineering department. Weekly two-hour broadcasts from ITU continued on an experimental basis, but by 1957 there were still fewer than 200 television receivers in Istanbul. The station carried out its broadcasts on VHF channel 4. ITU broadcasts continued until 1970, and in 1971 ITU's facilities and equipment were ordered to be transferred to the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, and ITU TV was closed down forever.
