''Five Minarets in New York'', released as ''Act of Vengeance'' in the U.S. and as ''The Terrorist'' in Australia, is a 2010 American
action film
The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
written and directed by Mahsun Kırmızıgül, which follows two Turkish police officers sent to
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to bring back a terrorist suspect. The film went on nationwide general release across the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
on 5 November 2010. The title comes from the popular Turkish folk song, "Bitlis'te Beş Minare" (meaning Five Minarets in
Bitlis
Bitlis ( or ; ) is a city in southeastern Turkey. It is the seat of Bitlis District and Bitlis Province.
Production
The film, which director Mahsun Kırmızıgül wrote the story and the screenplay for around 11 years before production commenced, was shot from April to June 2010 on location in New York City, United States and
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, Turkey with an estimated budget of
US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
20 million.
Cinematographer
Jim Gucciardo
Jim or JIM may refer to:
Names
* Jim (given name), a given name
* Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James
* Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy
People and horses
* Jim, the nickname of Yelkanum Seclamatan (died April 1911), Na ...
shot the film in
Anamorphic
Anamorphic format is a cinematography technique that captures widescreen images using recording media with narrower native Aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios. Originally developed for 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film to create widescreen pres ...
35mm using an Arricam LT with Hawk Anamorphic V series lenses as the main “A” camera as well as a 1-Arri 435 for high speed sequences and a 1-Arri 235 for handheld and special Steadicam sequences. Iraqi American production designer, John El Manahi was brought in to bring authenticity to the visual style of the sets and the complex action sequences.
Plot
The film follows two anti-terror officers from
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, sent to New York City to find and bring back a Turkish religious man named Hadji Gümüş, who they suspect is the man they've codenamed
Dajjal
Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (), otherwise referred to simply as the Dajjal, is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology who will pretend to be the promised Messiah and later claim to be God, appearing before the Day of Judgment according to the Islamic esch ...
, a terrorist who is responsible for attacks in Turkey.
Hadji is arrested in the United States, in his home in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
by FBI agents during prayer. His Christian wife, Maria, and American friend, Marcus (a devout Muslim convert), as well as close friends and family do what they can to protect Hadji, who they faithfully believe is innocent.
Hadji is on the
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...
list but has no criminal history in the US, so he is extradited back to Turkey instead. Acar and Firat are the two Turkish agents who are escorting him back. Acar is fluent in English and gets angry at
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
senior agent, Becker, for his hostility towards all
Muslims
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
Islamophobia
Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereot ...
in Turkey and the United States after
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, seeking to answer the question of whether innocence or guilt even matters to one who lusts for vengeance.Bitlis locals watch 'Five Minarets in New York' /ref>
In a plot twist, Hadji is the innocent devout Moslem man that he always claimed to be, while Firat who was so sure of Hadji's guilt, must come to terms with his deadly mistake in seeking vengeance in the end.
As the movie develops, Acar starts to also believe in Hadji's innocence and tries to get Firat to admit to himself that he got the wrong man, but Firat refuses to accept that he has the wrong man.
Back in Turkey, the real terrorist leaders are eventually caught, and the other agents discovered that Firat's father was supposedly killed by Hadji back in the 1970s; they realize that Firat was the one that had led them to Hadji all along.
Eventually, everyone is convinced of Hadji's innocence and he is released; but before returning to the US he wants to see his old mother again in his hometown. Firat and Acar insist on taking him and Maria themselves as a show of apology for the ordeal they've put on Hadji and his family and friends.
After reuniting with his mother and sitting outside her home, as he's introducing Maria and the two Turkish agents to his mom, Firat's grandfather shoots Hadji dead, which prompts Acar to automatically shoot the grandfather dead as well.
Haluk Bilginer
Nihat Haluk Bilginer (; born 5 June 1954) is a Turkish people, Turkish actor. For his role in ''Şahsiyet'' (2018), Bilginer won the International Emmy Award for Best Actor, Best Actor award at the 47th International Emmy Awards. His movie ''Wi ...
Ali Sürmeli
Ali Sürmeli (born 7 April 1959) is a Turkish theatre and cinema actor of Zaza origin.
Filmography Film
* 1983: '' Beyaz Ölüm''
* 1988: '' Dönüş''
* 1988: '' Gece Dansı Tutsakları''
* 1993: '' Hoş Memo''
* 1993: '' Mavi Sürgün''
* ...
as Hoca
*
Danny Glover
Danny Glover ( ; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, producer, and political activist. Over his career he has received List of awards and nominations received by Danny Glover, numerous accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian A ...
as Marcus
*
Gina Gershon
Gina L. Gershon (; born June 10, 1962) is an American actress and singer. She has starred in such films as ''Cocktail'' (1988), ''Red Heat'' (1988), '' Showgirls'' (1995), '' Bound'' (1996), '' Face/Off'' (1997), '' The Insider'' (1999), '' Dem ...
as Maria
*
Robert Patrick
Robert Hammond Patrick (born November 5, 1958) is an American actor. Known for portraying villains and authority figures, Patrick is a Saturn Award winner with four other nominations.
Patrick dropped out of college when drama class sparked his ...
as Becker
*
Zafer Ergin
Zafer Ergin (born 30 August 1942) is a Turkish actor who plays in ''Arka Sokaklar''.
Filmography
* ''Sümela'nın Şifresi: Temel'' – 2011
* ''Akasya Durağı'' – 2008 (guest appearance)
* ''Five Minarets in New York, New York'ta Beş Minare ...
as Head of Police officer
*
Hüseyin Avni Danyal
Hussein, Hossein, Hussain, Hossain, Huseyn, Husayn, Husein, Hussin, Hoessein, Houcine, Hocine or Husain (; ), coming from the triconsonantal root Ḥ-S-N (), is an Arabic name which is the diminutive of Hassan (given name), Hassan, meaning "g ...
as Police officer
* Salih Kalyon as Police officer
*
Mustafa Sandal
Mustafa Sandal (born 11 January 1970) is a Turkish singer-songwriter and actor. At the beginning of the 1990s, he wrote and composed a number of songs for other singers and made a reputation for himself in the music industry. He had leading role ...
Emrah Yücel
Emrah Yucel (born May 24, 1968), is a Turkish advertising and graphic designer based in Los Angeles, United States, USA. He specialized in motion picture advertising as well as country and city branding.
Yucel was born as the son of a screenwri ...
designed the theatrical poster for the film, which features New York's signature skyline in the background with minarets rising among skyscrapers. Headshots of the film's leading cast were also added in a revised version.
Teasers showing Mahsun Kırmızıgül and Mustafa Sandal running around the streets of New York City with footage of a speech by U.S. President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
, planes crashing into the World Trade Center and a group of Muslims praying in
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
, managed to shock and raise anticipation in Turkish Audiences.
The film was shown to distribution company officials at the
American Film Market
The American Film Market (AFM) is a film industry event held annually in early November. Historically, more than 7,000 people attend the eight-day annual event to network and to sell, finance, and acquire films. Participants come from more than 7 ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, where, according to the international distributor Yarek Danielak, "We received more interest than we expected. We will invite Kırmızıgül to the U.S. for the film’s screening in the country. Everyone seeing the film is curious about its director." "Besides three American distributors, the film received great interest from many distributors throughout the world", and has also been sold to Japan,
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
, the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
and the United Kingdom.
Release
Press screening
A special press screening in Istanbul and Ankara was scheduled for 1 November 2010 but was canceled allegedly at the instigation of director and star Mahsun Kırmızıgül because of the criticism of the Turkish Cinema Writers Association of his two previous films.
General release
The film opened in 700 screens across Turkey on at number one in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$4,882,738.
Reception
Box office
The movie was at number one at the Turkish box office for four weeks and has made a total gross of US$19,762,166 in Turkey and US$20,948,284 worldwide.
Reviews
''
Today's Zaman
''Today's Zaman'' (Zaman is Turkish for 'time' or 'age') was an English-language daily newspaper based in Turkey. Established on 17 January 2007, it was the English-language edition of the Turkish daily '' Zaman.'' ''Today's Zaman'' included dom ...
'' reviewer Emine Yıldırım describes Mahsun Kırmızıgül as, "a director of noble intentions", who, "really tries so hard to do right by his political convictions, which can be summed up as equality, peace against violence, rage over the innocent lives taken by Middle Eastern conflicts and an obstinate stand against
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a revivalist and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. The term has been used interchangeably with similar terms such as Islamism, Islamic revivalism, Qut ...
." But, "It’s almost like you’re not watching a movie but listening to an oration during a campaign by a political figure", and, "his characters are not genuine characters but are cardboard avatars of the actor-director-screenwriter voicing his opinions in blatant dialogues that lack any kind of sophistication or notion of literary value." Yıldırım does however single out Haluk Bilginer for praise by stating that, "Despite the script, he still comes off clean as one of the most talented and charismatic Turkish actors of his generation. He is the sole reason that anyone should watch this movie", and, "his performance duly delivers what Kırmızıgül cannot achieve through his script: the notion of being pious without being oppressive, a peace-loving person motivated by compassion and openness." Of Kırmızıgül himself Yıldırım writes, "the man does have a peculiar screen charisma, and he knows really well that mass Turkish audiences love macho-fueled simplified revenge fantasies of oppressed groups and grandiose melodramas. Of course, at the end of the day, box office numbers will prove if this thesis is correct", and "I still have hopes that one day these underlying good intentions will lead to decent cinema."
See also
*
2010 in film
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science t ...