Directors: Belmin Söylemez, Berke Baş, Haşmet Topaloğlu, Somnur Vardar
Screenplay: Belmin Söylemez, Berke Baş, Haşmet Topaloğlu, Somnur Vardar
Producers: Belmin Söylemez, Berke Baş, Haşmet Topaloğlu, Somnur Vardar

Turkey, in summer 2007; the general election is in two months time and political campaigning is everywhere. Six different women are working hard to reach the same goal: to be a member of parliament. One business woman, one professor, one Kurdish activist, two former sex-workers and the youngest candidate of the dissidents… Each performs her political activities through discourses of her attitude. There is pressure at every level: men, money, time, voters and rivals. İstanbul based film collective Filmist’s “What a Beautiful Democracy!” is an observational documentary reflecting both women’s struggle for power and also the social face of today’s polarized Turkey.

Belmin Söylemez

She worked as copy writer, editor, director and producer. Her short films and documentaries got national and international awards and were shown on TV Channels such as ARTE, SVT (Sweden), YLE (Finland) SBS.

Selected Filmographies

2008 Bu Ne Güzel Demokrasi!/What a Beautiful Democracy!
2004 34 Taksi/34 Taxi (belgesel/documentary)
2001 Dalgalar/Waves (kısa/short)
2000 Bıyık/The Moustache (belgesel/documentary)
1999 Uyku Hali/State of Sleep (kısa deneysel/short experimental)

Berke Baş

She received her master’s degree in media studies at New School University, New York. She has worked in various documentary projects and publicity videos dealing especially with individual and public rights.

Selected Filmographies

2008 Bu Ne Güzel Demokrasi!/What a Beautiful Democracy!
2005 Transit/In Transit (documentary)
2002 Brooklyn’i Geçmek/Crossing Brooklyn (documentary)

Haşmet Topaloğlu

He has worked for national TV channels over a period of ten years as reporter, producer, and presenter mainly on human stories. Since 2002 he produces documentaries and educational films for NGO's.

Selected Filmographies

2008 Bu Ne Güzel Demokrasi!/What a Beautiful Democracy!
2005 Bugün İstanbul Ne Güzel/How Beautiful Istanbul is Today (documentary)
2005 Beş Yapı Ustası/Five Masters of Construction (documentary)
2004 Sarı Üstüne Siyah/Black on Yellow (documentary)

Somnur Vardar

She received her M.A. from Media Studies program of New School for Social Research, NY. She wrote, produced and directed documentaries on social and political history, urban affairs and current political affairs for NTV- news channel. She is currently working on her feature length documentary “Will You Marry Me?”.

Selected Filmographies

2008 Bu Ne Güzel Demokrasi!/What a Beautiful Democracy!
1999 Meşrutiyet’ten Günümüze Seçimler/Turkey’s Electoral History
1999 Akdeniz’de Bir Ada/ An Island on the Mediterranean
1998 Anılarda Cumhuriyet/ Memories of the Republic
1998 40 Yıllık Alamanya Rüyası/ The German Dream of 40 Years

Festivals & Awards

2009 Göteborg Film Festival
2009 Filmmor Women’s Film Festival
2008 İstanbul Film Festival
2008 Sarajevo Film Festival
2008 Turkish Film Critics’ Award
2008 Festival on Wheels, Turkey
2008 1001 Documentary Film Festival