The Balkan Chronicle

The third Macedonian Turkish Films Week will commence tomorrow in the Macedonian cities of Skopje and Bitola. The event is organized by the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry and will continue through Nov. 27.

According to a written statement made by the ministry, the opening of the festival will be held tomorrow at a press conference with the participation of the sultan of Turkish cinema, Türkan Şoray, at the Bitola National Culture Center.

Extracts from the book, The Bible, The Quran and Science, by Maurice Bucaille

RELIGION AND SCIENCE

There is, perhaps, no better illustration of the close links between Islam and science than the Prophet Muhammad's often-quoted statements:

"Seeking knowledge is compulsory on every Muslim."

"wisdom is the lost property of the believer."

"whoever follows a path seeking knowledge, Allah will make his path to paradise easy."

The recent documentary movie ‘Turkish Passport’ is the unlikely story of Turkish diplomats who helped save tens of thousands of lives by issuing passports to Jews during World War II. The new documentary contains extensive research and an impressive production, which hits the right nerves, especially in these trying times.

The Holocaust might have been an accurate indicator of how low humanity could go and of the atrocities humans were capable of. Great tragedies make good stories, and the Holocaust has been an unfaltering source for storytellers for decades.

Bulgarian MEPs outraged over a Macedonian film that depicts wartime Bulgarians as fascists are calling on Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle to confront Skopje over the film.

MEPs Andrey Kovachev (EPP), Evgeni Kirilov (S&D) and Stanimir Ilchev (ALDE) have signed a letter, a copy of which was obtained by EurActiv, in which they state their concern over the "attempt to manipulate Balkan history" and "spread hate" on the part of the EU candidate country against its neighbours.

A temple, claimed to be the oldest temple in history, was found in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa in 1964. Ahmet Turgut Yazman went to the city for detailed research in 2006 and produced a movie

A documentary tracking the unearthing of the oldest temple in the world is turning previously held beliefs about monotheistic religions and mainstream ideas on human history on their head, according to its director.

American filmmaker Joshua Marston knew from the beginning that making his second feature "The Forgiveness of Blood" in Albania would be a challenge. The film, which received a Silver Bear for screenwriting at the Berlin Film Festival, depicts a family feud between two neighboring families in the southeastern European country. In an effort to make the film as authentic to its locale as possible,  Marston wrote the script with Albanian Andamion Murataj and says he hired as many Albanian crew and cast members as possible. 

But in the end it wasn't enough for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which deemed the film ineligible for the foreign-language Oscar race because it had extensive participation from non-Albanians. The academy has forced the Albanian film committee to choose another film as its official choice for the foreign-language category, and it selected Bujar Alimani's "Amnesty."

Hazim Akmadžić, is Bosnian author who was born in 1954 in Western Bosnian town of Cazin. His works were published in a number of overviews, panoramas, and anthologies in Bosnian-Herzegovian literature.

His work has been translated into English, German, French, and Turkish language. He has been the recipient of the Yearly award from the business association of Bosnian-Herzegovian publishers, for the novel „Mimar" in the year 2002. His novel „Gazi Husrev-bey" is currently being translated into Turkish language. Another of his novels, Gazi Isa-bey has been nominated for the highest B-H literary award Meša Selimović in the year 2007.

Akmadzic now lives and works in Sarajevo, BiH, and Balkan Chronicle talked to him about his interesting newest book and few more things.

The Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) has announced that Ireland’s submission for the Foreign Language category at the 2012 Academy Awards will be director Juanita Wilson’s As If I Am Not There, which tells the story of a woman facing the living nightmare of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. The film is based on an acclaimed book of the same name by Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic.

An Irish/Macedonian/Swedish co-production filmed in Macedonia in late 2009, it primarily uses the Serbo-Croat language, and was developed and produced by Irish producers James Flynn (Octagon Films) and Nathalie Lichtenthaeler (Wide Eye Films). The Irish team behind the project also includes cinematographer Tim Fleming, editor Nathan Nugent and composer Brian Crosby.