Scars of a Putsch

History has left scars on the body of Abidin Ertuğrul, the partner of director Nathalie Borgers. Her film follows these scars back to the Turkey of the 1970s, when Ertuğrul was forced out of the bus taking him to university by a fascist militia and hit by seven bullets. On 12 September 1980, the Turkish military carries out another putsch. The images of rallies and demonstrations give way to footage of mass arrests. In the meantime, the world outside applauds the former chief of general staff and new president Kenan Evren for the neo-liberal reforms that he pushes through. Borgers reconstructs the atmosphere of tension before the putsch and the ever more tangible repression afterwards, drawing lines of connection to the rise of Erdoğan and the authoritarian present. With impressive historical footage from international archives and in conversations full of warmth and openness, Scars of a Putsch traces out the tradition of democratic movements in Turkey, which have endured with great persistence despite all the violence of the state.