A Turkish production company is shooting parts of a film on Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on one of the stormed vessels, a company official said Tuesday.
Istanbul-based Pana Film has been using the passenger ferry, Mavi Marmara, since October 1 to film scenes from the movie, "Valley of the Wolves – Palestine," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Filming was taking place at the southern Turkish port of Iskenderun where the ship has been docked since it returned from Israel in August.
The film, set for release in January, will be the latest big-screen installment of a long-running Turkish television series on the adventures of a Turkish secret service agent that is widely criticised for being chauvinistic and glamorizing violence.
In the film, agent Polat Alemdar and his friends travel to the Palestinian territories with the task of capturing the Israeli commander who planned and led the May 31 attack against the aid fleet — a fictional character named Moshe Ben Eliezer, according to the official website of the film.
"As Polat strives to get to Moshe, he witnesses the killing of innocent Palestinian people. Moshe destroys villages, kills children and imprisons anyone who helps Polat," reads the synopsis of the film.
The May 31 raid by Israeli naval commandos on a fleet of six ships left nine Turkish activists dead aboard the Mavi Marmara, triggering international condemnation of the Jewish state and plunging Turkish-Israeli ties into crisis.
The "Valley of the Wolves" television series, which became an instant hit after it was first broadcast in 2003, is no stranger to controversy.
Earlier this year it was at centre of a diplomatic spat between Turkey and Israel when the Jewish state complained about an episode that showed the protagonist storming an Israeli diplomatic mission to rescue a Turkish boy kidnapped by Mossad.
Ankara was infuriated when Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon gave the Turkish ambassador a public dressing down to protest the series.
The row was resolved after Ayalon, bowing to pressure from Turkey, sent a letter of apology to the ambassador.
