Turkish blockbuster depicts US forces as ‘wolves’

IN the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, US soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother.

They kill dozens of innocents with machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison - where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells in New York, London and Tel Aviv.

Valley of the Wolves Iraq - set to open in Turkey today - feeds off the increasingly negative feelings many Turks harbour toward their longtime NATO ally.

The movie, which reportedly cost $10 million (€8 million), is the latest in a new genre demonising the US, hot on the heels of a novel called Metal Storm, about a war between Turkey and the US.

One recent opinion poll revealed the depth of the hostility in Turkey toward the US: 53% of Turks who responded to the 2005 Pew Global Attitudes survey associated Americans with the word “rude”; 70% with “violent”; 68% with “greedy”; and 57% with “immoral”.

Advance tickets are already selling out across Turkey for the film, which has dialogue in Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish and English.

The movie’s US stars are Billy Zane and Gary Busey.

A grudge also fuels Turkish resentment of the US, revealed in the film.

Valley of the Wolves Iraq opens with a true story. On July 4, 2003, in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq, US troops raided a Turkish special forces office and held 11 officers for more than two days. The Americans were looking for insurgents, but the incident damaged Turkish-US relations and hurt Turkish national pride.

In the movie an elite Turkish intelligence officer travels to northern Iraq with a small group of men to avenge the humiliation.

“The scenario is great,” Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas said after the film premiere on Tuesday. “A soldier’s honour must never be damaged.”