The fascinatingly awful Turkish superhero films of a few decades ago

Starting in the late 1960s, Turkey produced a number of low-budget, high-octane superhero and adventure movies

A small mercy of the ongoing pandemic is that we get a break from the rash of lacklustre yet somehow blockbuster fantasy films that hits cinemas every summer. Hollywood franchise movies, which at first seemed visually enthralling and emotionally layered, are being churned out so routinely and with variations so slight, they have become, as Martin Scorsese scathingly put it last year, “sequels in name but remakes in spirit”. 

So I chose this moment, away from Marvel, DC and Disney, to check out more vintage and unique alternatives from the same general realm. Starting in the late 1960s, Turkey produced