'It’s a Young Country’: Turkey and Akbank

Synopsis: Commissioned to make a film for a teaching case at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, filmmaker Charles Mann drew upon seven years as a working economist in Turkey to produce a film that captures the spirit of the country’s cultural and economic transformation.

Top management of Akbank, arguably Turkey’s most successful bank, provide a window into contemporary Turkey and its prospects as they weigh alternative paths for the bank’s future growth. Explaining Akbank’s emphasis on innovation and youth, Chairman and Managing Director Suzan Sabanc Dinçer sums up Turkey’s demographic transformation: "It’s a young country!".

Economic historian Professor Yahya Sezai Tezel provides contextual narrative about the country’s economic and cultural restructuring. Director Franco Sacchi’s inspired cinematography provides images that support and illustrate the film’s narrative arc of transformation. This film provides a real sense of engagement with contemporary Turkey by allowing viewers to see the country through the eyes of people both propelling and reacting to change in coastal and Anatolian towns, as well as in universities and metropolitan centres.
Series: Development Communications Workshop
Language: English
Country: United States
Year of release: 2009
Subjects: Social sciences
Keywords: banks; economic change; social change; Turkey; economic history

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Notes: American company with an extensive catalogue of documentary films from around the world in the areas of ethnology, anthropology, world cultures, religion, women’s studies and human rights. Supplied on PAL/NTSC video and multi-region DVD, or download via the Reframe Collection (qv).

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