THE ANNOUNCEMENT / ANONS

May 22nd, 1963. Unhappy with the existing social and political situation in Turkey, a group of military officers have planned a coup d’état to take down the government in Ankara. Meanwhile in Istanbul, their conspirators have undertaken the vital mission of taking over the National Radio station and making a formal announcement about the coup. But nothing goes to plan. Faced with a number of obstacles, including a sudden rainstorm, the absence of the radio station technician, a betrayal, the lack of feedback from Ankara and their very own insufficiency, the conspirators scramble to keep their plan on track and announce the success of the coup – that is, if the coup in the capital has taken place at all. Based on actual events and told over the course of a single night, The Announcement is a commentary on Turkey’s uneasy political past – and present.

„Many commentators will fall over themselves to make comparisons to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey, but Coşkun and co-writer Ercan Kesal (he worked with Nuri Bilge Ceylan on two scripts), aim for something far less specific, laying bare a more general attitude toward power and the survival mechanisms in place when the general population become pawns in a furtive game.“

Jay Weissberg, Variety