Midnight Express

Alan Parker's 1978 film covers the prison years of an American caught smuggling hashish in Turkey. His sentence is increased. Escape is left as the only way out. The film draws its tension from confinement; the narrative gives its Turkish characters almost entirely through violence and threat. It won two Academy Awards, for its screenplay and its score. The screenwriter Oliver Stone apologised in Turkey years later for that portrayal. The man whose memoir it came from also said the film went beyond the truth. Who it's for: those studying the history of cinema and the prison film. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a balanced picture of Turkey and Turkish people; the film is unfair and one-sided there.