I spent my childhood in my uncle’s movie theatre watching in awe the cheap adventure films he shot. Those films were magnificent escapism machines for me. One day, I met the man who directed those films. The first time I met Yılmaz Atadeniz was in 2010 at a film festival in Elazığ. I rushed to his side and during the rest of the festival, I was right beside him, listening what he has to say and taking notes. Talking to him and listening him reminisce was like opening a treasure chest for a film critic like me who is devoted to fantasy and adventure films of Yeşilçam. I mostly like his Kilink adventures, but my absolute favorite which I never get tired of watching is his marvelous film Casus Kıran / Spy Trasher. He works such wonders with a tiny budget that I bet if Roger Corman knew him, he would stop praising himself. He not only made fantasy adventures but also tried his hand at Westerns, a genre quite daring for Turkish cinema. Once he cheered us up by saying “Italians were making Spaghetti Westerns. We were making Tarhana soup Westerns”… Throughout the years, he has done so many of them that I could easily say that he single-handedly created a genre in our cinema… Despite his advanced age Yılmaz Atadeniz is a chevalier who is still concerned about the industry and its workers, never ceasing to battle for their rights. Despite those who stomp on the name of Yeşilçam, he gives a lesson on how to be a real filmmaker wherever he goes… -Murat Tolga Şen

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