Antoine the Fortunate

Antoine Köpe, a French photographer, cameraman and caricaturist, witnessed earth-shattering upheavals at the beginning of the 20th century.

Based on Antoine Köpe’s private memoirs and unseen archive collection of unprecedented scope and beauty, Antoine the Fortunate tells the story of the survival of a man and his family during the most turbulent times of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of modern Turkey. Antoine was an Austro-Hungarian citizen of the Ottoman Empire who witnessed the Balkan Wars, fought in Palestine during WW1, experienced the occupation of Constantinople by the Allied forces and the turmoil which lead to the Kemalist Revolution and the declaration of the Turkish republic. His story is told through his memoirs and personal archive, which he started as a child in the early 20th century and continued throughout his life, including hundreds of never before seen home movies, photographs, sketches, comic strips, newspaper clippings, audio recordings and letters.

The documentary charts the rise and fall of the fortunes of this ordinary man and his family, as they struggle to survive and find their place in a changing world, helping us to make sense of the forces which swept through Turkey in the early 20th Century and transformed the lives of its inhabitants. Ultimately, it’s a first person tale about coming to terms with childhood, identity, and memory, but also a historical record of the transformation of Europe.

A film by Nefin Dinç.

Documentary
50 Min.

Directed by: Nefin Dinç
Written by: Nefin Dinç, Apostolos Karakasis
Producers: Jakob Pochlatko, Dieter Pochlatko, Rea Apostolides, Yuri Averof, Clara Vuillermoz, Nefin Dinç
Line Producer: Heinrich Mayer-Moroni
Production Manager: Elektra Peppa, Fjoralba Koka, Armel Parisot, Canelle Kieffer-Silou, Juliette Bonnaud, Laurence Chassion, Ricki Oelmack
Director of Photography: Christina Moumouri, Yannis Kanakis, Feza Çaldira, Dominik Spritzendorfer, Ray Whitehouse
Edited by: Angelos Angelidis
Music: Carla Pallone
Additional music: Cezanne Music Agency
Narrators: Eszter Hollósi, Paul Matić, Alexander Absenger, Babett Arens, Judith Brandner, Michou Friesz, Michael Köppel, Manuel Witting
Commissioning Editors: Judith Brandner (ORF), Elisabeth Hagstedt (Historie TV), Anastasia Veroni, Artemis Skoulondi (Cosmote TV)
among others

produced in: 2021
first broadcasted: 22. Oktober 2021

a co-production by EPO-Film, Anemon Productions, POINT DU JOUR - Les Films du Balibari

in co-production with  ORF, HISTOIRE TV, COSMOTE TV

in association with  3 Corse ViaStella, ICI RDI

with the financial support of Creative Europe Media, CNC, EKOME, REGION PAYS DE LA LOIRE, PROCIREP, ANGOA, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN WASHINGTON D.C.