Leading Entrepreneurs of Cinema in Turkey: İpekçi Brothers
İpekçi Brothers was the first firm that achieved vertical integration of production,
distribution and exhibition in the film industry in Turkey. The family, who started
to do their first business in the film industry by selling cameras and film stock in
Thessaloniki Bonmarche, started to be active in the exhibition by running the
Alhambra Cinema and started to be active in film distribution by making foreign
purchases and being agents of Paramount and Ufa Film studios. In 1928, they also
started film production with İpek Film and for a while became the only production
company in the country. During this period when they were the only production
company, the strongest distributor and the operator of the most prestigious
cinemas, they worked with the most important and creative names of the country,
followed the innovations in the world and tried to apply them. However, when
their capital from trade was not enough to finance these attempts, they had to
borrow from the bank (İşbank, a state institution) yet they still could not escape
being one of the filmmakers who suffered the heaviest injuries from the Wealth
Tax. Despite their entrepreneurial motivations and professionalization attempts in
the film business, İpekçiler always remained as a family-run firm. This pioneering
and powerful family initiative did not go beyond dependency on people who had
strong connections with cinema (e.g. Ihsan, Cemil and Osman Ipekci) and enjoyed
their power just for a single period of cinema in Turkey.
