Television Malta produces a documentary on 150-year old Maltese community in Izmir

TVM crew features in Turkish programme to be aired on TRT Belgesel HD

The cooperation agreement signed between Public Broadcasting Services Ltd of Malta and Turkey’s Radio Television Corporation paved the way for a Maltese TV crew to visit Izmir and produce a number of documentaries on the city and its people.

The documentary Farkli Bakis will be aired this Saturday on TRT Belgesel HD in Turkey; while the first of two episodes from the documentary Maltin f’Izmir will be aired on TVM on Sunday, 6 March.

PBS Chairman Tonio Portughese spoke of the reciprocal benefits emanating from this co-operation agreement signed last year between the national public broadcasting entities of Malta and Turkey. TVM and TRT are collaborating in the production of well-researched and high-quality documentaries. The agreement offers new opportunities through which the Maltese and Turkish television audiences are presented with programmes on each other’s heritage and culture. Dr Portughese said that TRT and PBS share a common vision when it comes to radio and television and they collaborate closely within the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as well.

Farkli Bakis ( A Different Perspective), produced by TRT, follows the Maltese TV crew around the city of Izmir and the provinces of Izmir and Denizli. Sarah-Lee Zammit, Leslie Galea and Mario Xuereb accompany Ali Mert Özgün and Begüm Hazal Demircan as they indulge in the sights and sounds of western Anatolia, and discover the charm of places like Hierapolis, Pamukkale, Pergamon and the sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of Ephesus. Focus shifts swiftly from the natural beauty of the places, to their historical, musical, cultural and gastronomic legacies. This third instalment of a TRT documentary with a Maltese element, will be aired on TRT Belgesel HD on Saturday, 27 March.

Television Malta has also pro- duced two documentaries which seek to shed light on the history of emigration and on the Maltese community that settled in Izmir in the second half of the 19th century.

The documentary, aptly named Maltin f’Izmir (Maltese in Izmir) deals with the history of this community that in the early 20th century was made up of at least 3,000 people. One hundred fifty years and five generations later, the Maltese in Izmir number less than a hundred. The documentary tells their story in the context of the wider Turkish and eastern Mediterranean history.

With the aid of Professor Henry Frendo, a historian who has researched extensively into the history of migration, Mario Xuereb and Sarah-Lee Zammit meet a few of the surviving members of this community and try to get to grips with the challenges of migration and integration with which all the Levantines, including the Maltese, were faced with.

Maltin f’Izmir will be aired on Sunday 6 March at 6.45pm on TVM.