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The story of an amazing Franco-Hungarian cinematographer in the turbulent times of the end of Empires. Based on Antoine Kope's memoirs.
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"Antoine the Fortunate” charts the rise and fall of the fortunes of this ordinary man and his Austro-Hungarian family. They witnessed the dramatic events leading to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of modern Turkey. Antoine has recorded his story in hundreds of hitherto unreleased home movies, photographs, drawings, audio recordings and letters from the early 20th century to the 1970’s when he emigrated to the US.
The film is a first person account of the radical transformations brought about by the end of the age of empires and one man’s struggle to survive to find his place in a changing world.
Today, Turkey and the Middle East carry many contradictions that were playing out during Antoine’s life: ambiguity towards religion, repression of minorities, extreme nationalism, emergence of populist leaders and never-ending conflicts. Antoine’s tale helps us to make sense of these transformations, which continue to define our world today.
THE PRESS:
"During his entire existence, this man took care to document the smallest sequence of his life. Through his writings, his drawings, his films shot with a small camera, Antoine Köpe, born an Austro-Hungarian citizen in 1897 in Constantinople, who died an American citizen, has brought together a mass of archives which constitute the richness of this documentary, embellished by insights from historians and period news archives, including rare images of the war waged on the Palestine front in 1917....
This deep insight into the upheavals of history is fascinating."
Alain Constant (Le Monde, 04/11/22)
Festivals and Awards:
* 2022: FOCAL INTL AWARDS: Winner category "Best Use of Footage in a History Production"
2019: Sunny Side of the Doc - Award for "Best History Pitch"