The First Gokturk

**PointOfViewGun** · May 23, 2019, 10:03 AM

The First Gokturk | Pre-Production Part I: Our Idea and Passion

This is a new project from Alper Çağlar to highlight Turkic mythological stories. It stems from his desire to introduce Turkic myths to the world as a trilogy. He is known for military oriented movies and TV series such as Dağ and Börü. His productions are known to have very high quality and often don't go along the way of other such movies or TV shows where Turkish soldiers are always presented as best of the best or with some chest pumping aura. Börü, for example, deals with a lot of psychological issues of a special forces personelle along the main story. So, it's bound to be a high quality project. I stumbled upon this practically dev-diary video from him that provides quite some good material. Could be good to have an eye out for others.

**PointOfViewGun** · January 08, 2023, 12:12 PM

They have been building up some steam with actual production. Here is the sword being forged that is the primary symbol of the trilogy:

**Septentrionalis** · January 08, 2023, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by PointOfViewGun

They have been building up some steam with actual production. Here is the sword being forged that is the primary symbol of the trilogy:

Curious how the sword looks so atypical for a Turkish make. I cannot actually place it in any culture. Also the Chinese character, horse if my memory serves me well, is a curious detail.

**PointOfViewGun** · January 08, 2023, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by Septentrionalis

Curious how the sword looks so atypical for a Turkish make. I cannot actually place it in any culture. Also the Chinese character, horse if my memory serves me well, is a curious detail.

I'm no expert on the matter but I think when people think of Turkish they think of Ottoman. Actual Turkic culture and craftsmanship is quite different from the Ottoman Turks which is actually an evolution of Turkic culture with Persian, Arabic and Greek influences.

**mishkin** · January 08, 2023, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by Septentrionalis

Also the Chinese character, horse if my memory serves me well, is a curious detail.

typical tacky in any guy's workshop. no doubt he also had some calendars lying around that they asked him to remove for the photos.

(nice sword)

**Septentrionalis** · January 08, 2023, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by mishkin

typical tacky in any guy's workshop. no doubt he also had some calendars lying around that they asked him to remove for the photos.

(nice sword)

I see now. I understood that as a scene from the upcoming movie trilogy, not someone making the weapons for the production of the films. How embarrassing given the obviously modern dress of the smith and POVG mentioning production.

**PointOfViewGun** · January 08, 2023, 03:07 PM

Oh, its just this guy from the movie production working on a real sword for movie props:

Also, early on Turks looked a lot more like the Chinese than Turks in Turkey look now. It's most visible from Ottoman sultan portraits from the early times of the empire. Göktürks, the main Turkic group in the movie, rose to power in 500s and originated from Altai Mountains (west of modern Mongolia).

**Lord Oda Nobunaga** · April 09, 2023, 12:55 PM

Okay Bumin.

**Roma_Victrix** · April 16, 2023, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by PointOfViewGun

Also, early on Turks looked a lot more like the Chinese than Turks in Turkey look now. It's most visible from Ottoman sultan portraits from the early times of the empire. Göktürks, the main Turkic group in the movie, rose to power in 500s and originated from Altai Mountains (west of modern Mongolia).

It wasn't just that they appeared more East Asiatic or Mongolic in terms of phenotype; in terms of culture they became somewhat Sinicized due to Imperial Chinese encroachment. The First Turkic Khaganate of the Gokturks collapsed in 603 AD during China's Sui Dynasty, and split into the Eastern and Western Turkic Khaganates. Following the downfall of Sui (due to an unpopular failed invasion of Goguryeo in Korea), China's subsequent Tang dynasty conquered the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. After that they clobbered the Goguryeo Kingdom in northern Korea with the help of their ally Silla, and then turned their attention onto the Western Turkic Khaganate in 657 AD. The Turkic peoples under Tang suzerainty became influenced by Chinese culture, naturally. However, the Second Turkic Khaganate emerged in 682 and lasted until 744 AD when it was supplanted by another Turkic power, the Uyghur Khaganate.

As for the docuseries thing here, it looks okay I guess, but would be nice if the narrator belonged to some Turkic group.