Norwegian filmmakers Jørgen Lorentzen and Nefise Özkal Lorentzen have released a documentary examining Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt, focusing on soldiers and military cadets who were beaten or killed on the Bosporus Bridge in İstanbul.
The documentary, titled A Gift From God, focuses on what happened to soldiers on the bridge after they surrendered in the early hours of July 16.
The film argues that the deaths and attempted lynchings of military personnel on the bridge have not been properly investigated, despite video footage and witness accounts showing violence against soldiers after they were no longer resisting.
The Bosporus Bridge, later renamed the 15 July Martyrs Bridge, became one of the central sites of the coup attempt and one of the most heavily used symbols in the government’s official narrative.
The documentary challenges that narrative by drawing attention to people killed or attacked outside the category of civilian victims commonly emphasized in official commemorations.
Its distribution materials describe the film as the result of three years of investigative journalism, using witness accounts, documents and previously unseen footage to examine what happened that night.
The film includes an interview with journalist Can Ataklı, who raises allegations that paramilitary groups, including SADAT, were involved in violence against soldiers on the bridge.
SADAT is a private military consultancy founded by retired Brig. Gen. Adnan Tanrıverdi, who later served as an adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The documentary also examines the conduct of police officers who, according to the film, failed to prevent attacks on soldiers after their surrender.
Both Fethullah Gülen and Erdoğan were offered interviews for the documentary, according to the report.
Only Gülen agreed to speak.
Ankara blames the coup attempt on the Gülen movement, a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, and designates the movement as a terrorist organization. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Jørgen Lorentzen said the most shocking aspect for him was the mass detention of people he said had no connection to the coup attempt.
“For me, the most shocking thing is the mass arrest of tens of thousands of people who had absolutely nothing to do with the coup attempt and who certainly did nothing to support it,” Lorentzen said.
The title A Gift From God refers to Erdoğan’s description of the coup attempt on the night of July 15, a phrase critics have cited when arguing that the government used the failed putsch to justify mass purges, prosecutions and institutional restructuring.
The film is available through video-on-demand platforms including Vimeo, according to its distribution page.
