Turkey - Istanbul:Truth, fear and hope

Istanbul, Europe's biggest city and the former capital of two European empires (The Byzantine and the Ottoman) is today the best place to grasp the contrasts, contradictions and promises of modern Turkey at the beginning of the 21st century. It is a city with a rich and fascinating history, which nonetheless struggles to come to terms with its past. Our film explores the tensions which lie just underneath the surface of this glittering town. How to deal with a complicated multiethnic past? How to overcome the bitter power struggle -- in Istanbul and across Turkey as a whole -- between new and old elites? How to define a place for religion in general, and Islam in particular, in a country that seeks to join the European Union?