This article examines the history of Turkish cinema from a cultural perspective. By drawing on articles written by the director Şakir Sırmalı and certain polemical responses to them, it evaluates his impact on film circles in Turkey in the 1950s. Sırmalı was excluded from professional and critical circles while attempting to raise awareness of problems within the Turkish film industry. His professional career as a director and producer ended abruptly, because his distinctive film-making style did not suit the cultural, social, and economic conditions of the film industry at the time.