Dost: A 49-Year Story

Publisher and Secretary General of the Turkish Publishers Association, Nazlı Berivan Ak, presents her second documentary following The Bookseller. “Dost: A 49-Year Story” is a 40-minute documentary that tells the story of Dost Bookstore, a landmark of Ankara’s cultural life, while also focusing on the transformation of publishing in Türkiye and the ongoing struggle to preserve written culture. The film unfolds through an in-depth conversation with Erdal Akalın, the founder of Dost Bookstore. Moving from the evolution of distribution systems and publisher–bookseller relations to book selection processes and the future of independent bookstores, the narrative also touches on milestones such as the introduction of the barcode system to Türkiye and the formation of the Dost Publishing catalogue. In doing so, the documentary offers a compelling testimony to the Turkish publishing ecosystem.