Turkey will have its presidential election on Aug. 10. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of the three candidates, and by far the leading one, according to various polls. Therefore, his election to the presidency would come as no surprise.

But many in Turkey wonder where exactly the country will head to once Erdogan becomes president and transforms this traditionally symbolic post into an all-powerful seat, because it is clear that Erdogan’s ambitions are far bigger than any of the previous elected Turkish politicians. He and his supporters see his presidency not just as a mundane change of seats, but as a historic revolution that will seal a century-long era in Turkish history and open a whole new one. 

To put this political psychology of the Erdogan camp in a nutshell, you must see the new three-minute propaganda film Erdogan’s team has launched in the days before the election. With professional cinematography and an emotional tone, the film underlines the basic theme of the Erdogan campaign: Erdogan is the embodiment of his nation, and his victory will be nothing but the victory of “the people.” 

The film begins with a scene in a remote village in Turkey’s heartland, showing an elderly Muslim woman performing her prayers. She then opens her closet, taking out an apparently most precious gift. Wrapped carefully in red satin, the gift is given to her son, or son-in-law, who then starts to run to take it to an unknown destination. Then you see many other Turks, similarly wrapping their gifts in red satin and giving them to their sons, some of whom are horsemen, who all head to the same destination in an epic, if not sacred, sequence. (No wonder the film was banned by the judicial body of the Higher Election Board after its release, because it utilizes “religious symbols,” which is prohibited by law in Turkish election campaigns.)