A Film Inspired by the Death of a Young Homosexual Killed by His Father Premiers in Turkey
"Zenne Dancer" is planned for several days in Turkish cinema. The film is based on a true story: the murder of a young 26 year old in 2008 in Istanbul, killed by his own father because he was gay.
With their feature film, Mehmet Binay Caner Alper hope to launch a major debate on homophobia and LGBT rights in Turkey. Zenne Dancer was released a few days ago in Turkish cinema.
It features three main characters: Daniel, a German photographer who does not know much about the values of Middle East Can, a flamboyant oriental dancer, gay, and proud to be supported by his family and Ahmey, born in a very conservative family and whose quest for freedom and the desire for honesty will lead to death ...
The tragic end of that character is even more chilling when you know it is inspired by a real story.
"The starting point was the murder of a dear friend, murdered in Istanbul in 2008 by his father because he was gay," says Mehmet Binay to CNN. The only fault of Ahmet Yildiz, an Istanbul student of 26 years was that he was dating a boy. His family tried to "cure" him before the father eventually killed him.
Homophobic Treatments In Turkey
Many LGBTs regularly rebel against the aggressions and violations of human rights.
"All minorities, including gays and lesbians seek rights. They want recognition, they want protection. They want the right to live, first of all, and not be killed, "says the co-director of Zenne Dancer .
The film caught the attention of inhuman treatment that his country reserves to the LGBT.This is especially true in the military where gays may be exempted from military service if they cannot prove their sexual orientation. Zenne Dancer then depicts the degrading process through which gay persons who dare to speak pass through.The doctors conduct military anal examinations, insult gays and require pictures of frolicking men as proof.
Two film producers who work and in live together, Caner Alper and Mehmet Binay, produced a film for Turkey’s film festival. Shortly before the screening of their feature film, Antalya Golden Orange, at the Film Festival, the most prestigious film festival in Turkey, the two men announced that they had been a couple for 14 years.
Caner Alper said that his family was completely opposed to his coming out: "They told me it was suicide for my career! Until they won five awards at the festival ... " With the welcome criticism and the world of cinema, the two directors are aware that there is still work to be done, and a long time before the homophobia in their country ends. According to the Turkish armed forces, for example, homosexuality is still considered a "psychosexual deviance."
In Turkey, a film inspired by the death of a young homo killed by his father
Frank Mugisha, Ugandan Gay Activist, Receives Death Threats, Fears For His Life
A Ugandan gay activist who wrote a New York Times op-ed piece in December, speaking out against homophobia in his country enforced by the government and the police, has received threats and says he fears for his life, afraid to even go shopping alone or eat in a restaurant for fear of being poisoned.
"Just two days ago there was a very big piece of news about me," said Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, in an interview by phone from Kampala on my radio program on SiriusXM OutQ yesterday, referring to an article he says was written in a local newspaper, attacking him for writing the New York Times op-ed.
"It said that everything we are saying is not true. That we are just trying to get sympathy in the Western world. They put my picture in the newspaper with all these hate words and of course I got a lot of bad emails, bad phones, a lot of harassment against me."
Mugisha, who in November received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award at a ceremony in Washington, had written in the Times back on December 22 about the conditions for LGBT people in in his country, which came under international criticism beginning in 2009 for its consideration of what had come to be known as the "kill the gays" bill, a law that if enacted would make homosexuality punishable by death or life imprisonment.
The bill was shelved in May of 2011, but Mugisha wrote that it could be introduced again at any time.
"Here, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people suffer brutal attacks, yet cannot report them to the police for fear of additional violence, humiliation, rape or imprisonment at the hands of the authorities," Mugisha wrote in the Times. "We are expelled from school and denied health care because of our perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. If your boss finds out (or suspects) you are gay, you can be fired immediately. People are outed in the media -- or if they have gay friends, they are assumed to be 'gay by association.'"
Mugisha also discussed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's historic speech in Geneva last month which put pressure on countries around the world, calling for gay rights to be included as human rights and tying foreign aid to a country's record on LGBT rights. Uganda, like other African countries is a recipient of U.S. foreign aid.
"Every day of my life here in Uganda I have to be careful of what I do," Mugisha said in the radio interview yesterday. "It has reached the point that where I even have to be careful when I'm going to get food in a restaurant, to be sure that the food I'm getting, that I trust the restaurant, because I'm scared I could get poisoned. Even when I want to go shopping I have to call a friend and say can you come with me because my face has been in the newspapers, my face has been in the media. Just two days ago when my face was put in the newspapers I received harassment already. Now it is my fear of stepping out my house. If I want to go and buy food, because I have to eat, what is going to happen to me today?"
Mugisha fears what happened to the best-known gay activist in Uganda, David Kato, could happen to him. Kato was found dead in his home last year, bludgeoned to death with a hammer.
"That gives me more fear because he was murdered [in] his house," he says. "That is more scary. Not having the privacy. Not having the closure. It's very fearful for me."