I've just come across a film which opened on January 13 in Turkey titled Zenne Dancer which was inspired by the "honor killing" of Ahmet Yildaz in 2008 allegedly by his father who according to reports still remains a fugitive from justice.Filmmakers Carner Alper and Mehmet Binay who were friends of Yildaz center their film around three characters who forge a friendship, one of which is coming to terms with who he is as Cole Araibus writes in an article at the website Film School Rejects.
Araibus' piece is based on a Reuters article which has reported the movie is creating controversy in Turkey. A conservative newspaper in Turkey calls the film "homosexual propaganda". That has the familiar ring of the Conservative Christians and their affiliated media here in the US.
So deep rooted in Islamic religion that the disgrace of someone being homosexual the Reuters' article reports, After he was killed, the family did not claim Yildiz's body for a proper Islamic burial -- an indication of the deep shame the family felt and that they had ceased to consider him one of their own. He was buried instead in a "cemetery for the nameless."
The articles are worth a read with the one from Rueters giving more background on Yildaz's family life and what it is like to be LGBT in Turkey. The first link in this posting is to a 2008 article from The Independent which was one of the first of the international press to discuss Yildiz's murder.
The film has won five awards at the prestigious film festival in Turkey, the Antalya Golden Orange. Hopefully the film will eventually be shown here in the United States.
