Movie about 'gay honor killing' riles audiences in Turkey
Sat. January 28, 2012 9:27 AM by GoPride.com News Staff
ahmet yidiz
Istanbul, Turkey -
The story of Ahmet Yidiz, a gay graduate student who was shot to death by his own ashamed father, is shocking movie-going audiences in Turkey.
Yidiz was raised by a wealthy and religious family in Turkey, reported the Jerusalem Post, and his father could not accept his homosexuality.
Yidiz moved to Istanbul to study physics and live a more open life as a gay man, but in the summer of 2008, his father tracked him down and shot him dead. Yidiz's boyfriend witnessed the murder from their apartment window.
Yidiz's story is now the subject of a new film, "Zenne Dancer," directed and produced by friends who heard his family threatening him before his death.
"We had the movie idea in mind right after our dear friend Ahmet was killed," Caner Alper, writer and co-director of the movie, told the Jerusalem Post. "His story needed to be told."
The movie opened in a "luxury" movie theater in Istanbul and has received several local awards.
Yidiz's father has not been arrested.
Yidiz was raised by a wealthy and religious family in Turkey, reported the Jerusalem Post, and his father could not accept his homosexuality.
Yidiz moved to Istanbul to study physics and live a more open life as a gay man, but in the summer of 2008, his father tracked him down and shot him dead. Yidiz's boyfriend witnessed the murder from their apartment window.
Yidiz's story is now the subject of a new film, "Zenne Dancer," directed and produced by friends who heard his family threatening him before his death.
"We had the movie idea in mind right after our dear friend Ahmet was killed," Caner Alper, writer and co-director of the movie, told the Jerusalem Post. "His story needed to be told."
The movie opened in a "luxury" movie theater in Istanbul and has received several local awards.
Yidiz's father has not been arrested.