Zenne Dancer (2012)

That was an excellent one.

Best movie ever!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Having watched Zenne Dancer, I'm surprised the movie made it to Singapore – even if it was only for a very limited run in a tiny cinema for a relatively obscure film festival. It's a brave, honest, bold movie that doesn't shy away from themes that are still regarded as taboo here: the notion of homosexuality, and having to live everyday in a society where that's seen as one of the cardinal sins – where dignity and life can be stripped from anyone who dares confess to being gay. The situation here in Singapore isn't quite as bad as it would be in a staunchly conservative Muslim country – and even in Turkey, the strictures and shame are less profoundly felt than they would be in, say, Iran. But the themes in Zenne Dancer – acceptance (of oneself and others), tolerance, love, shame and family – would resonate anywhere, particularly when presented as masterfully as they are here.Sadly, the story does not have a happy ending. I don't think this necessarily counts as a spoiler, because the film has become famous chiefly because of the woeful incident that both ends it and inspires it. (Moreover, I went into the cinema knowing how it would all end, pretty much, but found myself moved by the ending anyway – made all the more poignant for what goes before it.) Directors Caner Alper and Mehmet Binay were personally acquainted with a man named Ahmet Yildiz, whose life was tragically cut short on 15 July 2008 when he became the victim of a honour killing – the homicide of someone (typically a woman) who is believed by the perpetrators to have brought dishonour upon the family or community. Ahmet's true-life story was the first time the honour killing of a gay man received widespread publicity in Turkey.What Alper and Binay have done is present Ahmet's story through the fiction of film: some of the events within the movie are fictionalised, such as Can's close friendship with Ahmet (which is a key element in the plot). The directors have explained that they all knew the real-life Can, but couldn't be certain if the latter had ever known Ahmet. The story built up around the three men nevertheless feels true and organic, and is one of the joys of Zenne Dancer. The movie has a lot to say about very controversial themes, but it's also really a tale of the power and strength of friendship: of the family you choose rather than the family you're born with. The relationships are credible, rich and affecting: whether we're watching Can tease Ahmet (and vice versa), or going along for the ride as both men subject themselves to the humiliation of officially dodging the draft.In fact, the inner workings of the relationships and characters in this film are laid bare in ways that at once fulfil and confound stereotype. It becomes clear that there's more than meets the eye in Ahmet's fraught relationship with his family, which isn't merely about shame and hatred: it's a story of love twisted by religion and tradition, where duty comes before happiness not just for Ahmet, but also his modern yet dutiful sister. Daniel's troubled past as a photographer in war-torn Afghanistan provides depth to his story and pain, and even minor characters like Can's aunt Sukran (Jale Arikan) get moments to shine when they find love and support in unexpected places.Zenne Dancer is also a profound study in contrasts: Can quite literally dances through life, a rainbow burst of joy and love, adored by his mother Sevgi (Tilbe Saran) who will do anything to save her baby boy from the trauma visited by military service upon her deceased husband and haunted elder son Cihan (Tolga Tekin).With a great script and story comes a superlative cast: Kerem Can and Avci are the two focal points of the film, and both are astoundingly good. The former is fey and fabulous, but also manages to be heartbreaking and real in the part: Can flounces through life in a whirl of sequins and gauze, woes and responsibilities apparently sliding off his back with ease except they don't, not really, and Kerem Can makes this clear in moments when he injects a hint of steely resolve into his character that's all the more affecting for how breezy and easy he plays Can the rest of the time. His work is all the more impressive for the fact that he is himself straight – and there is simply no question that he was born to play this part. Avci is just as powerful, in no less effective a way, as a man who's slowly beginning to accept who he is and realising that he needs to be honest about it – however much it will break his parents' hearts. He plays Ahmet's tremulously sad, close relationship with his father particularly well, making it clear that his character could never really blame his parents for the way they think any more than he can hope for them to really accept him for who he is.Kudos are also due to Silver and Çalışkur, who inhabit rather unsympathetic roles with admirable gusto and, where necessary, restraint.All in all, Zenne Dancer is a towering achievement: it's a fantastic story, with great characters, told in an arresting, thought-provoking fashion – but never in a cheap, sensationalistic way. Instead, the tale rings sadly, horrifyingly true, and reminds us that there's a long way to go yet before societal mores and the sanctity of human rights can co-exist in the way they should. This is an important work, touching on issues of freedom, choice, identity and love. For a film that's ostensibly about being gay, Zenne Dancer possibly has even more things to say about what it is to be human.

What a gem of a movie. It touches you on so many points. Obviously, a majority of the film is about the internal storms of gays living in a society as intolerant as Turkey has become. The hypocrisy is, however, how open the Turkish Society was to gay inclinations and even encouraged them until one hundred years ago. Zenne (or Kocek) is a very old Turkish word and they were male dancers accompanying the acrobats during celebrations.But the movie does not go into those details anyway. Actually, I don't even classify Zenne as a gay movie. It's a very human movie. Has a rather slow rhythm, considering the genre, but builds up progressively and you just can not help but feel with the characters. Their turmoils, their emotions, their struggles and their passion.And then there is the music, and the photography. In a way everything about this movie somehow fits together. Well done team for a really good movie. Well spent two hours.

I had the opportunity of seeing the film during the film festival in Antalya which is equivalent of Turkish Oscars and liked it a lot.Not only me but an audience of almost 1200 people stood up and were applauding during the entire ending, in tears, which was even more shocking to see in a film festival... The applause was not only for a brilliant movie of course but mostly to a long term-suffered in silence-society who had to say to the Turkish Military 'ENOUGH'! All Turkish men are required to perform military service. But gay men can be exempted from conscript duty provided they first prove their homosexuality."Zenne" depicts the degrading process its main characters endure at an army recruiting center.In the film, military doctors perform anal examinations and hurl homophobic insults at conscripts. They also demand photos of the characters having sex with other men.Gay rights activists say the military has long demanded graphic photo and/or video evidence from men asking to be released from military duty.Zenne Dancer moved Turkish media and about a 100,000 watchers from homophobia to a moving apology.As a groundbreaking film launched, Turkish attitudes to gay and trans-gender people have slowly started improving – in the media at least Zenne Dancer, finally hit the screens, nationwide cinemas, after winning five major awards at the country's foremost film festival, and receiving a shower of attention from the mass media – a shower that unfortunately quickly turned cold.In daily parlance the word ZENNE refers to a man who dresses up like a woman and dances in front of an audience, a custom that goes way back to early Ottoman empire. The film itself is inspired by a true story, that of Ahmet Yildiz, a student who was gunned down by his own father for being openly and unrepentantly homosexual. His was not the first hate crime in Turkey, nor the first gay Honor killing, but probably the first to draw such widespread attention. The film and the subsequent media coverage played an important role in increasing awareness about the hardships trans-gender and gay communities endure in Turkey's patriarchal society.I suggest to everyone to sit and enjoy how a modern and secular country like Turkey's LGBT people live and try to exist in life with breath taking cinematography and acting. ERKAN AVCI and TILBE SARAN are incredible with KEREM CAN like a Greek Statue, as a portrait of a flamboyant traditional dancer.

Inspired by the true story of Ahmet YILDIZ, who was murdered for being gay at the age 26 by his own father in 2008, Zenne, which picked up five at the latest Golden Orange Film Festival, is claimed to be a bold film because it tells the story of "an unlikely trio" who are Can (Kerem CAN)an exuberant,confident and stylish male dancer, Ahmet, a university student who was born to a South-Eastern Kurdish parents and Daniel, a German photographer who has recently taken up orientalism after his troubled stint in Afghanistan. As a cinema-goer I have always approached Turkish award-winners with caution. Whenever a bold, minimal movie with scanty dialog and a bold subtext is made, it seems to get awards. I have been disillusioned with award-winners so many times that I hesitated to go to this movie for a moment. Let me tell you that Zenne is not a bold movie at all. When I saw the trailer I thought I would see a shocking movie which really tells you a story about what a gay must be going through every day.Instead, I saw a watered down version of a non-credible story which looks merely forced. In the beginning of the movie we see the characters Can and Ahmet fighting. Before you actually realize the two are friends you see a German photographer blending with them.Without much of a background, Daniel and Ahmet falls in love and yes you need wide eyes to actually know that they are gay. Despite the accolades bestowed upon the movie, whenever the viewer feels the movie is losing the whole effect, the makers of this movie just try to save themselves by showing some visually bold male dancing sequences. The acting does not save it either. The parents of Ahmet look no more than histrionic and overly theatrical. Even if the mother of Can(Tilbe Saran) looks credible as a forlorn mother the subtext of the movie-putting all the blame of homophobia on mothers (families) is sheer blasphemy. A cross-dressing gay's life is not supposed to be easier just because he's got a more understanding, more liberal mother just as it's not supposed to be easier if he's living in Germany. Gay-bashing still takes place in many parts of the world including Germany. You can Google multiple references to a 1999 study that placed suicide attempts among homosexuals at 18 percent - four times the rate of heterosexual youths in Germany. According to an article published on the Economist magazine and referenced in the official website of the movie Mehmet Binay, who co-directed "Zenne", says he was astonished that Zenne was allowed to compete, let alone to win the award for best first film. Zenne takes it for granted that homosexuality is an inborn, unchangeable part of some people and claims to show that those people suffer from that the fact that some heterosexual people believe that homosexuality is a choice but it does not really succeed in convincing you about that. Fake,one-dimensional and weak characters, wooden and absurdly stagy acting,forced scenes (imagine the corny scene in which Can's mother runs after the car in tears) dancing sequences looking visually stunning on their own but which holistically look disjointed and disconnected, an unlikely friendship which actually looks expeditedly told and non-credible,easily noticeable goofs ( as in Ahmet's photo shoot for the military while he is all hirsute vs. his ensuing efforts to epilate his body hair to make himself more credible as a gay for the military medical check) turn this movie into a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists. 15 January 2012