“Zenne”, which won five awards at Turkey’s most prestigious film festival, the Antalya Golden Orange, has received a huge amount of attention in mainstream media and is reported to be having reasonable success at the box office.
With a $1 million budget, including financial support from the Dutch embassy, it opened in a luxury movie theatre in one of Istanbul’s most fashionable neighborhoods.
“Zenne” tackles head-on such sensitive issues as gay society, prejudice and equal rights for Turkey’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
“‘Zenne’ is a very special film for us. It brings to the screen some of the important issues for the LGBT cause such as hate crimes, the complications for gay men to forego the mandatory military service and coming out,” said Umut Guner, spokesman for the Ankara-based Kaos GL, a LGBT group.