A Turkish biopic about 1980s pop singer Bergen, who grappled with a violent husband that hired someone to pour nitric acid on her face and later shot and killed her, is becoming a sleeper box office hit across West Asia.
Nick Vivarelli / Variety
A Turkish biopic about 1980s pop singer Bergen, who grappled with a violent husband that hired someone to pour nitric acid on her face and later shot and killed her, is becoming a sleeper box office hit across West Asia.
The potent female empowerment film, titled “Bergen,” follows the singer’s meteoric rise from cello player to becoming Turkey’s “Queen of Arabesque,” all while struggling with a partner hellbent on sabotaging her career. The pic is helmed by Turkish directorial duo Caner Alper and Mehmet Binay, who are known for works driven by civil liberties and gender issues such as the 2015 drama “Drawers,” about a teenage girl’s sexuality.
Upon grossing a substantial $10 million-plus intake at Turkish cinemas, “Bergen” is now scoring brisk box office returns across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon and Oman. The pic has drawn more than 300,000 admissions and made more than $4.8 million in these territories since its June 16 release. Ticket sales have jumped after lacklustre opening week admissions of just over 15,000 grew to more than 107,000 during the film’s third week, and continue to perform well.
In Turkey, the film sparked controversy and heightened awareness of the government’s lenience towards perpetrators of femicide after the country last year formally left the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty that requires signatories to fight violence against women. The widespread issue in Turkey was also at the center of Chloe Fairweather’s documentary “Dying to Divorce,” which was the U.K. entry for the 2021 best international feature film Oscar race.
In West Asia, “Bergen” does not seem to have prompted any polemics so far. But the fact that 37% of Arab women have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime, according to a U.N. report, could be one indicator of its surprise success.
You can read the full article here.