Madimak: Carina's Diary (2015)

Carina is a 22 year-old Dutch woman studying Anthropology. She arrives in Turkey in June 1993, in order to write her thesis. Everything is going well until she arrives in Sivas for the 4th annual Pir Sultan Abdal celebration day.

Director:

Ulas Bahadir

Writer:

Ulas Bahadir

Stars:

Denise Owono, Füsun Demirel, Riza Akin

Cast

Credited cast:
Denise Owono	...	Carina (as Denise Ankel)
Füsun Demirel	...	Sultan Sivri
Riza Akin	...	Ali Sivri
Altan Erkekli	...	Metin Altiok
Mustafa Alabora	...	Behçet Aysan
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Muhlis Asan	...	Aziz Nesin
Ayça Koptur
Umut Kurt	...	Hasret Gültekin
Baris Ordu	...	Adem
Jörgen Scholtens	...	Michiel
Koray Tarhan	...	Muhlis Akarsu
Erdal Tosun	...	Vali
Jeske van de Staak	...	Maryse
Cihan Özdeniz
Meray Ülgen	...	Nesimi Çimen

Storyline

Carina Cuanna is a 22 year-old Dutch woman studying Anthropology. She arrives in Turkey in June 1993, in order to write her thesis "The Role of Women in Turkish Society". Everything is going well. When the time comes, Carina leaves for Sivas with her friends, where the 4th annual Pir Sultan Abdal celebration day organizations will be held. They arrive in Sivas on July 1st. Carina takes photographs and meets the attendees. Next day, on July 2nd, tensions begin to rise among the city. A group of fundamentalists use Aziz Nesin's attendance to the organization as an excuse and start a riot. After hours of tension, the growing crowd set the hotel on fire. After remaining on the verge of death for hours; the literate people of the nation; journalists, artists, intellectuals, and Carina Cuanna, the Dutch guest whose only fault was to love Turkey, are burned to death.

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Plot Keywords:

burn | massacre | 

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Genres:

Drama

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User Reviews

A film for your heart's eyes

The Madimak massacre of 2 July 1993 is a pitch black stain in Turkish history. It's a story of lack of tolerance, humanity and justice.

Making a movie regarding such a dramatic historical event must have been difficult but in this case it was a success.

The plot shows the two faces of society: it starts with the gentle one but it ends with the dark side. One thing is sure: the movie shows real life and luckily, however briefly, a glimpse of Alawite belief which is generally a taboo in Turkish film industry that rather evades minority (religious, ethnic, political, ...) issues.

All actors were at their best. The only minus was, in my opinion, the miscast for the leading role of Carina. Playing the role of a Dutch woman, she lacked credibility as it was clear from the begin she was not Dutch: the bad accent and her writing in German in stead of Dutch were revealed very soon. She seemed to be the sympathetic smiling girl next door during the whole film. The lack of variety of her emotions made her performance mediocre.

I thank the story writers, directors, actors and crew for making a movie that we watched with our hearts rather than our eyes.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Turkey]

Country:

Turkey

Language:

Turkish Dutch

Release Date:

25 September 2015 (Turkey)

Also Known As:

Madimak: Carina's Diary

Filming Locations:

Istanbul, Turkey

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$656,810

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gökkusagi Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1