Il Bagno Turco: Hamam (A Turkish Bathhouse)
This Italian/Turkish feature film, from 1997, was the first gay-related film ever make and distributed in Turkey, a Muslim country with a strong anti-homosexual culture. Co-written (with Italians Stefano Tummolini and Aido Sambrell) and directed by a Turk, Ferzan Ozpetek, it had a rocky road to production with almost every Italian hunk turning down the lead role of the rich, yuppie 32-year-old architect, Francisco, (Alessandro Gassman) who inherits a run-down Turkish bathhouse (a “hamam”) in Istanbul. When he travels down to sell it off to a ruthless businesswoman, he finds a loyal Turkish family living there, who had run it under his late aunt’s direction. Francisco, at first a cold, emotionally-cutoff figure, is thawed by the warmth of their family-love, gradually succumbing to an inner-peace by his budding sexual relationship with the adult son. When Francisco’s wife (Francesca d’Aloja) arrives in Istanbul to bring her husband home, family secrets are revealed, tensions climb, and murder is in the air.
The plot, however satisfying, is truly not the point here, however. Ozpetek’s gift is slowly building the emotional climaxes and giving his characters room to breathe and to grow in front of us. Casting two important Turkish actors (Halil Ergün and Serif Sezer) as Osman and Perran, the parents of young Mehmet (Mehmet Günsür) and Fusun (Basak Koklukaya) – both of the young actors got their starts in this hit film –helped with legitimacy for the Turkish audience.
Ozpetek is very aware of his country’s conservative tradtions, so while the sexuality is played down, the emotional ties between the two young men, coupled with a growing respect between Francisco and his new family, allow for the intelligence that guides everyone into seeing other lives as equally important.
Filmed in Rome and Istanbul, the cinematography of Pasquale Mari is gorgeous, as is the score by Aldo de Scalzi, Pivio. For a film that was hard to get mounted, the dollar payback was impressive and launched the careers of the younger actors. See? Taking risks can have big payoffs! Grazie, producer Paolo Buzzi!