Netflix cancels Turkish show If Only in row over gay character

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Netflix cancels Turkish show If Only in row over gay character

21 July 2020

Netflix has cancelled a Turkish drama on the eve of filming, with its writer saying the government blocked it because it included a gay character.

Screenwriter Ece Yorenc said Netflix scrapped If Only after the government refused to grant it a licence.

"Due to a gay character, permission to film the series was not granted and this is very frightening for the future," she told Turkish film website Altyazi Fasikul, according to the FT.

Netflix confirmed the story's details.

If Only was due to tell the story of Reyhan, an unhappily married mother of twins, who is suddenly transported back 30 years to the night her husband proposed.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53489296

[LuvNewcastle]

1. The article says that homosexuality is legal in Turkey.

I figured it was banned there like in most of the Muslim world. However, they've banned the pride parade for the past five years straight (yeah, pun intended). Sounds like a country that's tied up in knots over sexuality. I could see some interesting work coming out of a country like that, if they can ever get permission to show it.