M.Caner Alper & Mehmet Binay

Turkish film-makers Mehmet Binay and M. Caner Alper began their career in documentary film-making, with a series of documentaries on minorities, identity and gender. Their first film, Whispering Memories and Talking Pictures (2008) depicts the story of hidden Armenians who escaped the Armenian genocide by pursuing a life as crypto-Muslims.

Mehmet and Caner’s first feature film, Zenne Dancer (2012), was inspired by the true story of Ahmet Yildiz who was murdered by his own father for coming out gay. Zenne Dancer was chosen one of the best LGBTQ films of the year and rewarded with 25 international prizes on the festival circuit. The controversial film’s release in conservative Turkey was breaking news on CNN International. The directors were chosen “Best Director of 2012” by GQ Magazine for initiating social change as openly gay film-makers in Turkey. Their second feature film, Drawers, also deals with gender and tells the coming-of-age story of a Turkish girl; it was chosen “Best Film” at the Nuremberg International Film Festival and received 24 international awards.

Mehmet and Caner lived in Los Angeles between 2014-2020, and filmed Lacrimosa in 2019, a short film to be premiered at the Nuremberg International Film Festival in March 2022.

The directing duo’s 3rd feature film BERGEN will be at cinemas in Turkey and across Europe in March 2022. BERGEN is the glorious story of Bergen, a female singer who was tragically murdered by her ex-husbanb in 1989. The biopic has a running time of 140 minutes and covers three decades of Bergen’s musical journey.

BIHTER, an Amazon Prime original film, was released in November 2023 and rose quickly to Nr 1 of Prime Video’s international list of most watched movies. Set in 1925’s Istanbul, Bihter explores passionate love through its female protagonist’s perspective.

The filmmakers Mehmet Binay & M.Caner Alper currently work on the pre-production of ‘Serenade for Nadia’, a literary adaptation of Zülfü Livaneli’s novel to be filmed in 4Q/2024.