KISMET explores the phenomenal success of Turkish soap operas from Turkey to the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans, capturing their poignant impact on women across the region.

Kismet by Nina Maria Paschalidou premiert at idfa 2013 in November, it was one of the documentaries of ARTE for the special Theme Week "Starke Frauen", Power Women and was broadcasted on Sunnday March 9 under the title “Kismet, Emanzipation auf Türkisch”.

In Istanbul, Cairo and Abu Dhabi, the film discovers how prime time Turkish soaps are breaking taboos and inspiring women to change their lives. In ‘Fatmagul’, a woman is raped but finds the courage to take her case to court. In ‘Life Goes On’, a girl is forcibly married to a 70-year-old man. In ‘Noor’, the protagonist suffers before discovering true romantic love, and in ‘Suleiman the Magnificent’, our sympathies lie with a Christian slave who becomes the most powerful woman of the Ottoman Empire.
The film uncovers how these melodramas are capturing Muslim audiences by showing how Turkish women handle modernity. Featuring unprecedented secular liberties -extramarital affairs, women struggling to assert themselves in the workplace, divorce- these soaps also question current practices, such as arranged marriages, violence against women, child marriages and honor crimes.

Kismet will make its Greek premier at the Thessaloniki Doc festival on March 20 and 23, it will make an Avant-Premiere on Tuesday 25-3 during the Festival du Film Francophone in Athens and after that starting March 27 it will be distributed by CineDoc (Rea Apostolides, Aura Georgiou and Dimitra Kouzi) in the cinemas in Athens (Danaos and Sporting) and Thessaloniki (Olympion).

trailer: http://you.tube/aPTgLPf8x00