ABSTRACT
The arrival of cinema to (Ottoman) Turkey came as early as 1908. 2 However, until 1923, when Muhsin Ertuğrul decided to adapt Halide Edip Adivar’s novel Ateşten Gömlek (The Shirt of Fire), which told the story of a young woman who works for the liberation of her country, Turkish women were not allowed to act either in theatre plays or in films due to religious constraints. 3 The law, censorship and even the police force were used to prevent women from performing, in the name of protecting women’s chastity. In order to be faithful to the novel, which focused on the Turkish National Independence War, women characters in the film had to be Turkish. While talking about the film, the first Turkish actress of cinema in Turkey, Bedia Muvahhit affirms:
Mr Ertuğrul had wanted to adapt Ms Halide Edip’s novel Ateşten Gömlek. Ms Edip had insisted on having Turkish women performing the female characters of the novel. Muhsin Ertuğrul was a close friend of both Mr Muvahhit and mine; he was a close family friend. He came to Mr Muvahhit one day and asked him if I could perform in the film. I was very happy. I was not expecting to act in a film at the time, I accepted and we did the movie. 4
