The Growth of the Turkish Film Industry and the Death of Suphi Kaner: Articulating a Star’s Suicide to the History of Labour in Cinema

Abstract

This article focuses on the death of Suphi Kaner by suicide in 1963, an incident that overlaps with the rapid growth of the domestic film industry in Turkey. Kaner’s tragic death is discussed in popular literature solely in relation to his alcohol addiction, his possible depression, and his inability to cope with sudden stardom, leaving almost unmentioned the key role of the boycott call of the Producers Association against him. In 1963, the power struggle between the producers and the star actors was very visible. Within the framework of this power struggle, producers made a boycott statement about Kaner, for allegedly interrupting the shooting of a film. I approach the chain of events that concluded with Kaner’s suicide as an early example of labour disputes in Turkish cinema. This case demonstrates that the scope of labour disputes in film industries encompasses even star actors who are often considered as a privileged class. I argue that Kaner’s suicide could have been avoided by fairer employment conditions, and if the Producers Association had not called for the boycott. To examine the case, I make use of a variety of historical texts including memoirs, auto-biographies, news pieces, interviews, and commentaries.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Hakan Erkılıç, Mine Kasapoğlu Turhan, Ebru Özyurt, Bahar Emgin Şavk, Gürçim Yılmaz and Alican Sekmeç for their contributions during the writing of this article. I am also grateful to Gökçen Karanfil for working meticulously on the manuscript and making valuable suggestions; to Necip Sarıcı, a versatile artist and collector and a friend of Kaner, for sharing his memories; and to Simon Mumford for proofreading this article with diligent care as he always does.

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 The word ‘artist’ was specifically used to designate cinema actors by then. For all the numeric data about films, I refer to the Center for Turkish Cinema Studies (Türk Sinema Araştırmaları, TSA) database, https://www.tsa.org.tr/en/, accessed 22 September 2022.

2 Resources mention the name of this association with variations such as Producers Association (Prodüktörler Cemiyeti), Producers Guild of Turkey (Türkiye Prodüktörler Birliği) and Producers Guild (Prodüktörler Birliği). For the sake of consistency, I refer to it as the Producers Association thereafter.

3 Michael C. Nielsen, ‘Labour Power and Organization in the Early U.S. Motion Picture Industry’, Film History 2, no. 2 (1988): 121.

4 Ronny Regev, Working in Hollywood: How the Studio System Turned Creativity into Labour (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018).

5 Regev, 19.

6 For introductive knowledge about Yeşilçam and its production mode see Dilek Kaya, ‘Yeşilçam Döneminde Film Sansürü: Bir Müzakere ve Mücadele Alanı Olarak Film Sesi’, Kültür ve İletişim 20, no. 39 (2017): 12–34; Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema, Belgesel, 2014; Savaş Arslan, Cinema in Turkey: A New Critical History, 1st ed. (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Ahmet Gürata, ‘Translating Modernity: Remakes in Turkish Cinema’, in Asian Cinemas: A Redar and Guide, ed. Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 242–54; Nezih Erdoğan and Deniz Göktürk, ‘Turkish Cinema’, in Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film, ed. Oliver Leaman (London: Routledge, 2001); Erman Şener, Yeşilçam ve Türk Sineması (İstanbul: Kamera Yayınları, 1970).

7 For an overview of the regional management system see İlke Şanlıer Yüksel and Aydın Çam, ‘Çukurova’da 1960-1980 Dönemi Sinema Pratiklerinin Özel Bir Örneği: Yörük Filmleri’, Sinecine: Sinema Araştırmaları Dergisi 10, no. 2 (2019): 291–320, https://doi.org/10.32001/sinecine.639715; Hakan Erkılıç and Recep Ünal, ‘Türkiye Sinemasına Özgü Bir Üretim Tarzı Olarak Bölge İşletmeciliği: Adana Bölgesi İşletmeciliği Örnek Olay İncelemesi’, Erciyes İletişim Dergisi 5, no. 3 (2018): 54–74; Nilgün Abisel, ‘Türk Sinemasında Film Yapımı Üzerine Notlar’, in Türk Sineması Üzerine Yazılar, by Nilgün Abisel (Ankara: Phoenix Yayınevi, 2005).

8 Serkan Şavk and Burak Doğu, ‘Mapping Yeşilçam: A Relational Approach to the Turkish Film Industry’, CINEJ Cinema Journal 9, no. 2 (2021): 199, https://cinej.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cinej/article/view/425/662.

9 Şener, Yeşilçam ve Türk Sineması, 133–34. For the exchange rate I refer to the annual average of 1969 as 1 USD = 9 Turkish Liras.

10 Alim Şerif Onaran, ‘Türkiye’de Sinemanın Örgütlenmesi Sorunu’, SBF Dergisi 29, no. 3 (1974): 65–66.

11 Altan Başaran and M. Meryem Kurtulmuş, ‘Türk Film Endüstrisinde Çalışma İlişkileri ve Sendikalaşma’, Çalışma ve Toplum, no. 1 (2016): 207; Derya Çetin, ‘Türk Sineması Çalışanlarının Örgütlenme Sorunları’ (PhD dissertation, Ankara, Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, 2010), 85.

12 Çetin, ‘Türk Sineması Çalışanlarının Örgütlenme Sorunları’, 85.

13 Başaran and Kurtulmuş, ‘Türk Film Endüstrisinde Çalışma İlişkileri ve Sendikalaşma’, 207–8; Çetin, ‘Türk Sineması Çalışanlarının Örgütlenme Sorunları’, 114.

14 Çetin, ‘Türk Sineması Çalışanlarının Örgütlenme Sorunları’, 87–89.

15 Çetin, 92; Nijat Özön, Türk Sineması Kronolojisi (1895-1966) (Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi, 1968), 136.

16 Çetin, ‘Türk Sineması Çalışanlarının Örgütlenme Sorunları’, 117.

17 Onaran, ‘Türkiye’de Sinemanın Örgütlenmesi Sorunu’, 69.

18 Özön, Türk Sineması Kronolojisi (1895-1966), 164.

19 ‘Film Yıldızı Müsabakası Finalistleri’, Ses, 29 June 1963, 3.

20 Nijat Özön, Türk Sinema Tarihi 1896-1960, 3rd ed. (İstanbul: Doruk Yayımcılık, 2010), 237. The book was originally published in 1960.

21 ‘Suphi Kaner’in Ardından’, Ses, 31 August 1963, 5; Agâh Özgüç, Türk Sinemasında İntiharlar ve Cinayetler Dosyası (İstanbul: Vizyon Yayıncılık, 1995); Agâh Özgüç, Türk Film Yapımcıları Sözlüğü (İstanbul: Fiyap, 1996); Hamide Yazer, ‘Suphi Kaner [Database Bio Entry]’, in Türk Sineması Araştırmaları, accessed 27 April 2022, https://www.tsa.org.tr/tr/kisi/kisibio/1153/suphi-kaner; ‘Suphi Kaner’, in Wikipedia, accessed 27 April 2022, https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suphi_Kaner.

22 Savaş Ay, ‘Suphi Kaner Diye Bir Artistin İntiharı’, Takvim, 22 January 2010, https://www.takvim.com.tr/Yazarlar/Savas_Ay/2010/01/22/suphi_kaner_diye_bir_artistin_intihari.

23 Öztürk Serengil, Yeşilçam’ı Benden Sorun (İstanbul: Milliyet Yayınları, 1985), 44–45.

24 Hulki Saner, Bu Da Benim Filmim (İstanbul: Saner Filmcilik Kasetçilik, 1996), 65.

25 Saner, 66.

26 Since we do not have the original document of the boycott decision and we cannot access the archives of the Producers Association, it is not certain at which meeting the boycott decision was taken, who signed the decision, and who were on the executive board at that time. However, it is indisputable that Hulki Saner was an active member of the society in those years. He was the spokesman of the Association in the press conference organized after the death of Kaner. Yet, he was among the representatives of the Association at the First Turkish Cinema Council held in 1964. Nijat Özön, ‘Bir Şuranın Öyküsü,’ Yeni İnsan Yeni Sinema, 1998.

27 In fact, Kaner directed 6 films in his career. He directed his last film right before committing suicide and the film was released after his death (Prison Fountain / Mapushane Çeşmesi, 1964).

28 Özgüç, Türk Film Yapımcıları Sözlüğü, 88.

29 ‘Suphi Kaner’in Ardından’, 4.

30 Özgüç, Türk Sinemasında İntiharlar ve Cinayetler Dosyası, 50; Serengil, Yeşilçam’ı Benden Sorun, 56; ‘Bir Hikâyenin Sonu’, Akis Haftalık Aktüalite Mecmuası, 31 August 1963, 32.

31 Özgüç, Türk Sinemasında İntiharlar ve Cinayetler Dosyası, 53–54.

32 Leah Shelef et al., ‘The Role of Past Suicidal Behavior on Current Suicidality: A Retrospective Study in the Israeli Military’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 2 (14 January 2021): 649, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020649; Sara Probert-Lindström et al., ‘Long-Term Risk Factors for Suicide in Suicide Attempters Examined at a Medical Emergency in Patient Unit: Results from a 32-Year Follow-up Study’, BMJ Open 10, no. 10 (1 October 2020): e038794, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038794; J. Michael Bostwick et al., ‘Suicide Attempt as a Risk Factor for Completed Suicide: Even More Lethal Than We Knew’, American Journal of Psychiatry 173, no. 11 (November 2016): 1094–1100, https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.15070854; Zoltán Rihmer, ‘Depression and Suicidal Behaviour’, in International Handbook of Suicide Prevention: Research, Policiy and Practice, ed. Rory C. C’Connor, Stephen Platt, and Jacki Gordon (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 58–73; Alexander McGirr and Gustavo Turecki, ‘Schizophrenia, Other Psychotic Disorders, and Sucidal Behaviour’, in International Handbook of Suicide Prevention: Research, Policiy and Practice, ed. Rory C. C’Connor, Stephen Platt, and Jacki Gordon (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 76–92; Maurizio Pompili et al., ‘Suicidal Behavior and Alcohol Abuse’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 7, no. 4 (2010): 1392–1431, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph7041392; Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Treatment of Patients With Suicidal Behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2010); Lena Nabuco de Abreu et al., ‘Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts in Bipolar Disorder Type I: An Update for the Clinician’, Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria 31, no. 3 (7 August 2009): 271–80, https://doi.org/10.1590/S1516-44462009005000003.

33 Devrim Newspaper and Agah Özgüç report the decleration in the same way, the original of which is not accessible ‘İntiharından Önce Kaner ile Yapılmış Olan Son Röportaj’, Devrim, 28 August 1963, 6; Özgüç, Türk Sinemasında İntiharlar ve Cinayetler Dosyası, 50–51 In a contradictory way, both sources mention the date of the association’s decleration as June 13, 1963 and the date of the contract between Pesen Film and Kaner as 14.07.1963 which would mean that the contract was signed later on; Özön claims that the Producers Association requested its members to boycutt Saner on August 13, 1963. However, he does not clarify whether that is the date of the official decision or its publicity Özön, Türk Sineması Kronolojisi (1895-1966), 164.

34 The production year of the last 4 movies starring Suphi Kaner is 1964 in the TSA database. We can assume that these were shot just before the boycott decision but left in limbo after it and could only be completed the following year.

35 According to the decision of the Censorship Commitee nr. 1963/111 the film’s title was changed from Nightingale of the Neighborhood (Mahallenin Bülbülü) to Tall and Wiry Lad Ali Karadoğan and Semire Ruken Öztürk, Sansür Karar Defterleri Üzerine Bir İnceleme: Türkiye’de Sinema Sansürünün Tarihi, 1932-1988, 2. Cilt 1963-1977 (Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2022), 50 It is not certain whether that was the request of the producer or the Censorship Committee both of which could be the case. Most probably, the agreement with Kaner was made for the initial title. The making of the film started in 1963 as the decision number suggests. For an online copy of the film visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j_VmjFT0dA.

36 ‘Suphi Kaner’in Ardından’, 4.

37 Memduh Ün, Memduh Ün Filmlerini Anlatıyor, 2nd ed. (İstanbul: Kabalcı Yayınevi, 2009), 25; Atıf Yılmaz, Söylemek Güzeldir (İstanbul: Afa Yayınları, 1995), 160; Şener, Yeşilçam ve Türk Sineması, 72.

38 A contract signed between Acar Film Company and actor Yusuf Sezgin constitutes a perfect example of this ambiguity. This contract only mentions the name of the film and there is no reference to the screenplay, story or even subject of the film. ‘Acar Film Murat Köseoğlu Ile Yusuf Sezgin Arasında Mukavelename’, 14 October 1976, Serkan Şavk personal archive.

39 For an excerpt form an interview with Erol Taş where he elabourates on how himself and his children were beaton by the audince see Usta Sinema Sanatçısı Erol Taş Bir Anısını Anlatıyor; Türkan Şoray, Sinemam ve Ben (İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2017), 67.

40 ‘İntiharından Önce’, 6.

41 ‘İntiharından Önce’, 6.

42 ‘İntiharından Önce’, 6; ‘Suphi Kaner’in Ardından’, 4.

43 Lütfi Akad, Işıkla Karanlık Arasında (İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2004), 308–9.

44 ‘Suphi Kaner’in Ardından’, 4.

45 ‘Aktör Suphi Kaner Dün İntihar Etti’, Cumhuriyet, 26 August 1963, 1; Ç., ‘Şey… Buyurun Görün’, Milliyet, 27 August 1963, 1.

46 ‘Artist Suphi Kaner Dün İntihar Etti’, Milliyet, 26 August 1963, 1.

47 Necip Sarıcı, a friend of Suphi Kaner and one of the witnesses of the process told that he does not remember any details about a second decision of the association, and that the decision taken in June came into the public opinion only in August. In this regard, Sarıcı’s witness supports Özön’s chronology as he dates the beginning of boycutt to August 13, 1963. Özön, Türk Sineması Kronolojisi (1895-1966), 164.

48 Özgüç, Türk Sinemasında İntiharlar ve Cinayetler Dosyası, 52; ‘Artist Suphi Kaner Dün İntihar Etti’; ‘Aktör Suphi Kaner Dün İntihar Etti’; ‘Bir Hikâyenin Sonu’, 32.

49 ‘Suphi Kaner’in Cenaze Töreninde Hadise Çıktı’, Cumhuriyet, 28 August 1963, 1, 5.

50 ‘Suphi Kaner’in Cenaze Töreninde Hadise Çıktı’, 5.

51 ‘Kaner’i Sevenler’, Milliyet, 29 August 1963, 1; ‘Kaner İçin Yapılan Basın Toplantısında Tartışmalar Oldu’, Cumhuriyet, 29 August 1963, 5; Özön, Türk Sineması Kronolojisi (1895-1966), 164.

52 ‘Kaner’i Sevenler’, 1; ‘Kaner İçin Yapılan Basın Toplantısında Tartışmalar Oldu’, 5.

53 ‘Kaner İçin Yapılan Basın Toplantısında Tartışmalar Oldu’, 5.

54 ‘Kaner İçin Yapılan Basın Toplantısında Tartışmalar Oldu’, 5.

55 T. Kakınç, ‘Şimdi Ne Olacak?’, Akis Haftalık Aktüalite Mecmuası, 7 September 1963, 30.

56 Kakınç, 30; For a list of the occupational groups covered by Sine-İş see. ‘İşçi Arkadaş [Announcement Letter]’ (Sine-İş, 1963), https://phebusmuzayede.com/3594-sine-is-turk-sinema-iscileri-sendikasi-bildirisi-1963-tarihli-23-5x30-5cm.html.

57 Kakınç, ‘Şimdi Ne Olacak?’, 30.

58 ‘Suphi Kaner’in Cenaze Töreninde Hadise Çıktı’, 5.

59 ‘Olaylar ve İnsanlar’, Milliyet, 4 September 1963, 2.

60 Seraceddin Zıddıoğlu, ‘Suphi Kaner’in Ölümüne Sebep Olanları Yiyecek’, Milliyet, 1 September 1963, 5.

61 Özgüç, Türk Film Yapımcıları Sözlüğü, 122; Turhan Gürkan, ‘Nevzat Pesen’in Beklenmedik Ölümü’, Cumhuriyet, 14 February 1973, 6.

62 For an exceptional psychoanalsis of a deceased person based on her letters see Saffet Murat Tura, ‘Şeyh ve Ayna’, in Şeyh ve Arzu, 2nd ed. (İstanbul: Metis Yayınları, 2008).

63 Danae Clark, Negotiating Hollywood: The Cultural Politics of Actors’ Labour (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995).

64 Clark, 11.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Serkan Şavk

Serkan Şavk received his PhD in 2014 from Hacettepe University, Department of History. He pursued post-doctoral studies at Princeton University with a focus on digital history (2016–2017). His research interests cover a variety of subjects including history of Turkish cinema, Digital Humanities, and image-space-culture relations in a historical context. Currently, he’s the principal investigator of two research projects: DOYeşilçam A data-driven, digital and open approach to the history of Turkish cinema: Examining stylistic features of Yeşilçam films (funded by TÜBİTAK The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) and Animals as Actors, Vehicles, and Props: Metazoa in the History of Turkish Cinema (funded by Izmir University of Economics).