Tears of Cem Karaca

The film begins with Cem Karaca's school years. His interest in music appears there, he forms his first band and goes on stage. Then come the years in which Anatolian rock was built: folk songs played on electric guitar, a sound nobody had heard before, and a large audience. Then the political climate hardens. His lyrics become a target, he is prosecuted and he leaves the country. The years in Germany, the stripping of his citizenship and the return make up the second half. Yüksel Aksu directs. İsmail Hacıoğlu plays Cem Karaca; Fikret Kuşkan plays his father Mehmet Karaca and Yasemin Yalçın his mother Toto Karaca. Karaca's son Emrah Karaca worked on the film as a consultant. It opened on 26 January 2024. Its run was interrupted: Karaca's wife İlkim Karaca brought a case over usage rights and the film was pulled from cinemas on 13 February 2024. It returned after an appeal court ruling and was released on Amazon Prime Video on 8 August 2024. The method is classical biography; events are given in order and the songs are placed at the turning points. Its strongest side is the period reconstruction; the stages and studios of the seventies are built in detail. Its limit is distance; the film does not criticise its subject and stops short at the contested places. Who it is for: anyone curious about Cem Karaca and the history of Anatolian rock. Who it is not for: the structure follows a formula, the running time is long, and the narrative tries to fit in every stage of a life.