Filmed with 12,000 TL support from the Ministry: Deniz Göktaş’s 2019 short film to be submitted as evidence in court

Three separate charges have been brought against imprisoned comedian Deniz Göktaş in an indictment prepared due to remarks made in his show titled “Ölü Deniz” (Dead Sea), which was published on YouTube. Göktaş faces a prison sentence ranging from 2 years and 2 months to 9 years and 8 months for the crimes of “insulting the President,” “inciting the public to hatred and hostility or insulting them,” and “praising a crime and a criminal.”

The prosecution alleged that jokes in the show involving a “diver,” a “fasting suicide bomber,” and the “Quran” were intended to insult the Islamic religion. The indictment also included an assessment that the phrase “fasting suicide bomber” carried a derogatory meaning toward people who are fasting.

According to Sözcü columnist İsmail Saymaz, Göktaş’s lawyer, Metin Sinan Aslan, is preparing to submit the 2019 short film titled “Tatilin İlk Günü” (The First Day of Vacation) to the court to demonstrate that his client had no intent to insult religion. It was noted that the film received 12,000 TL in support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Saymaz described what happens in the film in question as follows:

“In this film, a man is making a sand sculpture on the beach. A child ruins the sculpture. The man beats the child. A woman wearing a hasema (full-body swimsuit), described in the script as a ‘sensitive woman,’ intervenes. She says, ‘Oh sir, they are just children! You have no right to use violence!’ The man turns this objection into a regime crisis. Looking at the woman’s clothing, he responds: ‘Are you going to teach me what to do and where? You only know how to kick a ball and how to destroy things.’ The woman reacts by crying. The man takes the upper hand by saying, ‘You have ruined the country. At least leave us alone on vacation!’”

It was stated that Lawyer Aslan’s reason for submitting the film to the case file is to argue that Göktaş has addressed similar social tensions through satire in his previous works and that there was no intent to insult religion in the remarks that are the subject of the trial.