Boatman (Kayıkçı)

Biket İlhan directed Kayıkçı (Boatman), a Turkish-Greek-Bulgarian co-production drama released in 1999. It is a romantic story set across the two shores of the Aegean. Sinevizyon Film is the producer. Metin Belgin and Ülkü Karaosmanoğlu wrote the screenplay, Colin Mounier was director of photography and Thesia Panayiotou composed the music. The film runs 88 minutes, opened on 8 October 1999 and uses both Turkish and Greek.

The story begins around Evdokia, a Greek singer taking part in a festival in Çeşme. She has an admirer who will never hear what she sings: a deaf-mute man, described as a boatman or fisherman. Unable to resist his passion one night, he decides to swim unseen from Çeşme to the Greek island of Chios on an inner tube. He carries neither ID nor passport and is arrested as soon as he reaches Greece, but does not give up his aim. Memet Ali Alabora leads and Katerina Moutsatsos plays Evdokia; Mustafa Avkıran, Levent Özdilek, Eleni Philippa, Periclis Lianos and Kosta Kortidis also appear.

Jale Onanç was art director, and İlhan also produced. Viewer comments say the film will suit lovers of the Aegean, praise its music and note the likeness of Turks and Greeks.