Kerem and Asli (Kerem İle Aslı) (translated)

Orhan Elmas wrote and directed Kerem İle Aslı, a 1971 colour Turkish film. A romantic drama, it adapts the legend of Kerem and Aslı, a tale that has passed from tongue to tongue for centuries. Produced by Memduh Ün for Uğur Film, it was released on 1 November 1971.

The story opens in a distant land where the Sultan has no child. He hands the government to his ambitious vizier and withdraws from public life. While out hunting, he meets a white-bearded dervish who promises both him and the chief blacksmith a child, on condition that the people are never oppressed. To force the Sultan to break that condition, the vizier crushes the population, and the Sultan is given a daughter rather than a son. He hides the truth and raises her as a boy under the name Aslan Bey. Born on the same day as Kerem, the young woman grows up beside him unaware of her real identity. Fatma Girik plays Aslı and Kadir İnanır plays Kerem, while Hayati Hamzaoğlu is the Black Vizier who will not give up power.

Gani Turanlı was director of photography and Abdullah Nail Bayşu composed the music, with songs performed by Ayten Şenol and Ömer Şan. The film runs about an hour and ten minutes.