My Name Is Happy

As a teenager, Mutlu Kaya, a Kurdish woman from southeastern Turkey, was a promising singer. She was on the brink of breaking through to the final of Turkey’s Got Talent in 2015 when she was gunned down by a man whose marriage proposal she had refused. She suffered life-threatening injuries. During her years of rehabilitation and attempts to resume her life and singing career, the family was again struck by violence. This time, Mutlu’s sister Dilek did not survive a murder attempt by her fiancé. More determined than ever, Mutlu, now a hugely popular TikTok star, addresses the issue of femicide in a protest song. We follow Mutlu and her close-knit musical family through their turbulent ordeals, their struggle to recover, and their fight for justice and against the normalization of violence against women in Turkey and beyond. Intimate shots of the Kaya family are complemented by archive footage of excerpts from the talent show and news items on this urgent topic. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)