The Right to Kiss (2014)

• 68%
• 2014
• Camille Ponsin

As Pier Paolo Pasolini did when he confronted the Italians to their sexuality in his documentary Comizi d'amore, shot in 1964 in Italy, I interviewed Turks about their understanding of marriage, virginity, love, with the help of students from Istanbul. Those simple, minor and even sometimes funny questions reveal a tricky situation that no one can escape from. As the camera covers the streets, it unveils an oppression that goes beyond the bodies, a cunning oppression that imprisons people physically and mentally. Here, sex reveals a moral injustice that half of the population, basically women, is the direct victim of. Like in the other Mediterranean countries, sexuality is a banned and sensitive topic. Thanks to the Arab springs, we could easily observe how much women lost with these revolutions. In a lay country where, yet, the subject of religion is getting more and more topical, this matter of sexuality hides numerous and crucial stakes. A few months after the shooting ended, a part of the Turkish population protested in order to demand "the right to kiss"...