"The Most Daring Woman's Story Ever Told in Turkey"

In June 2020, an upcoming new series, titled Çiplak (Naked), to be streamlined on the Turkish digital platform BluTV, began to be promoted on the social media as "the most daring woman's story ever told in Turkey." This publicity campaign immediately raised a storm of controversy with detractors questioning on what grounds Çiplak was being billed as such and one critic even disputing that "the most daring woman's story" could ever be helmed by a male director, as Çiplak had been directed by Can Evrenol, a young maverick filmmaker of horror movies which are also marked by featuring some level of erotic content. Çiplak, while not entailing any full nudity onscreen despite what its title might suggest, features the story of a young escort' woman who falls in love with one of her clients. While promoting it as "the most daring woman's story ever told in Turkey" was an obvious case of sensationalist 'ballyhoo,' the fact that it brought to the small screens the life of a sex worker without either castigating it or arousing pity for it in an overtly melodramatic manner was indeed a novelty and arguably a daring choice in the context of the current Turkish media environment. In any case, daring or not, it was nevertheless the first-ever series produced by BluTV, which had until then already produced 11 original series, featuring a female protagonist as the main leading character. Apart from its uniqueness regarding its unusual content, Çiplak also had the distinction of being the first-ever Turkish series shot entirely by iPhone. All these factors indicate that Çiplak is an interesting case illustrating that the novel media of digital platforms may become a venue for 'paths not previously taken.'