Bergen (2022)

Belgin is an independent, talented, passionate young woman who loves music. When she is six, her parents, Sabahat and her father, divorce, and Belgin lives with her mother in poverty in Ankara. She misses her father and writes to him every week. Belgin has taken piano and music lessons from a private tutor since childhood. She sits the entrance exams for the Ankara State Conservatory, passes in first place, and begins her studies. But she faces financial difficulties and starts working at the post office to support her mother. One day, at the invitation of a school friend, she goes to Feyman Club and, at her friends’ insistence, takes the stage. The experience strengthens Belgin’s resolve to sing. On the night she performs, a young man named Abdullah falls in love with her and soon proposes. But Belgin’s mother opposes the marriage because Belgin needs to finish school, and asks Abdullah to leave her. Abdullah agrees, and Belgin is heartbroken. It takes her a long time to get over him. After falling ill from grief for a while, Belgin is brought back to her feet by a job offer from Feyman Club. Delighted by the news, she chooses ‘Bergen’ as her stage name and begins her performing career. While working at Feyman Club, she encounters problems at school and is forced to drop out. A few days later, her father arrives to confront her, having heard that Belgin has been performing. But her mother refuses to let him scold her and sends him away. The incident leaves a deep mark on Belgin. In the summer, they receive an offer to perform at a nightclub in Adana and go there together. There, she becomes friends with a dancer named Nadire. Bergen catches the attention of a man who watches her from the front row every night. One night, when they return to the hotel, they find their room filled with roses, and Bergen realizes they came from him. In return for her work in Adana, she is given a car, but then they hear that her father has been hospitalized and rush to Mersin. Belgin wants to speak to her father, but he rejects her, and she returns to Adana in sadness. Her grief affects her performance, and Bergen collapses onstage. The man takes her to the hospital, and her feelings for him deepen. One morning, Bergen’s car is missing, but the man finds it and brings it back to her, then proposes. His proposal comes with one condition: Bergen must give up performing. She accepts, and they marry. Her mother, however, is against the marriage. The first few weeks go well, but Bergen grows tired of her husband’s indifference and begins to miss performing and her mother. During an argument, he beats her for the first time. The next day, her husband comes to apologize and ask her forgiveness, but the violence continues. One day, when Bergen says she wants to return to Ankara, her husband beats her nearly to death. Her mother arrives and finds Bergen covered in blood, then asks her son-in-law where her daughter is. He tells her Bergen is fine and threatens her. Her mother is forced to leave. Bergen gives her husband another chance, but the abuse continues, and she runs away from home and takes refuge at Nadire’s house. Nadire tells Bergen that her husband is already married and that their marriage was a sham. Bergen returns to Ankara and goes back to performing. As Bergen’s career takes off, she is shaken by her father’s death. She and her mother go to Mersin and attend his funeral. After the funeral, Bergen runs into her husband again but ignores him. He persuades her once more, and this time they marry for real. They return to Adana, and Bergen thinks she has found happiness. But when the violence starts again, Bergen flees to Mersin. When the threats to burn down her mother’s house and the abuse continue, they go to Izmir. Bergen performs for a short time, but after leaving the stage she is attacked with acid and seriously injured. As a result, she loses her right eye, and the attack causes a nationwide sensation. Bergen’s treatment takes two years, and Cengiz Özşeker persuades her to return to performing. She goes back onstage in her new condition and moves toward becoming the ‘Queen of Arabesque’. Bergen’s records and tapes attract great attention. Her album ‘Acıların Kadını’ (‘Woman of Sorrows’) sells more than a million copies and wins a Gold Record Award. Bergen succeeds in divorcing her husband but cannot get completely free of him. Her ex-husband follows her constantly. On the night of August 14, she and her mother set out for Adana, but halfway there, her ex-husband blocks their way. During the argument, he draws his gun and shoots first her mother, then Bergen. Bergen dies at the scene. She is buried in Mersin. To protect her grave from her killer, it is enclosed in a cage secured with six locks. Her mother, Sabahat Sarılmışer, opens the grave enclosure and, embracing her daughter’s grave, weeps.