My Name is Happy
WINNER: Grierson Best International Single Documentary WINNER: Krakow Film Festival Best Documentary (Oscar qualifying)
WINNER: Human Rights/ Human Wrongs Award WINNER: FIFDH/ Storyboard Collective Impact Grant
WINNER: FIFDH Youth Jury Award WINNER: AJB Docs Program Award
‘My Name is Happy' tells the story of Kurdish singer Mutlu Kaya. Aged 19, stardom beckoned when she reached
the finals of Turkey’s Got Talent. Days later she was shot by a man trying to abduct her.
Mutlu survived, but with life-changing injuries and a bullet in her brain. As she recovers, the reality of escalating attacks on
Turkish women intrudes when her carer & sister Dilek is murdered by her boyfriend. Mutlu turns to Tik-Tok and her
2 million followers in her relentless pursuit of justice and records a protest song demanding change.
Mutlu means ‘happy’ in Turkish.
"A compelling protagonist... using her voice as a powerful, defiant instrument of protest”
Screen Daily
“The pop star finds a way to pursue justice for her sister, and reach a sense of independence once more"
Variety
"There are all the elements of a classic hero’s journey here.....
My Name Is Happy is an urgent film, raising a voice which needs to be heard”
Eye for Film
"A tale of remarkable resilience... inspirational and patiently powerful"
Daily Mail
Directed by
Ayse Toprak & Nick Read
Produced by
Nick Read & Mahmut Kaya
Executive producers
Adam Bullmore, Monica Garnsey, Siobhan Sinnerton & Nevine Mabro
Line producer
Martin Long
Director of Photography
Meryem Yavuz
Editor
Anna Price
Original music
Smith & Elms
