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
