HIZ (2023), co-dir. by Mustafa Kınalı and Ilkin Zeybek
Inspired by the so-called “hîz oğlanı”, male sex workers in the Ottoman Empire, in this short film MustKika occupies the the turkish hammam (bath) and embodies the character of hîz oğlan in preparation to receive their clients.
Traditionally gender-separated, hammams, where the film take place, were homoerotic environments and served as locations for sex work. In the end of the short, MustKika begins to belly dance and blends this homosocial temporality with a separate but concurrent history of queerness in the Ottoman Empire - that of the zenne dancer.