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Logline

In the 1970s, an all-female football fan club called ‘Purple Violets’ played a significant role in the liberation of women within a conservative Turkish society. Fifty-two years later, four elderly members of the club reunite for one final match before their beloved team and stadium are dismantled in an increasingly conservative country.

Synopsis

Women With Purple Violets is a witty hybrid/animated documentary exploring female soccer fandom in Turkey and its deep ties to women’s social lives. The film follows a group of women in their eighties who supported the local team Orduspor in the 1970s. Fifty-two years later, they reunite for one final match—just as the team faces relegation to the amateur league and the stadium is about to be demolished.

Through their stories, we witness how soccer once offered women a unique public space for socialization and liberation in the 1970s and 80s. Today, however, commercialization, politicization, and gender-discriminatory government policies have pushed women out of stadiums and other public arenas.

The documentary opens with a black-and-white photograph from 1967, showing joyful women and children in the bleachers. Some have since passed away, but we track down those still alive to reflect on the changing face of soccer fandom. We follow four women—Seylan, Ülkü, Naciye, and Ayşegül—each with a lifelong connection to Orduspor. From teachers to the daughter of the team’s founder, they share how soccer shaped their identities and communities.

As we explore their daily lives, we also observe how aging has transformed their routines, hopes, and fears—yet their passion for soccer endures. Their reunion culminates in a bittersweet farewell match, celebrating their enduring bond with the team.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Sezen Kayhan — Director/Producer
Sezen Kayhan a writer and filmmaker from Turkey, currently based in Germany. After obtaining her BA in Art History and Archaeology, she continued her master studies on Film and TV, and completed a PhD on Film Studies and Visual Culture at the University of Antwerp. Her works mainly focus on women and gender issues, on how women are positioned within male dominant and conservative societies. Her films Time of the Plums (2012), Elene (2016) and A Hard Day in the Empire (2019) have been screened and awarded at various film festivals including Tribeca, BFI Landon, Palm Springs, Montreal World, Cinemed, Sofia IFF and many others. Her video works, paintings and installations were exhibited at lstanbul Modern, Ankara Anatolian Civilizations and New Hatay Archaeology Museums. She is also one of the founding members of the Turkish women filmmakers initiative Women with Movie Cameras.

Beste Yamalıoğlu — Producer
She has worked as the coordinator of Meetings on the Bridge for 9 years and has been a freelance producer since 2013. She attended the 20th Sarajevo Talents Producers program and the MFI / Training for Script Editors. She co-produced The List of Those Who Love Me by Emre Erdogdu, which won the Best Film Award at Istanbul FF and Best Cinematography Award at Tallinn Black Nights FF. She was the associate producer of Dormitory by Nehir Tuna, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival Orrizonti Section. She is currently working at Karma Films as a content producer.

Fabian Kling — Executive Producer
Fabian Kling gained his first experience in professional media productions in Stuttgart and Ravensburg when he studied media design and conceived and produced advertising films at an agency. In 2017, he moved to Mainz, where he studied Film Studies (B.A.) and Media Dramaturgy (M.A.) until 2022. During this time, he worked as a co-producer and a director for various short film projects (including in UK and the United States) as well as a podcast, that was funded by the Medien Nachwuchsförderung RLP. Another short film, which was also funded and which he directed and produced, is currently in post-production. Fabian Kling has been working as a research assistant at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz since 2022, where he teaches film studies and media dramaturgy. In the same year, he founded the media production company tonfilmwerkstatt.

İmge Özbilge — Animation Artist
İmge Özbilge is a multidisciplinary artist from a multicultural background. After an artistic bachelor at Bilgi University in Istanbul, she completed two masters: one at Arts and Design Academy St. Joost, another at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent. Between 2009 and 2012, she led research on the mental representations of mythologies in the Middle East. During this process, she developed a passion for the art of miniature painting. In 2016, her short film Camouflage, inspired by miniatures, selected to Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation section. Besides working on different projects as a freelance animation artist, she recently completed her short Mosaic which was funded by Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) and Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel (CCA), screened and received awards at Annecy, Premiers Plans and Ghent Film Festival.

Rita Bakacs — Editor
Rita Bakacs is a documentary filmmaker and editor born in Hungary and based in Berlin, Germany. She studied Comparative Literature (University of Rochester, NY, USA), German Studies, English & American Studies and Computer Linguistics (University of Cologne, Germany). In her work, she is interested in observing ways in which historical burden, social practice and the effects of politics manifest themselves in contemporary surroundings and everyday life.

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Contact

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