Turkish Delight (1973 film)

Turkish Delight
Theatrical release poster
DutchTurks fruit
Directed byPaul Verhoeven
Screenplay byGerard Soeteman
Based onTurks Fruit
by Jan Wolkers
Produced byRob Houwer
Starring
CinematographyJan de Bont
Edited byJan Bosdriesz
Music byRogier van Otterloo
Production
company
VNF
Distributed byNederland Film
Release date
  • 22 February 1973 (1973-02-22)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryNetherlands
LanguageDutch
Budget365,000

Turkish Delight (Dutch: Turks fruit) is a 1973 Dutch erotic romantic drama film directed by Paul Verhoeven from a screenplay by Gerard Soeteman, based on the 1969 novel Turks Fruit by Jan Wolkers. It is a love story of an artist and a young woman, starring Rutger Hauer in his film debut and Monique van de Ven.

Turkish Delight is the most successful film in the history of Dutch cinema. The film was a massive success at the Dutch box office; according to Alle Record, 3,338,000 people saw the film,[1] while the Netherlands Film Festival puts it at 3.5 million,[2] corresponding to about 26% of the population of the Netherlands at the time.[3][4] In 1973 it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film[5] and in 1999, it received a special Golden Calf Award for Best Dutch Film of the Century. It was entered into the Canon of Dutch Cinema in 2007.[2] In 2005, it was adapted into a musical, starring Antonie Kamerling and Jelka van Houten.

  1. ^ "Nederlandse Films met Meeste Bioscoopbezoekers" (Dutch Films with the Greatest Audience), Alle Records (in Dutch). Accessed 4 April 2016.
  2. ^ a b Turks-fruit on the official website of the Netherlands Film Festival, in Dutch. Accessed 4 April 2016.
  3. ^ Calculated on the basis of historical data on the official Dutch statistics page, CBS - Statistics Netherlands, StatLine: "Population, households and population dynamics from 1899", which provides the figure of 13,388,000 as the total population of the Netherlands in 1973. Accessed 4 April 2016.
  4. ^ Turks fruit (film) at the Dutch Wikipedia
  5. ^ "The 46th Academy Awards (1974) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 3 December 2011.