Intikam Kadini (1979)

Directed by Naki Yurter and written by Recep Filiz, Intikam Kadini (Revenge Woman) is the story of Aysel (Zerrin Dogan), One evening, four men had their car break down and her father generously allowed them to stay at their home. Later that evening, their assaulted her and killed him.

By the end of this movie, Aysel will have cut, chopped, broken and burned four men beyond recognition… but no jury in Turkey would ever convict her! That’s because Intikam Kadini is inspired by the film whose tagline I just quoted: I Spit On Your Grave. Well, by inspired, I mean that Aysel goes to the city and seduces and kills each of the men one at a time. She doesn’t race a boat or castrate a man on camera like Camille Keaton did before her.

This film barely survived the purge of Turkey’s seventies sexploitation films and all that survives is a multiple generations removed videotape that has been uploaded to the web again and again.

Between the Muzak-sounding “Penny Lane” and Vangelis’ “Pulstar,” this has the music thievery that I demand in my movie watching. It’s just that I’ve never really gotten into rape revenge movies. The act itself is a real-life horror and so often, it seems like the movies wallow in the crime more than than they show the retribution. They should be empowering but they come off as shallow; I get that this is all exploitation but I have no interest in seeing women get treated this way unless they’re going to set people ablaze and go even further.

One thought on “Intikam Kadini (1979)

  1. I agree. They aren’t ‘fun’ and that’s what these kind of movies should be, cuz they sure ain’t art. In my mind they can skip the whole rape part – ladies don’t need a reason to castrate, burn and chop up sleazy men. I can watch that forever, no rapes needed… which is why COFFY is a blast but FOXY BROWN is a bummer.

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