Khajistan Seeking Preservation and Digitization Partners for Historic Erotic Film Posters
by Khajistan Cultural Desk
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New York, NY — Khajistan is launching a preservation and digitization initiative for its collection of 200 original Turkish erotic film posters, one of the largest private archives of its kind. Produced mainly during the 1970s and 1980s, these posters belong to the period popularly referred to as the “Sex Fury” or “Erotik Dönem” era of Turkish cinema, when low-budget studios produced films that blended melodrama, exploitation, erotic fantasy, and political anxiety during one of the most turbulent decades in Turkey’s cultural history.
These posters were printed for a circuit of neighborhood cinemas across Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and smaller provincial towns. Many were displayed outdoors, often exposed to sun, humidity, cigarette smoke, and repeated handling. They feature performers such as Zerrin Doğan, Kazım Kartal, Aydemir Akbaş, and Nejla Nazır, whose on-screen personas mirrored a society negotiating censorship, modernization, gender panic, and the edge of state control.
The collection includes iconic titles such as Süper Adam, Son Günah, Civanım, İyi Gün Dostu, El Bebek Gül Bebek, Bizim Sokak, Canın İsterse, Sev Beni, Sımsıcak, and dozens of lesser-known regional releases that have almost no surviving documentation. These posters preserve a visual language that defined an underground economy of sex, comedy, violence, and aspiration during years marked by coups, economic instability, and shifting morality laws.
The physical condition of these posters reflects their long and difficult lives. Many show fading, corner loss, staple tears, water rippling, and discoloration from decades of exposure. Some titles survive only as folded, theatre-used prints. Left untreated, they will continue to degrade.
Khajistan is now undertaking a complete digitization and preservation program that includes:
• high-resolution scanning of each poster, capturing original color, texture, and print artifacts
• gentle surface cleaning and flattening for posters with creases or folding damage
• stabilization of fragile edges where possible
• long-term storage in acid-free, temperature-controlled conditions
• creation of open-format digital masters for research, publication, and exhibition
This work is part of Khajistan’s wider mission to protect the cultural record of under-documented and marginalized media from the Middle East, Turkey, and South Asia. Turkish erotic film posters are more than promotional objects. They record the aesthetics and anxieties of a society negotiating power, gender, desire, censorship, and the limits of public morality. They are visual witnesses of a media industry that operated on the margins of state approval and public demand.
Institutions with interest in acquiring this collection and/or help with the digitization are invited to contact: info@khajistan.com
