Turkey's YouTube gangsters hit mainstream box office
The "Sifir Bir" series set in the southern city of Adana is essentially a constant shootout between dueling street gangs competing for turf, with a bit of the country's turbulent politics.
Within four years, the unrestrained Turkish gangster show "Sifir Bir" ("01" in Turkish, taking its name from the license plate code of the large southern city of Adana where it is set) managed to ascend from a series that uploaded its first two seasons to YouTube to a mainstream film and box office success.
The explosion of the show's popularity that eventually took it to the big screen is likely a result of the void of provocative, challenging content on Turkey's TV channels, thanks to the heightened censorship in recent years that has directed viewers to Netflix and local streaming sites.
