“Une affaire turque”: A Lawyer Between Ambition and Origins

Paris – 11.08.2026: “Une affaire turque” opens in French cinemas on August 12, 2026. The 92-minute thriller is the feature film debut of French-Turkish director Hüseyin Aydin Gürsoy. At its center is Mathieu Mustafa Duman, an ambitious lawyer who has distanced himself from his Turkish background and aims to become a partner at an influential Paris business law firm.

The plot begins when a young Turk in a precarious situation asks Mathieu for help. The encounter draws the lawyer into a corruption scandal and jeopardizes his professional standing. The screenplay combines this classic suspense setup with a social question: What price does advancement demand from people who want to leave their origins behind? Mathieu is confronted with ties he has suppressed in favor of his career.

Gürsoy co-wrote the screenplay with Ludovic du Clary. The film was produced by Les Films du Clan, while Paname Distribution is handling French distribution. In France, the film is rated “Tous publics” and is therefore generally accessible without age restrictions. Paris provides the social backdrop for the story, particularly the world of major law firms and networks of economic influence.

Lionel Erdogan plays Mathieu Mustafa Duman. The cast also includes Charles Berling as Claude Delval, Metehan Aygun as Abdullah Özkan, and Lubna Azabal as Faïza Benseddik. Their characters represent the different spheres of life in which Mathieu moves: family and origins, the professional environment, and the dependencies exposed by the corruption scandal.

According to his biography, the director, who was born in Turkey in 1988, has lived in France since the age of three. Before “Une affaire turque,” he directed several short films, including “8 Mois,” “Une toile d’araignée,” and “Partir en poussière.” In his first feature film, he explores themes that correspond to his dual cultural background without reducing the story to an autobiographical confession.

The film uses the tools of the thriller to reveal the vulnerability of an outwardly successful figure. The corruption plot therefore serves not only to create suspense. It puts Mathieu’s rise under pressure and forces him to redefine the relationship between career, loyalty, and origins. The Turkish community does not appear as an abstract motif of identity, but as a concrete social point of reference.

Screenings in Paris and the Île-de-France region have been announced for the theatrical release. This gives the French summer program a contemporary film that brings together social mobility, belonging, and economic dependency in a tightly focused conflict story.