Steam: The Turkish Bath (Hamam) (translated)

Turkish-born Italian director Ferzan Özpetek made his feature debut with Hamam (Italian: Il bagno turco, also circulated as Steam: The Turkish Bath), an Italian-Turkish-Spanish drama. It opened in Turkey on October 24, 1997, and won awards at the Antalya Film Festival. The film is about the deep changes that certain places, and what happens in them, can bring about inside people. Spoken in Italian and Turkish, it runs 94 minutes.

Francesco and Marta run a small design firm in Rome, and their marriage has worn thin: he has lost interest in her, and she is seeing their business partner. When Francesco's long-forgotten aunt dies in Istanbul and leaves him a hamam, he travels there to sell it. He meets the family who runs it, feels drawn to a young man named Mehmet, and, taken by the city's atmosphere, decides to keep the place. Alessandro Gassman plays Francesco and Francesca d'Aloja plays Marta. Halil Ergün is Osman, Şerif Sezer is Perran, Mehmet Günsür is Mehmet and Başak Köklükaya is Füsun; Carlo Cecchi, Necdet Mahfi Ayral and Alper Kul also appear.

Özpetek wrote the script with Stefano Tummolini. Paolo Buzzuro and Cengiz Ergun produced for Promete Film; Pasquale Mari shot it, Mauro Bonanni edited and Pivio and Aldo De Scalzi wrote the score.