Waiting for Heaven (Cenneti Beklerken)

Cenneti Beklerken (Waiting for Heaven) is a 107-minute Turkish-Hungarian co-production shot in 2005 and released in Turkey on 15 December 2006. Directed and written by Derviş Zaim, it is a drama that drew attention for using miniature painting both as a side theme and as an influence on how the film looks. Serhat Tutumluer and Melisa Sözen share the leading roles.

Its hero is Eflatun, a miniaturist who has just lost his wife and son. The palace commissions him to paint a Western-style portrait of a rebellious prince, and he sets out for Anatolia to do it. The journey lets him show and develop his art and brings cultural riches, and it is also a test of whether he can bear his grief and return to life. Along the way he meets Leyla, a strikingly beautiful girl who draws him into passion and a very different adventure. The story is set in seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul.

The cast also includes Altan Erkekli, Numan Acar, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Nihat İleri, Mehmet Ali Nuroğlu, Bülent İnal, Mesut Akusta and Ozan Güven. Zaim had earlier made Tabutta Rövaşata, Filler ve Çimen and Çamur; one critic judged this his most ambitious work and a film without the problems of the previous two.