Visitors look at the display cases in The Museum of Innocence in Istanbul.
On a cobbled street in Çukurcuma, a district known for its antiques shops on Istanbul's European side, the story penned by Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk in his bestselling novel "The Museum of Innocence" has been brought to life.
Inside a red-painted house, visitors are confronted by a wall of 4,213 cigarette butts, many of them lipstick-stained, others angrily stubbed out, all obsessively kept by the book's protagonist, Kemal Basmacı.
The museum, opened by Pamuk in 2012, mirrors the novel’s 83 chapters with 83 display cases filled with jewelry, photographs, cinema tickets and bottles of Meltem soda, evoking 1970s Istanbul and a love story spiraling into fixation.
Interest has surged ahead of the nine-part Netflix adaptation, released on Feb. 13. Since trailers began airing, daily visitors have risen from around 200 to 500, according to museum staff.
The series, produced by Istanbul-based Ay Yapım, stars Selahattin Paşalı as Kemal and Eylül Kandemir as Füsun, and was directed by Zeynep Günay.
Set in the 1970s, it follows a wealthy young man devastated by the loss of his distant cousin and lover, prompting him to collect objects tied to her memory over eight years.
Pamuk details fight for creative control
In an interview with the New York Times, published before the premiere, Pamuk described a years-long struggle to bring the novel to screen on his own terms.
He said he had previously signed with an unnamed Hollywood company but was “horrified” by a script that strayed far from the 500-page narrative, adding a new plotline he felt distorted the story. After a legal battle, he regained the rights in 2022.
Pamuk partnered with Ay Yapım, remaining closely involved in a four-year script process he described as exacting.
He declined advance payments and refused to sign contracts until the screenplay was complete, insisting the museum be credited alongside the book and that no second season be produced, regardless of success.
The digital premiere marks a late career first for Türkiye’s most internationally recognized novelist.
With the book translated into more than 60 languages, the adaptation is expected to expand its global reach further — and offers another showcase for Türkiye’s booming television industry, now the world’s third-largest exporter of TV series after the United States and the United Kingdom.
