Box office

The film was the sixth highest grossing Turkish film of 2009 and has made a total worldwide gross of $3,388,636.^[4]

Public controversy

Television talk shows and newspapers have covered both the film and the discussion of the events on which it is based. Its makers say the public debate is a result of an easing of curbs on freedom of expression accompanying Turkey's drive to meet European Union membership standards. This film couldn't have been made 10 years ago, screenwriter Etyen Mahçupyan told Today's Zaman, Though the laws on the books still limit free speech, the reality is there's less and less that can't be criticized.^[5]

September 6–7 was our Kristallnacht, Rev. Dositheos Anagnostopulous, a spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Church in Istanbul said, The chances of something like this happening again are slim, because Turkish youth today are more critical in their thinking. But to be sure, they need to learn that this catastrophe occurred, that's why the film is important.^[5]

A film like this might be just a film in another country, Mahçupyan continued, because there's been a vacuum and this issue was never discussed, the film now fulfils an important mission.

Yet, according to the Greek perspective, the film does not depict the events of September 1955 in their actual historic depth, not to mention the portrayal of the main Greek character as a prostitute sold off by her family, totally contrasting the Greek-envisioned social reality of the Greek community of the city, according to contemporary Greeks of Greece, which quite reflects the Turkish views over their non-Muslim neighbours, particularly the women. The film remains still highly controversial for being an attempt to white-wash the "responsibilities" of the Turkish people pretending it was all down to a political manipulation when this is a pogrom in which tens of thousands of Turkish citizens took part and which forced the majority of the Greek community to leave Istanbul.