Turkish co-produced film, ‘The Ottoman Lieutenant,’ premiers in US theaters

"The Ottoman Lieutenant," a love story about an American nurse and an Ottoman officer serving in eastern Anatolia during World War I, has premiered in theaters across the United States.

The Turkish-American co-produced Hollywood film has reached U.S. audiences in some 300 cinemas across more than 200 regions of the country.

Telling the story of an American nurse named Lillie during the first years of World War I, the film incorporates striking décor and staging to create a modern version of an old fashioned picture.

In the film's first scene, Icelandic actress Hera Hilmar's character Lillie attempts to help an injured African-American man in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1914.

Tired of the racial injustices of the Philadelphia hospital, Lillie decides to leave the United States and work for a mission in an American hospital in Van.

After arriving in Istanbul, Lille meets the handsome English-speaking Ottoman Lieutenant Ismail Veli, who is played by Dutch Game of Thrones star Michiel Huisman.

Turkish actors Haluk Bilginer and Selçuk Yöntem play high-ranking Ottoman military personnel Halil Bey and Melih Pasha. Additionally, 73-year-old Oscar-winning British actor Sir Ben Kingsley plays the role of U.S. doctor Garrett Woodruff.

The one hour and forty minute film was written by Jeff Stockwell and directed by Joseph Ruben.