Turkish

Mertkan has a simple life in Istanbul: ‘working’ as an office-boy in his dad’s construction company, hanging out with his male friends in malls and discos, cruising with his dad’s 4-wheel drive at night. There is no urgency for him to find a meaning to this emptiness. When he meets Gul, a Kurdish girl from Eastern Turkey, putting herself through university by working as a waitress, Mertkan has a chance to change the futility of his life. But his father opposes his connection with ‘those people who only want to divide our country’ and reminds Mertkan that ‘we are all Turkish and we are all Muslims’. Insidiously Mertkan bows to the social values of the ‘Majority’ when faced with a choice, and becomes the ‘proper man’ his dad wanted him to be.Read More »

Introduced separately, the protagonists are clustered into three groups. In the first, college-aged, cheerful Merdad and more serious-minded friend Ali are sneaking two pint-size cousins out of Iran to reunite them with refugee parents already in Austria.
In the second group, Lale and Hussan travel over the mountains by foot with their own young son, hoping to find European asylum from political persecution. After some tense moments, these first two groups find themselves safely –for the moment — across the border, in the same car driven by a kindly coyote.
In Ankara, they soon discover such friends are hard to find. Turkish cops and Iranian secret police are on the prowl for illegals; even the manager at the hotel where the protags are housed turns out to be an informant.Read More »

Quote:
A high school graduate, Yusuf could not pass the university entrance exam. Writing poetry is his greatest passion and some of his poems are being printed in various obscure literary journals. But neither these poems, nor the rapidly falling price of the milk they sell, are being of any benefit to Yusuf and Zehra’s lives. When Yusuf finds out about Zehra’s secret affair with the town’s stationmaster he gets disconcerted. Will he find the way to cope with his anxiety for the unknown future, the rapid change that he is going through and the pain of taking a step into adulthood and leaving his youth behind?Read More »

The women who called Elmas is earning her life with picking tomatoes, pepper and frog, she was widowed when her husband killed. Elmas survives with her child. She has to work for Bank and Cooperative debit. Also teenagers in the village are disturb her.Read More »

Plot/Synopsis:
Metin dreams of becoming a script writer. But no one is interested in his works. When he one evening returns frustrated from a bar, where yet again another on of his scripts was rejected, he meets Duygu. He takes the drunk woman who can barely stand on her legs, to his home where she can stay for the night.Read More »

In the last years of the Ottoman Empire, a poor little Anatolian town named Saripinar is hit by a minor earthquake which has neither destroyed nor left it with many casualties. However, a telegraph sent to the central government exaggerates the situation and mentions that the governor of the town has been severely wounded, making the event a nationwide matter. Written by baddahRead More »

This is a rare little gem from Turkey. The quality (and production values) leave a bit to be desired, but it more than makes up for it in entertainment! I have NEVER seen a movie quite like this, and in fact, at times I’m not quite sure if it’s meant to be taken serious or tongue in cheek.

Presumably, in a previous film/episode (that from what I’ve been able to determine, doesn’t even exist!), Kilink was killed by his former partner, a doctor, once they discovered some mysterious formula to make the most powerful bombs ever. Now Kilink wants revenge, and to then take over the world!Read More »

‘The Losers’ Club’ brings shock jocks of 1990s’ Istanbul back to life.

In his second feature, director and writer Tolga Örnek brings to screen one of the most controversial radio shows of the 1990s and its two bad-boy hosts. ‘Kaybedenler Kulübü’ stars Nejat İşler and Yiğit Özşener as the real-life radio personalities who shot to short-lived fame with their conversations on sex, rock’n’roll, loneliness, and nothing at all.Read More »

A slightly altered google translation of a summary:
Quote:
Here is the struggle for the border of the city. There are those who decide who is in and who stays out. Here it is in 1977, they reppress solidarity, they repress movement of those who come together to be just human. Land speculators according to the Government.Read More »