Turkish Delight

one of the best turkish movies of all times

Based on a novel that stands out in Turkish literature, this movie is considered to be one of the best movies of Turkish cinema, maybe the best one..
Zebercet, a middle aged man runs a hotel, which is an old mension in a small town. He lives there together with the only maid. One day a woman comes and stays for one night, and he instantly falls in love with her. When she checks out, she says that she will be back in a week. He leaves the room the way she left and doesn't let anybody in. He waits for her, he thinks nothing but her and he becomes obsessed with her. One week passes, very slowly, but she never shows up and when he understands that she won't ever come, he loses his mind. This is a drama, but it's more like a horror. It's scarier than "The Shining" because it's real. The man is not possessed by supernaturals, he is possessed by a woman. The building is like a character of the movie and the camera work is spot on. This is one of those great movies that nobody knows about..

Reha Erdem keeps making exceptional movies in Turkish cinema. "Hayat Var" meaning "There is life" in Turkish, Hayat (Life) is also the name of the little girl that is the main character. The English name comes from the doll her father gives her that sings the song "You are my sunshine". Both titles are ironic, because the little girl's life sucks and there is no shineshine whatsoever.

Hayat has one of the most dysfunctional families ever on screen. Living in a barrack on the coast of bosphorus with her father and her bedridden grandfather. Her father does smuggling and pandering in his little fishing boat, her grandfather is in bed cursing all the time, her mother left and married a cop maybe because her husband had sex with men and his father was a sick fuck. You cannot grow up to be normal in this family and Hayat was not an exception. She doesn't talk much, she mumbles songs all the time, she spends time with the neigbour woman who is "too caring" and she gets free candy from the store where she gets molested.

The movie has one of the most interesting soundtracks that fits the movie perfectly. The director uses fine examples of arabesque music (a kind that always talks about pain and mostly popular in suburbs) and after one point the songs become the narrator. Bosphorus is one of the main characters in the movie and the director makes you really feel it not only visually but by the high sounds he uses skillfully.

This is a very depressing movie showing the ugly face of the corrupted society. It's not one of those movies that aims to make you cry, instead it makes you think and makes you realise what kind of a world you are living in, it makes you feel ashamed because you are sitting in the comfortable seats of a nice theatre knowing that there are actually this kind of lives out there.

This is my favoritte Turkish movie. If Coen brothers were Turkish and shoot a movie in Turkey, this would be it. It's a dark comedy with lots of interesting characters and a very good script. I watched this on TV knowing nothing about it and absolutely loved it. Hilarious.

Colourful, dramatic and funny musical taking place in Turkish music industy. The director takes this story which was based on true events and turns it into a fairy tale with great characters and very interesting cameos.

Of course this movie doesn't answer the question in title, what movie can? It only introduces you with a bunch of interesting characters liiving in an apartment in Istanbul. It doesn't tell you a story eihter, well there is a story of course but the aim is not to tell a story but to point out certain details in human life. And the movie does it without boring the shit out of you, in fact it's quite fun to watch. By the way, the alternative title of the movie is "Korkuyorum anne" which means "Mom, I'm scared".

A young man gets out of the prison after 10 years with nowhere to go and nothing to do. He even suggests authorities that he should stay inside because he is afraid but they refuse. He meets a troubled couple and their deaf-muted daughter the fist day he is out. While dealing with his past and wondering what to do with his life, he gets involved with these people. As the movie goes, we find out about the bitter lives of these three people.

It's a great drama with three top notch actors and wonderful direction. This is about how bitch life can get sometimes and how hard it is to keep your "innocence". The movie perfectly ends with famous words of Samuel Beckett: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better"

Prequel to "Masumiyet". In a perfect scene in Masumiyet, Haluk Bilginer tells a story in a monologue in three minutes, the story of his life, his obsession for the woman he loved. "Kader" takes these three minutes and makes it a movie. And a good one. A very depressed one.

In "Kader" Bekir watches a scene from "Masumiyet" on TV, the scene where future Bekir has a fight with the woman he loves, he shouts "You whore, you fucking cunt" over and over again. Bekir asks the person who watches the film what this was. He says "I don't know, I'm just watching". It was Bekir after about 15 years, more fucked up than he is right now...

Cem Yilmaz, a stand up artist wrote and starred in this sci-fic comedy. A Turkish carpet seller is abducted by people from planet GORA and really funny things happens after that. There are lots of referances to many sci-fic movies, the fifth element referance is hilarious -don't make up elements from your ass!-. There are some jokes that non-turkish viewers can't get but there are also many global jokes. If you are a Turk, you've already seen this movie somehow and if you are not a Turk this one definitely worths a rent. It guarantees a big laugh.

Here comes the sequel! 4 years after his sci-fi spoof G.O.R.A, Cem Yilmaz comes back as Arif, this time to travel back in time. In the first movie, he was abducted by aliens and ended up saving the planet and marrying their princess and taking her to earth.

Now, they are expecting a baby and everything is great till the bad guy comes to earth and sends Arif a million years back in time. It's time to spoof every kind of joke about stone age and fantasy movies.

The first movie may be funnier since there were more to spoof in sci-fi than stone age but this movie does a better job on storytelling. Cem Yilmaz focuses more on telling a story instead of telling one joke after another. This doesn't mean it won't crack you up, Cem Yilmaz is one of the funniest man alive and he is doing his job very good here, too.

This is about a man and his relationship with his religious group and his God. His simple life devoted to God suddenly changes when he is given a task by his religious group, the task is to handle the money. Doing his new task, he starts to ask some questions, sees strange things in his dreams, does things he cannot explain, mixes what is right and what is wrong and slowly goes crazy.
This movie was in many festivals around the world and won lots of prizes. The acting, especially by the lead actor is phenomenal. He actually lives his role. This movie is one of the best movies I've seen about religion.

This is the common nightmare of Turkish people since the big earthquake in 1999. Lots of people died in that earthquake and a bigger one is expected soon in Istanbul.
This horror-drama is doing very good where other Turkish horror movies lacked; building up the the atmosphere and setting the tone. The story is authentic and the movie never looks or sounds redioculus. This movie doesn't only stand out among the Turkish horror movies(there are a few), it's also one of the best one that I saw recently of this genre.

One of the best debuts I've ever seen. Coming from a small village in Black sea, this movie uses its location perfectly. A man in his thirties, gets out of the prison after 10 years, two years earlier than the original time, because he was so sick and about to die. He was a political criminal and was kept in a special kind of cell that was and still is a big issue here in Turkey.

The man goes to his village to spend the rest of his time with his old mother. And there, another character spets in, the nature of the beautiful black sea.

This is a political movie and has some things to say but it says them so delicately, without rasing its voice. I loved the scene where Yusuf and his friend were walking on the coast and talking when he found about the girl that he loved before he went in got married long time ago. It was so real and much more effective than the scenes we see in mainstream drama movies. This is also a movie about love. Having so little time doesn't mean he won't love again.

The director says it was like a mission for him to shoot this movie. And he probably won't be able to make a movie this good again.