Hirsiz var! (2005)

Director:

Oguzhan Tercan

Writer:

Haluk Özenç (writer)

Release Date:

21 January 2005 (Turkey)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime

Plot:

With the death of a billionaire engaged in illegal practices, his billion-dollar fortune is up for the grabs...

Cast

Haluk Bilginer	...	Seçkin
Mehmet Ali Erbil	...	Ekrem
Birol Ünel	...	Pamir
Gülse Birsel	...	Binnur
Gamze Özçelik	...	Ceren
Fatih Akin	...	Lokman
Dost Elver	...	Gökhan
Suna Pekuysal	...	Nezaket
Mustafa Turan	...	Kurtulus
Ahmet Mumtaz Taylan	...	Ari & Avi Kohen
Haktan Pak	...	Fazli
Zafer Kayaokay	...	Dündar
Haldun Boysan	...	Fethi
Hakan Boyav	...	Muammer
Esra Eron	...	Begüm

Also Known As:

Robbery Alla Turca (International: English title)

Country:

Turkey

Language:

Turkish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:12 | UK:12A

Company:

Medyapim

Trivia:

Although the caption at the beginning of the movie claims otherwise, the black hair and the illegal acts of Binnur (Gulse Birsel) suggests that she may have been inspired by Aysegul Nadir, the famous Turkish smuggler.

Soundtrack:

Om

Turkish Comedy Scores

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

After years of disappointment, a decent Turkish comedy movie finally appears on screen. The movie is fairly decent, with a universal sense of humor combined with local taste and a steady pace slowly "gaining acceleration" to a climactic ending. The casting is excellent. Finally, Turkish comedy breaks free from its despicable tradition of "social criticism" and Sunal-style cheap laugh. (mostly) The acting is fairly good, with Bilginer being the star of the movie.

The camera is professional, which is a revolution in its own small way for the Turkish cinema. It is not static like the more traditional Turkish movies, nor is it floating around in the new "Asmali Konak" style. The camera and contributes much to the pace of the movie. In the beginning, the camera moves from a TV showing related news to a well-decorated room, as well as a brief glimpse of a painting, introducing us to the plot. Later on, we see Pamir from below as he gains illegitimate access to the IT-center. We have a view of the backstage from the top, thus we grasp the full extend of the commotion of the backstage of the fashion show. It is as if divine intervention has improved the Turkish camera to Hollywood standards.

Bilginer, as expected, puts on an excellent performance as Seckin, the fashion designer with an apparent sexual interest in males. Bilginer is totally into the character, the gestures, facial expression, intonation. His talent is superb, I hope that the world outside Turkey gets to see him more. However, it is difficult to praise Erbil, playing Ekrem. Ekrem's emotional spectrum presented in the movie goes from "angry" to "angier." Ekrem is unrealistically angry with his aide when he goes out of the prison. He is angry for no apparent reason when he is about to sign a contact with the Japanese businessman. Because he is angry to begin with, as misfortunes befall, the only direction he can go is "angier". When he is not shooting at people or objects, he is shouting at them. Where Erbil fails, Birsel, playing Binnur, fills with elegance. Binnur is the beautiful yet ambitious and immoral wife of the late billionaire. Birsel takes the ideal image of a "black widow," and incarnates the idol into a realistic character. In the first half of the movie, we see little. In fact, we are dismayed by her low quality acting at her husband's death. (Yet is she *really* upset?) We first have a glimpse of the character when she is driving with the paparazzi and engage in car crash: Her image as she blocks her eyes with one hand, and gestures with the other to the paparazzi to remove the injured man from the windscreen is hilarious. As we burst into laughter, we are introduced to Binnur: Caring little for the others, yet expecting others to care for her. Later on, our belief is reaffirmed when she asks Erbil, in cold blood, to shoot the paparazzi, yet to do it in somewhere out of her sight. Finally, we have a close-up on her face as she enjoys a conversation with the host about the fate of the much valuable paintings. Thanks to the camera and the director, the audience experiences a full spectrum of her complex facial expressions. Birsel takes a simple character and transforms it into a terribly beautiful "black widow" idol. Her image in her elegant black dress going after her own sibling with the ornate Turkish knife is haunting. Bravo to Birsel and to Tercan. Another success of Tercan is the casting of Ozcelik as Ceren, the model. It is unavoidable that many will criticize Ozcelik, making a claim that she merely acted herself, as she is in reality a model. It is undeniable that Ozcelik drew upon her own experiences when acting the part, yet in the end we have a full picture of a stereotypical model. Her acting fails her only at the end when she has to cry for her newly-found love, Pamir. Two thumbs up for Ozcelik. However, when it comes to casting Birol Unel playing Pamir, Tercan fails: The character that asked for depth is cast by an experienced, professional actor; yet is given so little dialog that we fail to grasp the character. Why does Pamir try to save Ceren in the end? What does Pamir feel towards Nezaket? We never learn. The character asks for so much more and it is not Unel's fault, but Tercan's fault that it doesn't get it. The character lacks more dialog.

The sense of humor is highly-stylized, combining American absurd humor with French criticism and adding a strong taste of Turkish cynicism. We briefly see a door sign that says "Housekeeping depo," an unnecessary bilingual repetition, criticizing stylishly the mal-use of Turkish and mingling with English words, a common trend in the last decade. We have Ozcelik fly and land over Unel Steve Martin-style, perhaps an homage to late Sunal, or perhaps just a inspiration from Hollywood comedies. Whatever the case is, it goes well with the high pace. We have the "Laz" mafia making goofy mistakes all over, a nice yet controversial blend of traditional Turkish jokes with the absurd Hollywood humor. We see a satyrical depiction of the paparazzi as they gather around the table eat away the hors d'oeuvres at the party. We have the police being mocked with a resemblance to Inspector Clouseau! Finally, there was no attempt to give a direct socially significant message to the audience, as is a disgusting custom in Turkish comedy. Congragulations to Tercan for boldly rejecting tradition.

The movie is not without its mistakes. However, overall, it is a decent comedy, having something for almost all audiences. More importantly, the movie is a proof that comedy exists for Turkish cinema.