SVEN BENE or LOVE ME is a Turkish and Ukrainian film in four languages – Russian, English, Turkish and Ukrainian. The film is a timely one as the globe focuses on the discontent in the Ukraine, but this little film is less a political diatribe than it is a love story between two needy people. It is a character-driven narrative that follows desperate Turkish men on their quest for love through the modern 'mail-order bride' industry in Ukraine. The film highlights the complete process of finding a partner in a foreign land, showing the Western male and Ukrainian female perspectives.
Cemal is from Turkey and is approaching an arranged marriage to a Turkish girl. As his bachelor party his friends and his uncle to Kiev with the intention of it providing the sexually inexperienced Cemal with chance for practice with a prostitute before he heads back and gets married. At a club he meets the Ukrainian Sasha (who is in a relationship) and despite the fact that neither speaks the other's language, they make do with a bit of English and with this impaired communication, they leave the club for Sasha's place – without much in the way of talking – a refreshing way to watch an attraction or seduction take place. Sasha discovers her grandmother is missing and that puts a halt to their intended tryst: instead the two end up searching around Kiev for the missing grandmother. Without language but with a sensitive sensual attraction Cemal and Sasha enter a fragile chemistry. It is in these tender moments with the background of the wintry landscape and cityscape that the warm meaningful relationship seems to be building. To say more would be a spoiler, but what we are seeing is a clash of cultures that points out how truly different courtship can be when tainted by native restrictions.
The actors are convincing and the writer/directors handle this schism of cultures with gentle reality and a very fine sense of light comedy. It is a heart film, and thank goodness some are still being made.
Cemal is from Turkey and is approaching an arranged marriage to a Turkish girl. As his bachelor party his friends and his uncle to Kiev with the intention of it providing the sexually inexperienced Cemal with chance for practice with a prostitute before he heads back and gets married. At a club he meets the Ukrainian Sasha (who is in a relationship) and despite the fact that neither speaks the other's language, they make do with a bit of English and with this impaired communication, they leave the club for Sasha's place – without much in the way of talking – a refreshing way to watch an attraction or seduction take place. Sasha discovers her grandmother is missing and that puts a halt to their intended tryst: instead the two end up searching around Kiev for the missing grandmother. Without language but with a sensitive sensual attraction Cemal and Sasha enter a fragile chemistry. It is in these tender moments with the background of the wintry landscape and cityscape that the warm meaningful relationship seems to be building. To say more would be a spoiler, but what we are seeing is a clash of cultures that points out how truly different courtship can be when tainted by native restrictions.
The actors are convincing and the writer/directors handle this schism of cultures with gentle reality and a very fine sense of light comedy. It is a heart film, and thank goodness some are still being made.