Motherland Hotel

Anayurt Oteli is based on a novel by an Turkish author, Yusuf Atilgan. It tells the dilemma of a hotel receptionist, Zebercet, who is locked in to his workplace –he is the only employer of the establishment except a cleaning lady- and gradually becomes an obsessed loner with his lack of communication with any other human beings and shows an inclination toward sexual deviation. By this film, the late Turkish director Omer Kavur produced a very successful literary adaption which is so rare in Turkish cinema. The film is not only providing a thoroughly examination of a very bizarre character, but also brilliantly portrays a Turkish small town with its historical buildings, marketplaces, coffeehouses, pubs, courtrooms, barber shops, train stations, movie theaters along with an emphasis on the basic routines such as Friday prayers, local administration announcements heard from street loudspeakers, cockfights and so on. The hotel building also plays a major part in the film and can be easily considered as one of the film characters. The film was made in the late 1980s, but luckily time was not being so harsh on it. If anyone is interested with the higher limits of the Turkish cinema, I'm sure this is one of the films that should be revisited.