Crimean (2014) User Reviews

Almost a classic

[arslanahmet1981 · 8/10 · 17 January 2015]

This film could be almost a classic like Das Boot or Saving Private Ryan at showing the war atmosphere if it could keep the scenario related to war. Films is based on a true story, a Turkish resident of Crimea occupied by Russian forces were forced recruits of Red Army. Turkish origin soldier was taken captive by Nazis. They suffered in concentration camps. One day Nazis decided to use those Turkish soldiers against leftist resistance in Nazis occupied lands. Film shows stateless nations' sufferings. If you watch too many films about ww2 from the eyes of Germans, Americans or Russians, you must need this perspective. A must see film for war film seekers and people keen on history . At second part , film turned into a love story, I can not understand why director turned this film into love story. This turning point and meaningless story re-directions almost ruined this film. But I am sure that this director will certainly shine in future.

Very emotional!

[agirmete · 10/10 · 1 September 2017]

In contrary to the reviewers before me I want to state the fact, that this movie is very emotional. I didn't want it to end. The story is just sad and in my opinion very good written. The actors have done a great job and once again you can see that Turks are the born soldiers, but still very emotional and sensitive folks with a high morale.

A Wasted Story

[serdarbadoglu · 4/10 · 20 May 2015]

Based on a novel, this movie offers an average quality of screen direction and production. Although the story is somewhat original, it quickly turns into a cliché story with unnecessary love scenes. For those who are concerned what happened to Crimean Turks in WWII, historical dept is definitely missing. Most important of all, this movie suffers from poor acting! Yes. In particular, some of the characters look as if they're ordinary people who have done acting wily-nilly. No good acting can be achieved by force. Besides, accented dialogs in this movie are horrible. To sum up, Kirimli is a waste of time for international audience.

Nothing new really

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 8 March 2016]

"Kirimli" is a German/Turkish co-production from 2 years ago that runs for roughly 110 minutes and was directed by Burak Arliel and adapted by a pair of writers from a novel. Fittingly with the countries that contributed in making this one, there is basically the same amount of German and Turkish language in here, so make sure you got subtitles unless you are fluent in both languages. The cast is predominantly Turkish and the German speaking comes from actors playing Nazi soldiers and interacting with each other. Maybe you need to be Turkish actually to enjoy the story and the historical reference, but I personally felt this movie brought nothing new that hasn't been shown us already in the huge number of war-themed movies in the past. I was bored for the most part I must say, but yeah, maybe you really need to be from Turkey or have such a background in order to understand and feel the story depicted in here.

It is basically the usual. Likable Turkish prisoners, unlikeable German Nazis. I cannot say I really felt with any of the characters in here and I felt the writing could have been a lot better. It's not a complete failure, but very mediocre and generic for the most part what Atilla Ünsal and Nil Güleç Ünsal came up with. I also felt that the movie could have been considerably shorter. Cut out many of the less interesting scenes and this one would have been 95 minutes max I guess and that would have been a good thing in this very case. Overall, my verdict is negative and I do not recommend checking it out. Thumbs down.

Once again, Turks fail to impress with a war story

[ufster-2 · 3/10 · 8 April 2016]

There is something about the Turkish epic war stories which cause them to end up being stale, unimaginative and disinterested. This flick fails to overreach that barrier the same way it's predecessors do. Many if not all feel like cheap reproductions of The Birth of a Nation where the story tries to work on the moral superiority, if not infallibility, of the Turkish protagonists fighting the despicable and most of the time inexplicably cruel non-Turkish (preferably Slavic, Nordic, Helenic - not in that particular order) antagonists. It even lacks the propagandistic quality the writers intended as a result.

Any good war story must try and build on the human, not the superhuman, aspects of the protagonists in accepting their deficiencies, vulnerabilities and aspirations as parts of the whole. There is no reason for any non-Turk to ever relate with these characters and whatever reason there is for a Turk to do, adds up to mount the propaganda value of the flick. All in all a waste of time, even for those who might be interested in this particular minor chapter of WW2 for historical curiosity, for there is very little of value in that department in terms of accuracy or depth.

Save yourself the time and avoid it.