**warning may contain spoilers** That 3 star vote is more for Anlat Istanbul, which was made seven years earlier and won the Istanbul Film Festival and was an inter-connected film about five characters and their lives over one day in Istanbul. The characters here are the same with a few slight changes. Both feature a man from the East of Turkey who doesn't speak Turkey for example. Both also feature the same actress Ozgu Namal. Anlat Istanbul is itself very much inspired by Paul Haggis' "Crash" which came out the previous year. While the idea of several characters crossing paths over the course of a day is certainly not a new concept, Jim Jarmusch for one uses the technique for many films. Rashoman and Pulp Fiction as well, though not over one day.
This film is alright, it's just odd to see a remake of Anlat Istanbul so quickly and with basically the same characters. People like saying Istanbul is cosmopolitan, but compared to cities like New York, London, and Paris, Istanbul is a cosmopolitan Turkish city. One sees people from all corners of Turkey, but rarely from any other country, save for Finnish executives who work at Nokia, or executives working for Coca-Cola. It would be nice to see a true mixture of people from all walks of life here including the African immigrants waiting to transit into Europe or the Levantin population of Italians living here for centuries. Sadly none of those people are featured in this film. There's a nationalistic nostalgia and people are yet only willing to focus on the Turkish and Kurdish lifestyles, branching out now and then to include gay or transvestite characters, as Anlat Istanbul does.
Good story, sure. And maybe someone will remake this in the next few years.
This film is alright, it's just odd to see a remake of Anlat Istanbul so quickly and with basically the same characters. People like saying Istanbul is cosmopolitan, but compared to cities like New York, London, and Paris, Istanbul is a cosmopolitan Turkish city. One sees people from all corners of Turkey, but rarely from any other country, save for Finnish executives who work at Nokia, or executives working for Coca-Cola. It would be nice to see a true mixture of people from all walks of life here including the African immigrants waiting to transit into Europe or the Levantin population of Italians living here for centuries. Sadly none of those people are featured in this film. There's a nationalistic nostalgia and people are yet only willing to focus on the Turkish and Kurdish lifestyles, branching out now and then to include gay or transvestite characters, as Anlat Istanbul does.
Good story, sure. And maybe someone will remake this in the next few years.