Anlat Istanbul - Erzähl Istanbul

This film is beautifully structured with a plot that seems very complex at the beginning and simplifies as you move into the story. Like many of the Grimms' Fairy Tales which are referenced as the story unfolds, it has a dark aspect. The seedy side of life in contemporary Istanbul is presented through several interweaving stories with more than a hint of violence, a potion of deep selfishness and a charm of great kindness. There are musicians whose music produces magic, enchanted castles, sleeping princesses, unfaithful princesses and a truly malevolent wicked step-mother. There is even a dwarf with seven brothers. How do you draw to a close in a film where the dark side seems, perhaps, to be in the ascendant? Well, watch closely. There is one event that shows how the story, apparently so fixed, will come to a different ending. It could easily be missed. There is not a moment in this film where your attention wanders or the magic wanes, for the magic is not anything of the supernatural, but is the enchantment of human life, in the Great Whore of Istanbul. This is not a film of great acting and I suspect only a few of the cast were professional actors - but it is nevertheless made up of compelling moments that flow effortlessly into each other. See it; enjoy it.

For anybody interested in thinking about Turkey as a dynamic society going through a(nother) serious 'turning point' in its history, this can be an important film to watch. I noticed someone commented on this film as one of the most 'realistic' films ever made in the history. There must be some truth to this: perhaps not in any concrete sense, but in the subjective state of the person who wrote that note, and the 'realism' that spoke to him or her through this film. As exaggerated and meaningless as that claim may appear, it is important and meaningful nonetheless, because he or she lives this truth, at one level or another. For him or her this is real, and that IS real. It is wonderful the way these fairy tales find themselves translated in the underworlds of Istanbul: neither fantastic tales of Eastern Thousand and One Nights, nor happy ending fairy tales of Western symbols, these are the uncanny tales of the truly marginalized characters, 'realities', ghosts that have been pushed back into the invisible undergrounds of Turkish 'civilization quest' materialized in the name of Istanbul, this age old dream trophy of Turkish warriors. A broken bridge, a host of nightly creatures cast out of nice dreams gone bad, and the human cost that has been paid in pursuit of a mirage: it is time to wake up and follow the Ottoman tune, not across any bridges to anywhere on 'the other side', but rather, right into the running fluidity of the generous Bosporus.

I recently saw this movie in Amsterdam. I loved it, the colors, the images and the music!! Could anyone give me a clue to the music? Who played this wonderful music? The movie content was artistic and original, i did not get bored, maybe the scene with the disturbed woman in the big villa alongside the Bosphorus was a bit too long, here and there things were a little bit like a repetition but i did not mind. I loved it. It was surprising. Especially the PASJA was a great player, I laughed! In general I must say that the men were not very sympathetic, they were rather violent and dominant...I' d like to have seen some more Turkish men playing a gentle and emancipated role of equivalents to women. On the other hand this was a story about extremities and realities that go beyond the ordinary dull average housekeeping, so let it be. If you read this and if you can help, please Please send me the name of the music in Anlat Istanbul, so I can buy it somewhere, it was beautiful! Thank you!

With its lack of integrity and coherence; and an explicit inability to deepen the stories and bad acting except some actors, I think a user rating close to 8 is very very unrealistic. The director plays the smart by attempting to link five stories, but the links are very simplistic. Unable to provide a realistic picture of the social life in Turkey. It seems that rather than the content and good acting, the director gave too much emphasis upon the sensational "popularity" of the actors, each of which is very well known by Turkish public. This intention of making these "famous" faces to be seen in the movie seems to dominate the content and artistic concerns. My vote is 5 out of 10

The striking quality of the movie is the originality. The striking failure is the lack of integrity. The plot is composed of five subplots unsuccessfully merged together. The actors are mostly renowned but a terrible mix: The unprofessional and insufficient bunch of the "TV-series boom" in Turkey and professional Turkish actors from the German cinema.

The plot is insufficient to say the least. The movie is composed of five intertwined subplots. However, the subplots are poorly merged; and each subplot is directed with different concerns in mind. The only common theme of the subplots is the mafia in Istanbul - that is a strong theme; however, insufficient as the only common denominator. In the "Hilmi & Senay" plot, we have (too much) drama. In the "Snowhite" plot, we have action abruptly turned to absurd fantasy. In the "Fiko & Banu" plot, we have romance. In the "hungry Kurdish man" plot, we have absurdity at its best. In the "Melek" plot we have psychology with a horrible twist. The plots intersect at absurd points, specifically the ending is unrealistic and overly dramatic in a naive way. It is not like watching subplots merging cleverly together a la Tarantino, but more like watching five different movies with only one theme in common all at the same time.

The best subplots are "Melek" and the "hungry Kurdish man." The twist in the "Melek" subplot is striking, unexpected and haunting, made stronger by professional and convincing acting of renowned Uner, and also by powerful directing. The "hungry Kurdih man" subplot, resembling Tunc Okan movies is hilarious, absurd yet believable. The other subplots are simple and shallow. "Fiko and Banu" plot is literally left incomplete: We never learn Recep's reaction to Banu! Neither do we learn the eventual fate of Idil.

The movie lacks a climax. Of course, we have a minor climax when Musa meets Saliha, and another - stronger - climax during the Melek's flashback. However, these all have a lower level of suspense than the action scenes in the beginning in the "Snowhite" plot. The suspense level is fluctuating wildly, as well as the mood: The movie jumps from action to drama, from laughter to tragedy, from harsh realism to absolute fantasy abruptly and repeatedly. This confuses the audience and distorts the integrity (or lack thereof) of the plot. It appears as if each of the subplots have been directed by a different director and bundled together hastily.

The acting is varied yet generally insufficient. There is some very professional acting alongside absolute amateur acting. Kirac fails to play the homosexual Mimi; he has essentially one gesture that he keeps repeating to remind the audience that he is acting gay: Hand raised to chin, small finger pointing upwards. Other than that, he does little to act out a convincing homosexual role. Isler, Uner and Reynaud are all very convincing, specially Reynaud's difficult character is very well acted out. Isler develops a very believable character with real emotions from a mafia bodyguard that otherwise would get little attention in the plot. (I get the impression that he wrote scripts for the character that the director forgot to write.) Rest of the characters are not presented in depth.

The movie is a nice try, and certainly original, although somehow "inspired" by "Pulp Fiction-type" of plot line. The movie also deserves attention because we have the Turkish state backing a movie including heavy profanity; we see the Turkish government beginning to adjust to the 21st century at last. However, the movie lacks integrity, lacks professional casting. (5 out of 10, and three of that comes from Isler, Uner and Reynaud.)