Organize Isler - Krumme Dinger am Bosporus

Nil Karaibrahimgil composed very good music, I love this song, the movie was good too.

One problem with Turkish comedy is that it tends to be very specific to Turkey: if you aren't Turkish (or living in Turkey), you won't understand a sit-com like Türk Malı or Avrupa Yakası, and you'll even miss a lot of the jokes in a SF comedy like G.O.R.A. Organize İşler (confusingly untranslated as "Magic Carpet Ride" after one of the songs in the soundtrack) is unusual in that it manages to be very Turkish in feel, but universal in its humour.

The film shows us the lives of two families: a middle-class intellectual couple and their daughter on the one side, and the "family" of organized crime on the other. In between is a failed stand-up comedian, "Superman" Samet, whose attempt to hang himself (dressed in his Superman costume) at the beginning of the film is interrupted by our criminal anti-hero Asim, who is escaping a jealous husband. The plot continues in a similarly absurd vein, and critics have complained about the story's disregard for logic, but then this is a comedy; nobody complains that Monty Python and the Holy Grail has an absurd plot. The important thing is that the characters are well drawn, from the irritatingly logical physics professor Nuran to the lovable but unprincipled and incompetent Asim, and the dialogue is hilarious, with a lot of the humour surviving translation. The film also gives a great picture of the contrasts of İstanbul (even though the scenes of the "çingene" neighborhood where the gang live seem to be from İzmir).

While film was starting with the beautiful scenes from Istanbul, I was ready to watch another great Yilmaz Erdogan movie, like Vizontele. First of all I want to say that the actors and actresses were really great. They had done their best. As usual Cem Yilmaz were starring at the most funny parts of the film, that were very short. If his role was longer, I'm sure this film will become frenzy in Turkey. But the screenplay wasn't so good. It has an unexpected end, which was confused most people. I left the theater with question marks in my mind. In conclusion in spite of first class actors/actresses and a first class facility (Istanbul), a bad screenplay made the movie an over average.

That's apparently the english title of the movie. No relationship to a popular song, to be clear. At least none that I am aware of. The movie itself is a comedy that kind of found new life when an online distributor decided to put it into their arsenal/backlog. That's where I found it, even though we did have it in our video store 10 years ago (never saw it there though).

And there is a sequel coming, almost 15 years after the original was made. I do know that the movie is pretty funny and while it may feel strange and off beat at times, it is a cool journey. Whether you think it's on Magic Carpet or otherwise ...

"Organize Isler" is a decent comedy-drama that is sometimes clever but occasionally loses its charm. The name Yilmaz Erdogan always guaranties a good film as his writing talents and the exemplary BKM troupe work smoothly in every project. Erdogan always creates clever plots that the audience could discover another layer with every screening, which, is my opinion, a characteristic only the best movies have. However, 'Organize Isler' has less layers, or at least less interesting layers compared to his earlier works.

Casting seems to be a problem Erdogan has to deal with with every project. Since BKM troupe's long roster of talented actors generally outnumbers the necessary characters in a movie, the danger of 'over-casting' or 'mis-casting' looms large. One can see the effects of this issue in "Organize Isler" (for example the appearance of Iclal Aydin is totally unnecessary in my opinion, without any real contribution to the story told).

The movie is good, clever and entertaining. All actors are good, dependable, experienced and they work with each other well. Cem Yilmaz, who commands more and more respect as an actor with every movie he is in, enhances the value of the movie tremendously, and it seems his special relationship with Erdogan adds to their productivity. The production values are high, with wonderful aerial shots of Istanbul - which, like a constrictor python, seems more beautiful than it really is if you look from far above.

Another personal criticism of mine, which has little to do with the artistic side of the production, is the way the movie puts a human face on the gangsters who ruthlessly rob, kill and terrorize the streets of Istanbul. Although the film watches like a light-hearted anti-hero flick, I find it hard to feel for the "poor, good hearted" robbers with BMWs who would drag an old lady to death if she wont let her purse go.