KAYBEDENLER KÜLÜBÜ (THE LOSERS' CLUB) is director Tolga Örnek's contribution to the cycle of contemporary Turkish films criticizing contemporary life in the metropolis. Others include Çağan Irmak's ISSIZ ADAM (ALONE) (2008) and Zeki Debirkubuz's Dark Tales trilogy of YAZGI, İTİRAF and MASUMİYET.
Örnek's film concentrates on a pair of single men, Mete (Yiğit Özsener) and Kaan (Nejat İsler) whose day-jobs are far from fulfilling: Mete spends much of his time in bars, collecting vinyl LPs, or talking to his mother (Serra Yılmaz), while Kaan runs a publishing house issuing coffee-table books that seldom sell. The two men have a thrice- weekly radio show "The Losers' Club" on Kent FM, an independent radio station, where they talk mostly about sex and existentialism, with sex assuming most importance. From modest beginnings the show becomes a cult hit, reaching No. 1 in the charts with a devoted listenership of people from all walks of life - learners, single men, potential suicide victims, artists.
Yet despite their aural celebrity, Kaan and Mete lead empty lives, comprised mostly of casual pick-ups, drinking in bars, and pretending to work. Their radio show might be popular, but they do not seem to derive any pleasure from it - apart from a misogynist delight in persuading their female listeners to reveal their sexual secrets on air.
Örnek's cinematic style in this film is very different from his previous work. He makes extensive use of the split screen technique, interspersed with sequences comprised of fast cuts and the use of subtitles to highlight some of the characters' dialogue. Such techniques are redolent of American and British films from the so-called "Swinging Sixties," where such techniques illustrated the new-found freedoms - cinematic as well as sexual - enjoyed by young people at that time. In KAYBEDENLER KÜLÜBÜ these techniques emphasize the artificiality of the protagonists' lives; there is nothing beneath the surface of either of them.
This emptiness is also evident in their radio show: much of the existential chat is pure bunkum, incomprehensible to most of the listeners. The reason why the show becomes such a cult is because of its unpredictability: the two presenters are continually challenging the borders of acceptability, much to the station controller Aslı's (İdil Fırat's) chagrin.
While KAYBEDENLER KÜLÜBÜ is obviously concerned to make social criticisms, its plot in truth is quite slight: perhaps the film could have benefited from a shorter running-time. Örnek's characterization is also quite weak; we learn little about the protagonists' off-air existence, except for their fondness for alcohol and sex. Perhaps less time could have been spent on the use of ostentatious cinematic devices and more on developing the script in greater depth.
