Kahpe Bizans

Kahpe Bizans is the second film of the director Gani Müjde. It is basically a 'ZAZ team' type movie. It makes fun of the old Turkish films about national heroes like Karaoglan. And it simply excels in this. Good acting, lots of ingenuously written dialogues, best editing since the Eskiya and tons of clever jokes make Kahpe Bizans another milestone in Turkish film industry. I said another because Gani Müjde's other film Arabesk was also a masterpiece of the same kind. So I recommend you Kahpe Bizans as a good example of Turkish humor.

Kahpe Bizans tells us the story of Yetis Bey(Cem Davran)and his struggle with Byzantian Emperor(Illetyus)in a humorous way. Illetyus dreams of his death and he is also told that a baby boy who is born will be killing him at the same day he wakes up from his dream. Illetyus orders his army to kill all baby boys born within a few days. At the same time, in another place in Anatolia, Super Gazi tells his wife to hide his children to a safe place to protect them from Emperor Illetyus' soldiers. She puts her baby in a basket and lets it flow with the river's water nearby. However, nobody nows the consequences of what is going to happen in the future in the palace. It has been promoted like a Hollywood movie in Turkey at the time with its trailer and famous ensemble. I felt so worried to miss the films premier as I had to move to the UK because that meant I wouldn't be able to see it in cinemas. Well, after watching it later on DVD, I must say I didn't miss much. It is not hilarious like it seemed in the trailer. Jokes are out-dated, actors are not matching perfectly together and scenario is messy. At some point it looks like a comedy soup. But salt and pepper is missing to make it tasty. Well, thats the expectation, isn't it? ** out of *****

I love this movie and to me it is one of the best comedy works of turkish cinema history.

However if you are not familiar with Turkish culture this movie is going to be hard to understand. Consider it a parody of well known turkish classics and make sure you watched them. Jokes are layered and sometimes very subtle. Jokes are very hard to translate. There are a lot of puns that don't work in English. This is a sarcastic, gritty, campy take on every single cliche in Turkish cinema. These cliches reflect our society's insecurities and hangups, as well as weaknesses and strengths. So seeing a movie that makes fun of all these things indiscriminately was a fresh breath of air.

I also love absurd comedy. The more absurd the better for me. I legit cracked up watching this. The cast was great and the acting was good too.

I thank god I didn't go to cinema for this film. I would be very sorry for the money I gave. I saw it on tv and I couldn't beleive my eyes. I wonder if any film could be worse than this one. they spent millions of dollars to this film for nothing. awful acting and awful scenario. I think the other people who wrote comments are the man working from that film company ;) it's very big fiasco! in year 2000 can they still laugh at this kind of film? embarassing...

Although they showed this movie even in foreign cinemas (for example: berlin) its nothing for other countries. The movie is making fun about the movies which were made in Turkey during the 80s. They were about the ottomon empire and their favorite enemy, the bizans empire (do you call them "bizans" in english too? i dont know sorry) Whatever these movies were pretty cheap and they were full of kung fu fighting scenes. The main character of these movie was Cüneyt Arkin, very known guy in turkey who is into martial arts. The movie name "kahpe bizans" means something like "whore bizans" in english. Those old movies had some funny mistakes. Such like the main character has an casio clock on his arm althought the movie is about the history. Or they are riding horses and we see a motorcycle or a car far away. these were small mistakes and this movie is making jokes about them. Its like turkish "hot shots" just like one other guy told in this site. There are too many jokes and not everyone can understand them. They are making more jokes then the naked gun did. And thats too fast for a human brain. I dont think you will like it if you are not turkish although its pretty funny and bright.