Çilingir Sofrasi

Çilingir Sofrasi is a fantastic new film (2022) by director Ali Kemal Guven with a meeting at its heart of two former high school lovers who have a raki-soaked evening in a meyhane in Beyoglu. They represent the great divide in Türkish gay society: The lonely self-declared homosexuals and the married hypocrites. The flame has not gone out at all for these two former lovers and their evening together provides ample material for two masterful performances and a thrilling dialogue worthy of Tennessee Williams or Rainer Maria Fassbinder. Guven as screenplay writer/director has thrown the antagonist and protagonist into a superbly crafted paean to human illusion and longing, accompanied by traditional Türkish meyhane soul. Look out Ferzan Özpetek.

Cilingir Sofrasi, despite its minimal length (60 minutes), presents an impressive and profound story.

The story bases on a single night when two old friends meet at a meyhane (a kind of traditional pub pretty special to some of Middle-Eastern cultures, especially Turkey).

The conversation between two men gradually reveals many interesting truths about the past. And what makes the movie fascinating underlies the brilliant strategy of narration basing on gazes, gestures and brief phrases among dozens of chatty moments, each of which reveal a secret indicating some pains failing to remain in the past.

Congratulations to the director, wonderful actors and the whole team for this impressive movie which gifts a courageous story.

Ahmet Rifat Sungar delivers the perfect depiction of fragile toxic masculinity, which sadly permeates not just Turkey, but the world. His character can be your average "rock star", or any man with fancy power, clinging to stereotype while shattering the lives of others: in this case, his new family's, while attempting to abuse the man he loves. The openly gay man smiles through it all, a picture of resilience, while the toxic love of his friend reverberates the oppression of society: an aspiring headmistress shows up to warn him, while his lover mocks the prospect of gay relationships ever being legalised.

There's beautiful music in the midst of it all, the typical Turkish song of love and longing, which Zeki Muren epitomised and whom toxic society ironically worshipped.

Edit: the film is heartbreaking, I wish I could own it to see more than twice. And the song by Nazan Oncel is fantastic.