Hababam Sinifi

I think this movie must be translated in all languages on the world. Fabulous comedy from the great director of Turkish cinema. Many of excellent actors are also together in this movie. It is the film which is seen by all Turkish people at least once. This great comedy must be seen by all people in the world. It is even better than all other films in the world which is launched as comedy. There are jokes on all scenes of the movie. Especially, one of the main character's of the movie Kemal Sunal has a great performance. You cannot make anything other then laugh, laugh and laugh. Watch and be full of fun. It is directed in 1975.

This is a great comedy but obviously a typical American won't laugh as much as a Turkish person. Kemal Sunal and his classmates play it in the same tradition like Jerry Lewis and Charlie Chaplin. I showed the movie to an American friend, and with some translation, he laughed and enjoyed it, too. So, it is normal for Turks to give it a 10 rating, and non-turks to give a 7.3, and the difference is due to something lost in the translation! The other thing is, the Turks don't laugh at actually what the characters are saying, but HOW they are saying... The facial expressions, the accent, body language.. all contribute... So you have to live for a while in Turkey to fully appreciate this movie...

This is the one and only film on the world that is shown once a week on different channels and still gets more rating than those idiot reality shows.

I know at least ten people who refuse to go out with our group of friends in the evenings this film is shown.

"Hababam Sinifi", the movie was so successful that a five-film series was produced right after the first.

Hababam Sinifi Tatilde - Ertem Egilmez (hababam class on vacation) Hababam Sinifi Uyaniyor - Ertem Egilmez (hababam class getting up) Hababam git Hababam gel - Aram Gulyuz (hababam come'n'go) Hababam Sinifi Dokuz Doguruyor - Kartal Tibet (hababam class hard times) Hababam Sinifi Gule Gule - Ertem Egilmez (hababam class bye farewell)

In year 2003, new producers gathered a new group of actors and a giant budget to make a refreshing start for this amateur tasting old series; "Merhaba Hababam Sinifi (Hababam Class Hello)" was directed by Kartal Tibet.

In the following year (2004) "Hababam Sinifi Askerde (Hababam Class in the Army Now)" came after, directed by Ferdi Egilmez.

The last two modern Hababam Sinifi was plainly produced for fiscal expectations. The original movie and the following ones (all were produced at poor times of this country with tiny budgets and unknown young actors and actresses) were shown at least once a week on TV and though anybody has seen them at least 40 times already, these were still gathering people from different generations before the screen. The expectations were as the modern ones with giant budgets with well-known faces would gain more attention and make a good profit.

Nonetheless, these were unsuccessful to catch the amateur soul of the original ones.

Like most of the Turks, I have watched this film lots of times, and each time I still could find it entertaining, funny and touching... It very much deserves the high ratings, however, as many others have already noted down, comedy is not universal. Thus the movie may not mean so much to other nationalities and the rating may lead to wrong impressions/expectations. There seems no solution to this rating problem, but maybe the source of the rating could somehow be noted down somewhere... In this way the visitor will be able to see that (1) it is a masterpiece of Turkish cinema (due to high rating) (2) It has only been watched and rated by mostly Turkish people so far (due to source of rating). In time more people from all over the world might have opportunity to watch and rate this film and we can finally have a "universal" rating for it.

This classic Turkish film (although some might wonder at this mainstream movie being called a film) is etched permanently into the psyche of Turkish culture. It's such a shame that there's no kind of film preservation society in Turkey. No One realizes that this film is going to disappear within the next decade or two. If I'm ever successful I've made a promise to my childhood that I'll find a good print of this film and put efforts forward to restore it and preserve it in various formats so that my kids and their kids can one day see it.