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acting; well done. especially fabulous & flawless Haluk Bilginer;the Hadji, raised the limits of acting, theatrical! There were deep emotional scenes that will never forget. story; first half was so so but the second, perfect finish. never bored, it was fluent. was a great story! actions scenes; first half was unexpectedly good with the help of Hollywood assistance, there were no action scenes in the second half. cinematography; some disturbances was present, story covered it well. could be second looked. vs vs...

there were many İslamic message scenes, salving the bad impression over worlds eye. But never disturbing and artificial .

I would heartily recommend this movie to everyone; it is the best Turkish, one of the best movies I've seen in years. You will not be disappointed...

NEW TORK'TA BES MINARE starts off in familiar fashion, as two Turkish cops travel to New York in pursuit of an alleged terrorist from Turkey who has been living in New York for thirty-seven years. There they encounter a group of FBI agents with innate prejudices against foreigners, and Muslims in particular. The two cops are drawn into a complex world, presided over by Islamic convert Danny Glover, where they seem apparently powerful to act. As the film unfolds, however, so the story becomes more complex. Hadji (Haluk Bilginer), ostensibly the prime suspect in the case - whose capture the Turkish cops are entrusted with - turns out to be completely different from what we, as the audience, expect of him. Director Mahsun Kirmizigul's film turns out to be a meditation on extremism, irrespective of religious difference: some Americans, as well as Turks, seem incapable of adopting either a moderate or a tolerant point of view. The film has a surprise ending, where we discover the true reason why Hadji went to America, and what kind of a person he actually was. Both noble yet self-aware, he remains a figure to admire in a complex world. NEW YORK'TA BES MINARE is an unexpectedly complex work, tautly filmed and grippingly told.

It was worth viewing for me as a Turkish language learner, though I have seen way better Turkish films. It does not lack the positive message, the peace and acceptance toward other religions, some kind of motif related to the return of prodigal son, mother son relationship, vengeance and a surprising unexpected ending. Those familiar with Mustafa Sandal the singer will recognize him in the person of one of the agents, the other one is played by the director himself. The main character is impersonated by Haluk Bilginer who until the mid nineties acted in Britain. Also one can see other familiar faces, like Robert Patrick, Danny Glover. I can't write full quotes, but I can tell some views of Hadji which contain something like every religion is the love of God which brings to Him, killing will make you go to hell, dying brings you to meet God. He shows full acceptance of Christians, his wife is Christian and her daughter marries a Christian.

The script and story is a direct link to how society and government views the Muslim nation after 9 11.

A captivating story of the search for a supreme leader in the terrorist organization with ties to Turkey. One of the Turkish officers is hiding a decades old secret and God sees all as is parlayed throughout the film. A direct homage to the faith true Muslims share and what we as Americans fear.

The film is written by and direct by Mahsun Kirmizigul who also portrays the lead Fyrat. Good performances by Gina Gershon as the wife to Hadji and Danny Glover as Marcus. I found the fil strikingly captivating and well rounded. I give this a solid 7out of 10

Well they do know how to shoot a trailer. I thought I was going to an action thriller but it turns out I'd paid to watch ill-disguised propaganda for the leader of a religious cult. If you know who I mean you have no reason to see this film; if you don't, and you are interested in that kind of thing, this is a good introduction to a defining feature of modern Turkey.

Memorable bits? Mustafa Sandal lecturing Danny Glover on how EU accession negotiations have improved human rights in Turkey was pretty cringeworthy in its defensiveness. And it made no sense whatsoever to dub the English-speaking Americans into Turkish and then have Turkish cop Mahsun Kirmizigul not be able to understand them. But the action sequence at the start with the police suddenly whipping off their burka disguises was pretty cool.

I have to say I strongly disagree with Mz Haneke, This is a solid - almost - Hollywood quality action movie bringing up the Islamofoby issue which was probably orchestrated by certain policy makers to create a terrorist enemy that they could use whenever they need one. Story's good, most of the actors acted well, the scenery and the action scenes were very well shot indeed. The terrorist groups looked terrifying to us Muslims as much as they would to Non-Muslims and I believe what is told in the movie really touches to the reality. I watched it as I watched an episode of "24" and I'd like to congratulate all the people involved in the shooting of this film. And please... the multimillion dollar movie "The Expendables" -although I like every actor in that movie very much - were more a disappointment for me for it's storyline and acting. If that was a blockbuster, "Five Minarets in New York" is no less. And yes, I'm not a movie-critic, just a movie-goer but I do have a taste in films, I rarely admire much. Nice work!

At first i have to admit that i was prejudiced against Mahsun Kirmizigul before watching his movies like most people around me. "He is a singer , right? How come he could direct a movie and write its script at the same time? No way!" said several times. But after watching his movies, i am impressed with his talent. This film was criticized unjustly and it was wrong! Yes, there is some script holes so what? They are not disturbingly apparent... The action scenes were good,in emotional scenes i watched it with tears in my eyes and actor performances were quite good, especially Haluk Bilginer, Suna Selen (mother of Haluk Bilginer in the movie) and Gina Gershon . I really enjoyed watching it very much. What else do you expect by going to a movie anyway? I give 7 over 10 and i was worth it for sure...

Lastly, i really want to see this movie on the theaters outside Turkey. Because the issues in the movie is universal and they were handled quite well: prejudice against Islam, terrorism and the violence that changes lives.

The movie is totally overrated. There was a huge media support in the production process of the movie and this still continues. When you read the reviews, you expect to see a Memento, Inception or Seven. The reason for media support is obvious but it is not the right place to discuss. The scenario is very weak. The idea which the plot was constructed lacks rationality. The concern was always giving social messages with the assumption that all audiences are kindergarten students. At the end of the movie, I was totally dissatisfied. Not only in Turkey but also in the world, the hot topic is Islam and terrorism relation. So Mahsun exploits this opportunity with this movie. What about the famous actions scenes of the movie! I accept they are new for Turkish movie industry however you can easily see these scenes in a below-average American movie. Mahsun and Mustafa performed terribly. Is it a must for Mahsun to be in all his movies? In the movie, his voice was like singing an arabesque song.

In Istanbul, terrorists abduct executives, blow-up the car of a journalist and plan five great attacks to the city. The violent police officer Firat Baran (Mahsun Kirmizigül) interrogates a terrorist and informs that the responsible for the attacks is the leader code-named Dajjal that lives in New York under the identity of Hadji Gümüs (Haluk Bilginer). In New York, the bigoted FBI Special Agent David Becker (Robert Patrick) is assigned to arrest the well respected religious and family man Hadji, who has a store in Soho, in his apartment in front of his wife Maria (Gina Gershon). The police officers Firat and Acar Dogan (Mustafa Sandal) travel to New York to bring Hadji back to Turkey.

While traveling to the airport under the custody of the two Turkish officers, Hadji is rescued by his friend Marcus (Danny Glover) and members of the Muslin community. Then, Firat and Acar are captured and Hadji proposes them to stay with him for a couple of days, and then he would turn himself in and travel to Istanbul with the police officers. Firat and Acar realize that Hadji is a good man, but they are forced to bring him to Turkey. Once in Turkey, Hadji is interrogated and the officers believe that he is innocent. But why Hadji was so afraid to return to Turkey?

"Five Minarets in New York" is a magnificent story of intolerance, bigotry, ignorance and feud. The screenplay is very well written without flaws and there are sharp dialogues, like for example, the conversation between Becker and Acar when they are introduced to each other at Becker's office. Further, the film uses few clichés and the plot is absolutely unpredictable.

The cast has good performances and the haunting music score is awesome. I decided to see this film with low expectations since the Brazilian title "Terrorismo em Nova Iorque" (meaning "Terrorism in New York") misleads the viewer. The grabber of this movie for me was Gina Gershon, an actress that I like a lot and I have not seen for a long time. She is almost fifty years old and is still a very beautiful woman. In the end I had a great surprise and I have watched a great film. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Terrorismo em Nova Iorque" ("Terrorism in New York")

Note: On 25 June 2016, I saw this wonderful film again.

Let's face it. Whenever there is an overt pre-screening hype surrounding a Turkish movie which will possibly get a box-office success we either idolize the movie or we just anathematize it. As of today, out of the 1644 voters here on IMDb 921 voters (56.0%) rated this movie '10'. Guess which number of rating has the best percentage after ten? '1'. When a careful devotee of motion pictures rummages through reviews on the net, he/she will notice that those who love the movie do not (maybe can't) really expatiate on why they just loved the movie, and those who hate the movie turn their review into a blatant personality thing about Mahsun Kırmızıgül. At this point,alas, it goes without saying that Turkish voters again made IMDb lose its objectivity and genuineness.Many foreign IMDb followers do already know that Turkish voters have already manipulated votes for many Turkish movies (as in "The Breath" and Valley of the Wolves.)I guess this is the perfect example of an expression that I caught from a friend :'masturbatory nationalism' Let me write about the movie and clarify what I exactly mean.Five Minarets in New York takes its name from a well-known folk song in Turkish. Though the the name of the movie actually does not have much to do with the title,there are actually five historical mosques in the city of Bitlis which is located in eastern Turkey (mostly populated by Kurds and it is the director's hometown actually.)Potential leader of a radical Islamic terror organization, Deccal (Antichrist) against whom Interpol issued a red notice has been taken into custody in USA. Since he has not committed any crime in US land he is supposed to be handed over to the Turkish authorities. Two successful anti-terror Turkish policemen Fırat (Mahsun Kırmızgül) and Acar (Mustafa Sandal) have been charged with fetching the convict.In the beginning of the movie, when I saw the anti-terror armed clash,awe-inspiring dhikr scenes made by the religious sect that that police infiltrated I have to admit that I was impressed. Then the two police officers flew to USA and met the agent Becker (Robert Patrick)the first thing that the detective Acar asks 'You have been to Iraq for the oil or for the freedom of Iraqi people?' reveals the immutable nature of another Kırmızgül movie: 'didactics'. This is third movie that has received enough box-office success and I thought he would give up on preaching his message in such an overt way. Kırmızıgül may have good intentions but he should just stop turning his movies into a sort of 'message mania'. This,so to speak,insults the intellects of Turkish cineastes. The man whom the two Turkish detectives are supposed to fetch Haji (Haluk Bilginer- The Turk (Ahmet Sunay) of the movie 'The International') sounds like a peaceful Muslim leader who opposes violence and tries to show the tolerant face of Islam but I suppose the movie-makers mistake tolerance for insubstantiality and lightness. When you mistake tolerance for political correctness, you just run the risk of becoming untruthful. Haji's wife Maria (Gina Gershon) is a Christian and Haji is perfectly OK with that because he thinks all roads lead to Allah. Islamic point of view on interfaith marriage is clear;A Muslim who weds a non-Muslim woman cannot adopt the religion of his spouse. In case he does, the non-Muslim risks apostasy.She is supposed to convert to the Islam. Haji repeatedly quotes Rumi but let's not forget even Rumi's Christian wife changed her religion to marry him. What else? Haji does not mind his daughter's living with her fiancé out of wedlock but an American agent enters a mosque with his shoes on that's sheer blasphemy-is it-? Especially if he is an agent who lost his brother in the debris of Twin Towers? Tant mieux for the preaching cut-and-dried art of cinema-making! The veteran actor Haluk Bilginer has always been brilliant on the screen and there is no doubt that his performance is laudable again but the character he plays,Haji is not really an inspirational one. He quotes Rumi (and some other Islamic scholars) but he does not really say anything new, not anything that any Muslim layman doesn't know about. Our guy is a terrorist at one moment, later on he is someone whom everyone calls 'the best man I've ever known'.Perforce or by intention this is really awkward for a movie in which there is no character arc. Plus, dialogs are quite poor in the movie. For instance, when Haji was taken into custody to be interrogated, his longtime friend Marcus (Danny Glover) says "But they are making a big mistake. I have known him for thirty years" like that does count in his legal favor. To cut a long story short, I did go to this movie by setting aside any unfairly prejudicial views or any preconceived publicity and unfortunately I realized that Kırmızgül did not give up on his 'message mania'. He even turned this into a habit. I know he has had good intentions and I hope such intentions will give better movies to the Turkish film industry. I do sincerely hope that the box office success he has had with three movies won't lead him to make more movies like this. Otherwise Turkish movies will continue to get screenings only in those countries where Turkish Gastarbeiter live(like Belgium,Germany and Austria.) For now, the news that this movie will get screenings in 120 countries is no more than a dream while the internationally acclaimed Avatar got screenings in less than 90 countries.One last note for the real movie aficionados : If you want to see the tolerant face of Islam, if you want to see that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, keep in mind there are way better movies out there like Bab'Aziz, Le Grand Voyage and My Name's Khan. 18/11/2010

This movie spared all effort to put into perspective the authority pursuit of terrorists across the Atlantic. It successfully depicts that despite the claim that war against terrorism is not war against Islam, when vengeance underscore motivation, vindication transcends borders of respects. For a movie, it was well directed, well acted, and the presentation quite successfully moved the audience to experience the multitude of human emotions that filled and colored the characters portrayed in the movie. All in all, this movie is a gem that will give the audience an alternative scenario and perspective in the fight against terrorism, especially given the the theater is filled to the brim with the Hollywood version of anti-terrorism, that are often distorted and certainly one-sided.

This movie attempted to put into light the true Islam, albeit there are fundamental differences to what some may argue as to the 'truer' teachings of Islam would otherwise preach, as opposed to the more secular and somewhat liberated Islam as Turkey is practicing. While the attempt is commendable, the less informed audience may presume this is true of Islam. Case in point, Turkey is about the only country that accepts Muslims marrying Christian. But the well spoken message that a terrorist is automatically a non-Muslim, deserves an applaud.

Needless, this movie is not about teaching. And for the entertainment value, this movie is an outright winner.

Mahsun Kirmizigul, apparently a good cinema follower, has made 3 collages in disguise of films so far, and this is the last ring in the chain. I call them collages as the simple mindedness of his scripts, the shallowness of his characters and the story lines all lack depth and are geared towards the same ideal: capitalizing on a hot topic without any attention paid or merit put into the work itself. In 'White Angel' Mahsun took advantage of issue of elderly, in 'I saw the Sun' he tried to collage together bits and pieces from the films of Yilmaz Guney and Tunc Okan to tackle the issue of forced immigration and the what so called 'Kurdish Issue'. The same singer turned writer/director and capitalist had joined in the protests towards the remarks of Ahmet Kaya during a awards ceremony where all he said was 'I am gonna shot a video to a Kurdish song and I know there are courageous people out there shot and view it'. Mahsun, also a Kurd but a self denying Kurd until recently when pressure on Kurds and Kurdish was lifted, joined into protest Kaya's remark. Yet few years later he was in the forefront of making money off lift of ban of Kurdish. Currently the hottest topic around the globe is Islamic terrorism vs peaceful nature of Islam and of course Mahsun just had to make a movie about this. Again the storyline is so shallow that I felt embarrassed as a film-goer, secondly acting couldn't be worse and the use of such actors as Danny Glover in unnecessary ways was just mind numbing (and how did danny glover said yes to this picture after reading the script is my million dollar question), thirdly the movie is nothing more than a salud to one of Turkey's controversial religious leaders who is loved by millions but also feared by millions too. And in this last point is the totality of the movie Five Minarets In New York: it never manages to become a story or a good tale, it is from the finish to the end a product, a commercial. The cinematography, effects and such are tremendously well made but then again all that just depends on having the money. Mahsun is not an artist but rather a calculating machine lacking intellectual depth and creativity. I am sure one of his next projects will be Holocaust through the eyes of a 1940s Muslim politician (or something) played by, of course him.

Five Minarets in New York is a Turkish action which follows two Turkish police officers who are sent to New York to bring back the Dajjal.

Although there are a few logical mistakes in the movie, I believe it is still worth watching. This is the first Turkish movie that is much more professional in terms of its casts and direction than other Turkish movies.

If Mahsun Kirmizigul and Mustafa Sandal were not in the cast but instead replaced by real actors who would actually act, this movie could be more satisfying in terms of acting. I think Mahsun Kirmizigul and Mustafa Sandal should stop acting from now on and go back to their real professions which is singing.

Even though, Mahsun Kirmizigul's acting was poor, the scenario was not that bad, yet the messages that Mahsun was trying to convey were all classics. Most people were expecting to hear something different rather than hearing that all Muslims are not terrorists.

There are also good things about this movie. The soundtracks are really very good and reflects the feeling of the scene. Other than its soundtracks, the shooting is very successful. Except Mahsun and Mustafa, everyone else is acting great.

After seeing the trailers and all media coverage I couldn't help increasing my expectations. Quite frankly Mahsun couldn't managed to meet most of them..first of all, why all those gaps and shallowness! It's like a music video rather than a film, Mahsun does only touches the main story but never goes deep in it.. time to Be more original man if you want to speak out international, sorry but having one third of film and cast in English never HELPs. Despite all, I still think he will learn from his mistake and make better films,but I wish he didn't and doesn't go that much commercial and cliché. After all, cinema is not about SHOUTING OUT the message, it's an art of conveying the message and let the audience figure it out..

Started off promising enough, however soon descended into lectures, stereotypes and an unbelievably unsophisticated sequence of events. All leading to a bizarre conclusion.

Without giving anything away: The protagonists make free use of cellphones apparently unaware of the concept of phone-taps. The FBI is unaware of even basic stakeout procedure, all suspects hide in plain sight and have a regular stream of visitors under the (very broken) radar of the law enforcing agencies. Danny Glover's character is himself not very clear what he is up to.

In short, the big budget and the big name cast are squandered for want of a half reasonable screenplay. Shame really.

Definitely not a waste of time as some very interesting comments suggest.

To understand the main meaning of the film you must know something about Turkish (somewhere Kurdish) culture. One of their old traditions is blood war. Blood war is 'If someone from family A killed someone from family B, One of relatives from family B must killed the killer from Family A and then backwards'. This film is against that tradition. Because the director of the film is Kurd and saw many problems with this tradition. The second meaning is that True Islam is for Peace. If terrorists called themselves Muslims it does not mean that they are Muslims. Quote from Qur'an : 'If you will kill a human, you will kill the whole world. If you will save a human, you will save the world.'

I liked the direction and acting of every character in the film; specifically the haci (or haji)... the whole movie played around him... also I specifically liked the acting of the inspector who came to arrest him ... these two people acted so well that the entire credit goes to them.

The story is not very good but the way it has been directed and all the actors have done entire justice to it.... I liked the scene when haci returned to his home town and the way he was seeing the things at his hometown (I could relate to him when I visit my hometown) ... his acting is superb.

Also the surprise element in the movie is good. This is a marvelous piece of art and the lead actors (and support also) have justified the story completely.

I have just freshly watched this movie and I liked it very much.

Having looked at some of the comments and reviews here, I am a little surprised that so many have taken what is pretty much a slightly above average action drama so seriously. Its acted adequately, well shot, points out the ignorance and hypocrisy rife in America without overdoing it. It reminds me of many American movies where Yank cops would go over to another country, or city etc and show the locals how it was done. Definitely got a 90s feel to it this one, no CG, ridiculous American toilet humour of recent years, and an enjoyable change in perspective. Those with complaints about realism and believability are really overdoing it, this is really a Turkish version of an American genre movie

I almost always choose saying "I don't like it" instead of "it's bad"... However, I'm not going to hesitate saying awful for this movie! Unfortunately, this is worse than awful and definitely overrated. Mahsun Kirmizigul, Turkish arabesque singer-turned-movie director, is not even close to be a story teller. I'm pretty sure so many Turkish people rated this movie around 6-10, just because of some big words spoken in the movie. Two brave Turkish cops versus FBI agents, and some big words, blah blah blah, no doubt this movie flattered some sort of ego. But my friends, these things does not make a movie good! There are so many fine actors in this movie, and they all wasted. Mahsun's terrible story telling awkwardly wastes your time. Dialogues are written like for a primary school stage play, connections between the scenes, well.. there are no connections. Mahsun's worries about giving social messages is exactly at the same level as his other movies "I Saw the Sun" and "The White Angel"... Unfortunately he is giving these messages assuming the viewer is an idiot. If this movie is one of the first Turkish movies you've ever seen, please don't give up. Try some other Turkish directors, especially Yavuz Turgul, Cagan Irmak...