Tabutta Rövasata

Legions are films about car thieves whose sole objective is to earn money at all costs. It should not shock viewers if they are informed about a different thief who stole cars for fighting against nature. Turkish film 'Somersault in a Coffin' is based on a highly original concept in the history of world cinema. It is a humane film whose director Dervis Zaim gives representational force to some voiceless, homeless people who would do anything in order to stay alive during harsh, chilly winter in Istanbul. The masculine world of this film is made up of a minuscule array of innocent losers who cannot be deemed by society as a threat to peace. It is an innocent world where friends do not forget to remember their lost friend. For this film Dervis Zaim chose to depict an innocent man who would like to live entirely on his own terms. This is a man who is not a professional thief as money or any other material comforts are of hardly any interest to him. For his eclectic performances a homeless man without any fixed objective in life, Turkish actor Ahmet Ugurlu won best actor prize at Thessaloniki Film Festival.

This is a tale of "The Insulted and Humiliated".

Mahsun (Ahmet Ugurlu) is a homeless man, gentle as he can be, addicted to auto burglary (not for joyriding but for staying alive in freezing Istanbul nights.) and trying to make sense of it all. He makes friends with a heroin addict and a peacock, yes a peacock he stole from the historic Rumelihisari (a historical fortress) and things get complicated and messy. Ahmet Ugurlu plays flawlessly as if he is the real Mahsun. Director makes you witness surreal moments around the fortress and the sea.

With enchanting musics by "Baba Zula" and "Yansimalar" and pristine views from Istanbul city, Somersault in a Coffin takes you on a journey to the life of backstreet people.

If you wanna join their night journey, here's your pick!

An exquisite movie about survival. Perhaps human's biggest mistake is to throw itself into things outside of survival. There was an enormous scene in the film: the Turkish national team beat its rival and the people are throwing themselves in the street, but Mahzun is in the process of spooning the soup. In solving the hunger, in the life of survival. Identity, power, belonging, success, etc. What's so important about surviving?

Shot on a minimal budget around the streets of İstanbul, TABUTTA RÖVAŞATA focuses on the life of Mahsun (Ahmet Uğurlu), a down-and- out living on the edge of the Bosphorus. He ekes out an existence living under bridges, and subsequently as a bathroom attendant, offering eau de cologne to the customers. He encounters a drug- addict girl (Ayşen Aydemir), with whom he dreams of traveling away in a boat; but nothing comes of it. In the end he ends up in the Rümeli Fortress, where he steals a peacock and cooks it over an open fire.

Derviş Zaim's debut feature makes some trenchant points about the way society treats its lowest members. Mahsun is regularly beaten up by the police, or forced to do errands for the local criminal classes in order to survive. At a heart a good-willing person, trying to help the girl, his efforts at kindness come to naught.

Zaim contrasts this worldly indifference with more enduring elements; there are regular shots of the Bosphorus, suggesting its timelessness. The use of the peacock in Rümeli likewise suggests the timeless theme; they have strutted around the castle battlements for centuries, and will continue to do so. By stealing the peacock Mahsun hopes to associate himself with that timelessness, as an alternative to the exigencies of the present; but hunger eventually gets the better of him, and he is forced to eat it.

TABUTTA RÖVAŞATA introduces several of the motifs characteristic of Zaim's later work - the emphasis on the power of water to transcend merely human affairs, regular shots of a graveyard that once again emphasize the timeless theme - where past, present and future collide - and the regular shots of the protagonists standing by the water's edge, prompting us to reflect on the human condition. This is not just an indictment of contemporary Turkish life: Zaim wants us to reflect on all human life.

Crime, punishment, corruption, misery, hunger, love, desperation, friendship, innocence, purity and more are what you get in this movie with three main characters and one of the best screenplays ever written. Great choice of cast. Their powerful acting not only supports the screenplay, also strengthens the acting of the amateur players. In my opinion this one may be the best movie made with the least possibilities. Stop wasting your time on Hollywood movies and take a look at what Turkish cinema can do. Highly recommended for those who think that they had enough of that same old screenplays and some sicko acting.