Bihter: A Forbidden Passion

Knowing the 2 previous films/series and the performances, this one feels like a high school theatre. Characters hardly fit the role, mimics and acting skills are below average. The only fit is the time zone. May be it was too early to shoot the same movie where the previous one which was a great success is just one decade away. Bihter talking with the audience also takes away the seriousness. The acting is really poor. In summary, it was a great time loss despite all the expectations and PR. Now, we understand that Kivanc and Beren and all tge rest of the cast created a masterpiece 10 years ago.

As a crazed fan of the TV show, I watched this film with the lowest expectations, clear of any prejudice.

Sadly, the story telling and the need to tell the whole thing in a less-than-two-hours movie certainly was a poor choice, especially with Bihter constantly breaking the fourth wall (well, during the entire movie, almost) cheapens it all. I don't even mention the lack of detail in terms of the correct portrayal of the era, but I saw it as a conscious choice for the movie to look pleasant to internatinal viewers, rather than being factual.

Probably the only 'average' thing I could mention is cinematography. The rest is so sloppy, it was a total waste of my time. Plus, casting the very youthful Hande Ataizi for the role of Firdevs is just beyond my comprehension.

The movie has a big disadvantage to start with because of the very loved series adaptation from 2008. I think most people would still embrace a new adaptation for this famous book if this movie didn't turn out to be this hideous. The good things are costumes and decor and everything else is sort of a mess. The self narration is very unnecessary and is a concentration killer. Cast is not horrible but also not great but acting is very mediocre but I also think that the actors are not to blame for this. The script is weird, a lot happens so fast and there is no correlation between events and no emotion passes from the screen because of that. Bihter is not Bihter by the way she an overly playfull woman where originally she should be this cold distant woman. I think this could have been great if this was worked as a period drama even with this cast. I think manking this movie was waste of money and watching it was a waste of energy.

"Forbidden love" is a famous book written by Halid Ziya Usakligil. The book has many adaptation for cinema and tv. The most influencial adaptation was made as a tv series in 2008 and this movie (Forbidden love 2023) will be mainly compared with this series. When we consider the huge influence of Forbidden love 2008, it is almost impossible to criticize the movie without comparing it with the series. It is fair to say that Forbidden love 2008 is a beter adaptation of the book. Especially, the performance of the actors were worse. Even if we ignore the 2008 tv series, I dont think that none of actors performed a satisfactory performance except Farah Zeynep Abdullah. However, although she made a satisfactory performance unlike her collegues, she still could not reach the level of beren saat(Bihter in 2008 adaptation). As a resul, it is difficult to argue that the movie fulfills the expectations and satisfy its audience.

During 2 hours, from the first scene to the last (which was a dreadful ending!), i thought i was watching a parody movie like "Scary Movie" or something. Even though the cast was consisted of adequately successful actors and actresses, every single acting in the movie was outstandingly bad. The directing, scenerio, production design, the scores (i mean the whole parts that compose a movie) were also awful. Maybe the costumes might not have been so bad but nobody could understand which era they reflect.

The original book "Forbidden Love" was well produced in two separate TV series -early 2000s and in 1970s- which i highly recommend to be watched instead of this ironic(!) nonsense.