Dondurmam Gaymak

Turkish television and documentary director Yüksel Aksu ("Büyük Yalan" & "Bir Dilim Aşk") calls upon his misspent youth as apprentice to an ice cream salesman to good use for this quirky comedy which won awards at film festivals in Ankara, Istanbul and Queens and took an unappreciated trip to the Academy Awards selection committee.

Independent ice-cream salesman Ali (Turan Özdemir) tours the villages of Muğla Province on Turkey's Aegean coast on his new motorbike touting his wares from a trailer, but when the bike and trailer go missing he blames the big multinationals and goes out to seek revenge unaware that it has in fact been taken by a local gang of mischievous boys.

Local lad made good Turan Özdemir puts in a near hysterically distressed and dishevelled central performance at the head of a cast of non-professionals which includes memorable turns from a long-suffering Gulnihal Demir, youngster İsmetcan Suda and a host of local characters including Nejat Altinsoy, Recep Yener, Metin Yildiz and Arap Fevzi.

The Ankara International Film Festival Most Promising Director awards winning filmmaker has crafted a wonderful piece of whimsical entertainment from his youthful misadventures which, with the assistance of acting coach Mehmet Ali Alabora, is brought to life by a non-professional cast in a mode true to the director's routes as a documentarian.

"A bit of insanity solves everything!"

This film was made in a small city of Turkey with nearly all non-professional casting but with the great wish and effort of cast and director, now it is too close to be a nominee to Oscar from Turkey in "Best foreign language film of the year" category. We really laughed a lot as watching it. It is about a man who gains money by selling ice-cream. He makes his ice-cream in his own so he is in a war with other ready-made ice-cream companies. One day his ice-cream car is stolen and he thinks that other ice-cream company made it to prevent him from earning money but in fact the situation was not like that and his adventures starts...In my opinion you don't lose time if you watch it.

Since I don't have the heart to harshly criticize these small-budget movies (especially if they give social messages with a social content) as well as I cannot eliminate my emotional attachment to them, I won't be harsh on this one either, but I have a few notes...

First of all there is a serious problem of 'accent'. Since they employed the public of Mugla towns as actors and their accent is different than those who speak clear Turkish, and probably they didn't give enough time for actor instructors to train these people in terms of diction etc., while watching the movie Turkish spectators had hard time to clearly understand the dialogs. Even just because of this, many jokes were missed. If this different accent were to be used, the lines had to be spoken more clearly and slowly...

The first half of the movie, due to the fact I explored above, was away from being engrossing. If the story is based on such a social content and such a small interesting event, there had to be included more elements to attach the spectators to the movie and to be gripping.

After watching the movie I told myself "I wish they had reshot the first half all over again" because it's obvious that it took time for actors to get used to their roles, to adaptate themselves to the movie. For example the wife's mimics and gestures during her fights with the ice cream seller in the first 30 minutes were not satisfying. She looked like she was just waiting for her turn to speak, ignoring what her husband was talking about, and she was in a lack of appropriate response in her facial movements; which tore her link to naturalism.

We all know that it's the hardest thing to train kid actors, especially if they have never seen a camera before and all of a sudden they are in a big movie having big parts in it! I must say that they all managed it well! I can't forget the look on Kamil's face and his voice, his perfect toning while he confessed that he stole the ice cream. He really did give the emotion well.

Turan Ozdemir is really very successful, I congratulate him.

However the movie is not capable of being a nominee for Oscar. Even Yuksel Aksu himself was not expecting the movie to make such a big scene in the country. He is surprised with the great attention it obtained. Nevertheless, considering how much labour and how great effort the crew spent for this movie, in addition to the crucial message it gives, we all have to congratulate them and celebrate it's success. The struggle of a very few directors, writers and thinkers in Turkey is deeply worth being proud of.

"Dondurmam Gaymak is a local movie, having a universal content." A favorite description of the movie "Ice Cream, I Scream" made by the Turkish media, and it's true. The movie is filmed using, almost an entirely nonprofessional cast and natural locations. People living in Mugla helped the crew at their best, by supplying food, drink, transportation and accommodation. Also a native of the filming location, director Yuksel Aksu, wanted to put the warmth, life style and energy contained in the hearts of Aegian people of Turkey...

But underneath it all, there lies an important aim. The director explains that, he tried to behave like Italian Neorealists, using nonprofessional actors. He also films a realistic life in Mugla. The religious education, respect to older people, naive residents, political restrictions, somehow funny devotion to religion (they stop drinking alcohol when an ezan (call to prayer) begins then continues after it finishes)... All these are presented in a way that, the director doesn't try to point out something exactly, but he just show what's there, and leaves the rest to the viewer.

The production is not bad, actor-ship is quite acceptable (very intense and funny sometimes), flow of the story is well balanced (from thrilling scenes, to dramatic or really funny ones). The already-lost-war against capitalism is unbelievably fresh. It's living characters really warm the scene and I can be sure that any Turkish viewer would have a great time watching it. Although there are some mistakes with sound production or a very quick reveal in the peak scene.

It should be noted that, this movie was chosen to represent Turkey in Oscars. It was chosen among movies from directors such as Zeki Demirkubuz, Nuri Bilge Ceylan or Reha Erdem or a movie like Babam ve Oglum which was highly successful at box-office. It's a choice i can support 100%. Because, maybe not as artistically competent as the others, "Dondurmam Gaymak" is completely Turkish, yet universal at a reasonable level. A must see for 2006...

well, i usually don't like those kind of local movies and the use of amateur actors but "ice cream, i scream" is very real and you can feel the intimacy. The movie talks about universal matters around a very small story and it is very obvious that the director is reflecting his memories not his observations which lets you dive into the life of the city "Mugla" - and Aegean culture. It also deals with capitalism-socialism and the religious matters in a light,funny way. The war of the local ice-cream salesman reminds me the war of "Don Quijote" against the windmills except that they are not imaginary rivals anymore but real,huge firms of capitalism.