Tabutta Rövasata

The story of Mahzun who is an outsider living out on the streets. This docile, slow but gentle character works in a Turkish cafe during the daytime and at nights, he is a professional car burglar. He steals a car, drives around the city all night and in the morning, he brings it back to the spot he had taken it from. He is often in trouble with the police, he has only a few friends. Mahzun falls in love with a heroine addict and everything hidden in him comes out after this... Tabutta Rovasata is a good movie with a strong story, charming characters and good acting..One of the best of 20th century Turkish cinema. Please pay attention to the wonderful music of ' Yansimalar' ...

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.

Mahsun (Ahmet Uğurlu) steals cars and sleeps inside only to save himself from the cold, and returns them when the sun shines .. he has no money, no profession, no future and no any intelligence, just a couple of friends and a peacock to talk to..he is no one in terms of what we expect from a man in present life, but he has everything in terms of what present life lacks of.. some scenes are very brave, drinking and pouring wine onto graveyard is neither something we tend to do nor have we seen before :) Mahsun's relation with the peacock worths watching, i think its one of the most interesting 3-5 scenes in Turkish Cinema, very close to be the first. I watched this film again and again, Ahmet Uğurlu performs his best work ever, this film shows us clearly that even he seems to be the right one for comedy films, he should have better not made any, he fits for such roles perfectly, one of the most dramatic and realistic films ever, a masterpiece from Derviş Zaim ...

This work of the Dervis Zaim occupies a special place on most of the world's lists of the best movies from Turkey. There are simply not enough words to describe the quality of this project made with modest budget, which reaches the very top of world art cinematography and which is a film reading for every person who takes film art, in the true sense of the word, seriously. Dervis Zaim is a director who creates the physical into the metaphysical. In this film, he explores the theme of life, friendship, love, innocence and deals with social realism, as the perseverance of simple people notably our Mahsun (Ahmet Ugurlu) a drifter and petty criminal through all life's misfortunes, as his motives that lead him to tomorrow. With his specific technical style, his own camera work and strange, often unrelated sound, he tells his story brilliantly, leading the viewer to the fascinating physical world (Rumelihisari - European side of Istanbul) in which he finally places it.

Somersault in a Coffin / Tabutta rovasata (1996), from the first scene, is an intimate journey of Mahsun and his buddies, As the three men wander around the ancient Istanbul streets, and cinematographer Mustafa Kuscu captures them in slow takes, it's easy to look at the beautiful landscape and its rusting, poisoned objects as a symbol of Turkish tragedy; where everything is forbidden . I found it as a crossover between Combat shock one of my favourite Troma films and Eraqserhead with a Tarkovsky vibe. There are also these brilliant moments where the movie moves into Stalker-esque atmosphere that feels very much like Mircea Daneliuc and Tarkovsky's treatment of Combat Shock (1986) one of my favourite troma movie. Sound plays a key role in the film, water and the peacock lending the film a rhythm and special atmosphere with incredible score by Baba Zula. To say that something deep or multi-layered is common for quality films, but in this film, depth can also be understood visually. It is just an ASTOUNDING movie. Leaves me gobsmacked every time I revisit it.

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.