Vizontele

Seventies... A small town in the Eastern parts of Turkey... A change in the lives...A sudden change... A new invention called "vizontele"(television) in the town...And a new quest for the people of the town...To operate this new invention... Yilmaz Erdogan, together with the well chosen casting gives a very good performance in reconstructing the tragic-funny events that took place in many of those small towns... The location, the shooting, the directing, the casting, the screenplay all made this the best Turkish movie ever, which in a sense was reflected in the records it broke in terms of box office... Congratulations Erdogan....

When i first heard about that Turkish movie i have a lot of doubts about it. The script did not sound interesting to me. The fact that i have seen Uzak, an other movie from Turkey (one of my favourites also) helped me a lot to take the decision to watch it. From the first time i realized that this movie is a masterpiece. A real comedy, a real drama. No fake reality, no fake emotions. Everything flows in a perfect harmony. The music, the picture, the characters... Every character in this movie is so unique that you have the feeling that you have met him. You don't have to know Turkish to understand the movie, characters speak with their expressions. Music, life style and the beautiful wild nature fits so perfect together.

This movie, is a true gem. A masterpiece that presents a real culture. You don't have the right to miss it.

Yilmaz Erdogan, I think, improves his career with this film. His colleagues, Cem Yilmaz, Demet Akbag act as they are Oscar awarded actors. I am very proud of this great Turkish movie. I think this means that Turkish cinema is in great progress.

This movie broke (by far) all time box office records in Turkey and it was highly regarded by critics. It appears all critiques at IMDb so far are also quite positive. But, I have several reservations about this movie. One of the first is also expressed by another reviewer. The script is more like a theater play than a movie; it is really a series of sketches, similar to those you would find in some TV series (MASH in the US comes to mind). Second, and maybe this was an unrealistic expectation on my part, is the absence of a commentary. Somehow I expected a deeper social expose or a commentary about TV entering into social life in rural areas, especially in Eastern or Southeastern Turkey. It turned out the Gevas, Van locale played no specific role. The movie could have taken place in any town in Turkey. TV changes lives in profound ways everywhere, especially in places such as Gevas which I felt was missing in a big way. Third is what I would consider a number of historical errors or omissions. The year is obviously 1974, specifically July 1974. I don't think this was a time when the Turkish (TRT) TV network extended into small towns via transponders yet, especially in Eastern Turkey. At the time even daytime Medium Wave radio reception could not have been as flawless in that area as depicted in the movie. The story about a two-member non-technician TRT crew delivering a transponder without installing it and the equipment being essentially ready to be plug-and-play is not realistic. This is an entertaining movie and maybe that is good enough for many people but based on what I have read I was somehow expecting another Camdan Kalp.

Yilmaz Erdogan's first film which is about the introduction of TV to a village in Southeast Anatolia. People's first encounter with TV technology is told in a humorous way. Yeah, it is fun. The cast is basically of theatre origin - Yilmaz Erdogan's famous BKM players who are acting in the hilarious TV show "Bir Demet Tiyatro" for years. And of course the incredible Cem Yilmaz. Visual editing is nice.The dialogues are entertaining. I recommend it, you'll not be disappointed.