10 Turkish Films to Watch on Streaming
As a Turkish-American film critic, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Turkish cinema. As a child of the ’80s, I grew up idolizing American blockbusters; the cheery and awe-inspiring optimism of the Spielberg era was a stark contrast to the overtly melodramatic, sometimes downright miserabilist Turkish output. “Yesilcam” movies, a nickname given to a specific formula of tear-jerking melodramas, mostly about forbidden love that ends in forced tragedy, felt as if they went out of their way to depict a world full of nothing but desolation and disappointment. They also dominated a majority of mainstream Turkish releases. Over the years, I not only learned to understand Yesilcam’s tenacity when it came to establishing its own sub-culture, but to also appreciate the underexposed versatility and creativity of Turkish cinema outside of it.
During the last couple of decades, the Turkish film industry has been going through some growing pains, expanding more and more to the global market with bigger budgets and output that experiments with previously unexplored genres and styles. All the while having one foot still firmly planted in the Yesilcam identity of old. This creates a distinct opportunity to recommend some examples of contemporary Turkish cinema, all found on various streaming services, to western audiences who are looking for some well-executed universal storytelling delivered with a distinctive cultural flavor they might not have been exposed to otherwise. Here are ten hopefully diverse and exciting Turkish movies I selected from a surprisingly bountiful batch available on streaming services. (Very special thanks to Turkish film critic Ali Ercivan for his valuable recommendations.)
Vizontele (2001)
Available on: Netflix
By the time Vizontele hit theaters in Turkey and became a box-office juggernaut, writer-director Yilmaz Erdogan was already a legend thanks to a massively successful sit-com. The show was lovingly about working class rural characters, but executed with a complex and sly sense of humor that also appealed to intellectual metropolitan types, magically bridging this cultural gap. He applies this formula successfully to his feature directorial debut, Vizontele, a charming ’70s-set dramedy about how the lives of the modest residents of a rustic Anatolian village change when confronted with a mind-boggling and suspicious new thingamajig: the television. Erdogan deftly explores the culture shock experienced by the various village folk as their once secluded existence is opened up to the global information possibilities of the idiot box, while also applying his trademark mix of populist drama and sophisticated humor. It’s a bit too overstuffed with characters and sub-plots, some of which could have easily been excised by a more experienced filmmaker, but it delivers an intriguing window into Turkish rural life.
G.O.R.A. (2004)
Available on: Netflix
As we giddily explored in our list on fascinatingly awful Turkish Mockbusters, Turkish cinema has a gloriously bonkers history of “so bad it’s good” micro-budget science-fiction classics, some of which are affectionately known by global lovers of schlock as Turkish Star Wars and Turkish Star Trek. While sporting a decent budget and surprisingly passable special effects, G.O.R.A. seems to still be aware of Turkish cinema’s inability to compete with straight genre fare. Therefore it adopts a parody route that seems to take a page out of Turkish Star Trek’s premise. Just like that timeless gem, G.O.R.A. is about a self-serious sci-fi space adventure being invaded by a Turkish working class caricature (Cem Yilmaz). By the time of G.O.R.A. ’s release, Yilmaz had already solidified himself as a comedy legend, having pretty much single-handedly popularized stand up comedy in Turkey during the ’90s. This clout allowed him to secure a then unheard of budget to basically bring his famous stand-up comedy set making fun of American sci-fi tropes and how a Turkish character would relate to them. Even though it contains a considerable amount of humor based on Turkish culture and slang—most of which would be lost in translation to American audiences—and the narrative becomes sloppy at times, G.O.R.A. is still worth a quick watch for those interested in how the Middle East would parody an established western genre.
Inflame / Kaygi (2017)
Available on: Amazon Prime
A Polanski-esque psychological thriller with political overtones, it would be easy to dismiss Inflame by smarmily exclaiming, “Looks like someone watched Repulsion and The Tenant!” However, as derivative as writer/director Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik’s feature debut may occasionally feel, she still manages to extract her own artistic personality while providing a politically urgent twist on Polanski’s trademark claustrophobic social anxiety and paranoia. Ozcelik showcases a formidable focus on her film’s hauntingly personal style and aesthetic, especially for a first-time feature helmer. This meticulously constructed, mostly single location thriller is about the psychological decay of a video editor (Algi Eke) who increasingly closes herself off to the outside world as she’s disillusioned with the propagandistic methods of the news station she works for, while trying to uncover the truth behind the mysterious deaths of her parents. Ozcelik intimately examines her protagonist’s slow descent into madness as she presents a microcosm of modern secular Turkish youth’s political displacement in a country that not only seems to have no use for them, but is actively trying to suppress their free thought.
Autumn / Sonbahar (2008)
Available on: Amazon Prime
Writer/Director Ozcan Alper’s heartbreaking rural drama works almost as a counterpart to Steve McQueen’s prison hunger strike masterpiece, Hunger. It explores, with striking empathy, how a political prisoner who’s willing to kill himself through hunger for his beliefs could reenter society after being denied his humanity for so long. The released prisoner is Yusuf (Onur Saylak), who’s sent to live with his mother in a fairly isolated village in the Black Sea region. Yusuf spends most of his time stewing in his depression, when he’s not an anxiety-ridden mess due to the PTSD he suffers from the torture he received in prison. Meanwhile, his loved ones expect him to find some form of happiness in a world he perceives to be increasingly hostile or indifferent to his ideals. Some hope appears in the form of Yusuf’s romance with a Georgian prostitute named Eka (Megi Kobaladze). But whether or not there’s real love there, or if these desperate people cling to one another in order to experience some form of genuine human contact, provides this solid drama’s emotional anchor. A slow burn without any easy answers, Autumn should satisfy fans of similarly desolate but gorgeous-looking work by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev.
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