A.R.O.G

Arif, the hero of G.O.R.A., falls a million years into the past by mistake. He meets a prehistoric community and tries to use his modern knowledge to teach them the wheel, systems beyond fire, and eventually a civilisation. The film is not interested in science fiction. It is interested in the comedy of civilisation: every invention produces a new bureaucracy, a new quarrel and a new hierarchy. Cem Yilmaz's humour here looks not at show business but at how people organise themselves. The form is elaborate: heavy visual effects for its time, crowded sets and a long running time. The title is a joke too, G.O.R.A. spelled backwards. Cem Yilmaz wrote it and plays the lead; Ali Taner Baltaci directed. Ozan Guven and Ozkan Ugur are in the cast. The film did big business in Turkey and, together with G.O.R.A., stands as one of the most watched examples of science fiction comedy in Turkish cinema. Who it is for: viewers who like Cem Yilmaz's humour and enjoyed G.O.R.A. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a tidy story. The film runs on sketch logic, goes past two hours, and some passages play like stage routines.