Oh, Beautiful Istanbul

Atıf Yılmaz's 1966 film follows the meeting of Ayşe, who comes from Izmir to Istanbul to become an actress, and Haşmet, who has run through his family's fortune and works as a street photographer. He does not find her hopes realistic; she will not accept his resignation. At the centre is the tension between the traditional and the western and what it does to identity. Sadri Alışık's Haşmet became one of the most cited characters in Turkish cinema and largely defined the actor's identity. The screenplay by Safa Önal and Ayşe Şasa holds comedy and sadness in the same scene. The Istanbul of the sixties is filmed with documentary value. Who it's for: viewers who like classics of Turkish cinema and films about Istanbul. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a fast narrative, or troubled by the gender conventions of the period.