Oh Where

Three brothers come from the provinces to study at university in Istanbul. None of them goes to class. Ferit spends his time with girls, Murat gambles, Ömer gets involved in politics. In the letters home everything looks fine. One day Ferit meets Zehra and falls in love; she is not taken in for a moment by his usual methods. Orhan Aksoy directs. Tarık Akan plays Ferit and Gülşen Bubikoğlu plays Zehra, with Halit Akçatepe, Adile Naşit and Hulusi Kentmen. Tarık Akan and Gülşen Bubikoğlu were the highest earning couple in Turkish popular cinema in the mid seventies and made films one after another; this is among the most remembered of that run. The shape is romantic comedy and entirely familiar: the wealthy girl, the philanderer, the misunderstandings, the reunion in the last scene. The narrative never leaves it. The supporting cast is the real strength. Adile Naşit and Hulusi Kentmen carry most of the scenes and the comedy rests largely on them. It runs about ninety minutes. Behind it is the Istanbul of the seventies: student flats, coffee houses, and the political tension of the period passing as a joke. Who it is for: viewers who like Turkish romantic comedy of the period and its star couple. Who it is not for: the story is entirely predictable, the production conditions show, and the female character stands at the edge of the narrative.