Bandırma Füze Kulübü

A film set in Bandırma, Turkey. There is a group of school students. They like physics. A teacher brought them together. They hear about a competition. An amateur rocket contest; they will send a rocket of their own design to a set altitude. They decide to enter. From there the film is a story of building. There are no materials. There is no money. There is no workshop. They start working in a garage. Fuel mixture, body, fins, electronics and a parachute. They learn from the internet. They test. The first rocket blows up in the air. The second does not lift at all. At the same time there is a school line. Examinations, families, and the question of who will study what. One girl's family objects. They do not want her to go to university. One boy has to work. His father is ill. The narrative places these inside the rocket line. What the narrative is interested in is not a rocket but permission: its idea is that these young people can solve technical problems and cannot decide about their own lives. The town is inside the narrative. The sea, the shore, the market and narrow streets. The day of the competition comes. The last section is a launch. The tone is light and hopeful. The narrative takes no problem all the way. There is plenty of humour and it is in the shape of a youth comedy. This kind of narrative is rare in Turkish cinema; a youth film centred on science and engineering. It was made for a streaming platform. Ömer Faruk Sorak directed. Alina Boz, Deniz Can Aktaş, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil and Ceyhun Fersoy are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes Turkish youth films and light comedy. Who it is not for: anyone looking for realism; the technical process is shown as too easy and the characters' problems are resolved quickly.