Our Family

Bizim Aile (1975) is among the best loved family comedies of Turkish popular cinema and is usually mentioned in the same breath as Neşeli Günler. A boy from a poor family is in love with a girl from a wealthy one. Her father does not want the marriage and declares war on the boy's family. That is the entire setup. What carries the film is not the story but the cast. Münir Özkul and Adile Naşit are the parents again, with Tarık Akan and Halit Akçatepe alongside them. This group appeared together across several films in the seventies and largely built the picture of the family that lives in the Turkish audience's head. The real subject is class. The film never says so directly and folds it into the comedy instead: the rich man's contempt against the poor family's pride, over and over. Seen now, some of the jokes have dated and the women have very little room. The warmth has not dated at all. It runs 88 minutes. Good for: classic Turkish cinema, family comedy, and nostalgia. Comfortable with children. Less good for: the picture and sound quality of the period is poor. Anyone expecting modern comic pacing or subtlety will not find it.