Idiot Saban

One of Kemal Sunal's comedies from the start of the 1980s. Osman works as an extra on film sets. He is simple, harms nobody and is taken seriously by no one; he plays corpses, runs in crowd scenes and collects his daily wage. There is a mafia boss in the city named Seyfi. The two look exactly alike. One day the confusion starts. People looking for Seyfi find Osman; people who know Osman run into Seyfi. Nobody gets the chance to explain. Osman is suddenly treated as a man to be feared. His speech, his walk and his reactions do not fit at all, but those around him take it for an act. In the same way Seyfi is not understood by his own men. The humour is built on that exchange, and Kemal Sunal plays both parts. The idea underneath is how much appearance decides: the same face, two different lives, and how people treat someone depends entirely on who they think they are seeing. Kemal Sunal plays Osman and Seyfi. Ülkü Özen and Esengül Doğan are in the cast. Natuk Baytan directed; he worked with Sunal for years. A familiar choice for anyone who likes Yeşilçam comedy and the films of Kemal Sunal. For a viewer wanting something new, mistaken identity is a much used pattern and the film applies it plainly.