Smiling Eyes

The Arzu Film family-comedy template is at its plainest here: poverty, pride and lying. Nezaket Hanım and her husband had four children hoping for a son and got four daughters. İsmet, Fikret, Nedret and Hikmet are all of marrying age. When two of them let their suitors' families believe the household is wealthy, Nezaket Hanım mortgages the house and borrows money for the wedding expenses. Meanwhile a love story between Fikret and Vecihi carries the film's emotional weight. Ertem Eğilmez directed from a Sadık Şendil screenplay. Münir Özkul and Adile Naşit play the parents and Müjde Ar one of the daughters, with Şener Şen and Ayşen Gruda in support. It opened on 1 March 1977 and runs eighty-six minutes. The interesting part is what sits under the comedy: a poor family becoming genuinely poorer in order to look as though they had risen. Eğilmez does not turn this into tragedy, but he does not let you forget it either. Who it is for: viewers who enjoy the Yeşilçam family-comedy tradition and the Özkul-Naşit pairing. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the women to want something other than marriage. The entire plot is built on getting four daughters married off.