The Chaos Class

There is a class at a private lycee in Istanbul that no teacher can survive: cheating, lying, dodging and a fresh scheme every day. Nobody actually expels them, because the school's whole arrangement rests on them. When Mahmut Hoca arrives to teach history they face someone strict and fair for the first time. The class fights him, then attaches itself to him. Ertem Egilmez directed. The source is Rifat Ilgaz's 1957 novel. Munir Ozkul plays Mahmut Hoca, Kemal Sunal plays Inek Saban and Tarik Akan plays Damat Ferit. Part of the cast came out of auditions announced in newspapers. The most surprising thing about it is the speed of production. It was shot in eleven days at the Adile Sultan Palace in Uskudar and edited in six. It opened on 20 April 1975, stayed in cinemas for twenty-eight weeks and was the highest-grossing Turkish film of the year. Inek Saban was the part that made Kemal Sunal a household name across the country. One objection came from the author. Rifat Ilgaz said the adaptation softened the book's criticism of inequality in education in order to get past the censors; the screenplay put the comedy forward and left the harder edge behind. It produced a long run of sequels, has been repeated endlessly on television and was restored in high definition in 2012. Who it is for: viewers who like Turkish popular comedy of the period and ensemble playing. Who it is not for: anyone looking for the social criticism of the novel. The film deliberately weakened it, and the writer complained about exactly that.