Feyzo, The Polite One

Back from military service, Feyzo wants to marry Gülo. Her father, Maho Aga, names an impossible sum as the bride price. Feyzo goes away to earn it, marries her, and then, when he tries to challenge the order of the village, runs into the aga's power. The film is not interested in comedy. It is interested in how a feudal order works: the bride price, debt, the cooperation between the landowner and the state, and the peasants' attempt to organise are its real subject. Under the laughter is hard social criticism, and the ending says so outright. The form is the Yeşilçam mould: verbal humour, repeated gags and village scenes. But the pace is slow for a comedy and the final section is dark enough to cut against the tone entirely. Atıf Yılmaz directed and İhsan Yüce wrote the screenplay. It was shot in the village of Harran in the Reyhanlı district of Hatay, produced by Arzu Film. Kemal Sunal plays Feyzo, Şener Şen plays Maho Aga, Müjde Ar plays Gülo and Adile Naşit the mother. Şener Şen's aga became one of the most imitated performances in Turkish cinema. Who it is for: viewers who like Yeşilçam comedy and films carrying social criticism. Who it is not for: anyone expecting to laugh from beginning to end. The second half hardens and the bitterness of the ending surprises most viewers.