Mr. Muhsin

Muhsin Kanadikirik has been making records in Istanbul for years and does it the old way. He has neither money nor standing: what he has is a hotel room, his creditors and his fixed ideas. One day a young man called Ali Nazik turns up from Urfa wanting to be a folk singer. Muhsin Bey sets out to make something of him. Ali Nazik works out quickly how much arabesk sells, and leaves every one of Muhsin Bey's objections behind. The subject is not music but a set of values becoming useless. Muhsin Bey defends honesty, keeping your word and craft, and the city no longer rewards any of it. The closing scene became the best-known image of that defeat. Yavuz Turgul wrote and directed. Sener Sen plays Muhsin Bey and Ugur Yucel plays Ali Nazik. It worked at the box office and with critics alike. It won best film at the Antalya Golden Orange, where its actors were also honoured, and Turgul took the special jury prize at San Sebastian. The film historian Rekin Teksoy counts it as Turgul's most important work. Who it is for: anyone who cares about Turkey in the eighties, the argument over arabesk, and Sener Sen. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a fast story. The film moves as slowly as its character is stubborn, and Ali Nazik's side gets less from the script than it deserves.