Neşeli Günler

Neşeli Günler (1978) is one of the most rewatched films in Turkish cinema. Nobody has counted how many times it has run on Turkish television. Its IMDb score is 8.7, which is extraordinary for a comedy. Six siblings were split in half by their parents' divorce, three raised by the mother and three by the father, and they have not seen each other in years. A chance meeting brings them together and they decide to get their parents back together. The strength is the cast. Münir Özkul and Adile Naşit are the most recognisable screen parents in Turkish film history. Şener Şen, Ayşen Gruda and a large ensemble from the Arzu Film stable fill out the rest. The comedy works through recurring types and repeated lines. A viewer coming to it new may find some of the jokes dated. For anyone who grew up in Turkey, half the film is already memorised. What lasts is not the comedy but the warmth. It explains in one sentence what Turkish popular cinema was doing in that decade: reassembling a broken family by making you laugh. It runs 95 minutes. Good for: classic Turkish cinema, family comedy, and nostalgia. Comfortable with children. Less good for: the picture and sound quality of the period is poor, and the rhythm is nothing like modern comedy.