The Last Ottoman: Knockout Ali

The First World War is over and Istanbul is under occupation. Yandım Ali has been discharged from the navy, has fought for years at the front and no longer believes the country can be saved. All he wants is to find some money and leave the city with the woman he loves. Meeting Mustafa Kemal wrecks that plan, and Ali ends up inside the resistance being organised against the occupation and against the collaborators in the Istanbul government. The film builds its liberation story in the language of a street-tough picture rather than an epic: fights, taverns, the streets of Istanbul. Kenan İmirzalıoğlu's Ali is not a hero but someone talked into heroism late, and that is the part that works. The historical setting is not faithful to the record; it is openly an adventure, content to carry the tension of the period. Cansu Dere's part is the least developed thing in the script.