Sosyete Şaban

In Kartal Tibet's 1985 film, Kemal Sunal plays a wealthy landowner from the provinces. Şaban is in love from a distance with Peri, a favourite of high society who does not know he exists. She eventually agrees to marry him for his money, then returns to her city life after the wedding and leaves him. Şaban's answer is to remake himself: he changes his clothes, changes his name and re-enters the same society, this time as a sophisticated gentleman. The humour comes from the impersonation of class itself, presenting the difference between provincial and urban as little more than clothing and speech. Sunal's character is, as always, the one who is looked down on and turns out to be right. It carries the familiar shapes of eighties Turkish popular cinema. Who it's for: viewers who enjoy Kemal Sunal comedies and Yeşilçam humour. Who it's not for: anyone who will find the period's handling of its female characters dated.