I think the movie is certainly above average. It takes place in a ghetto district, in which life is very hard. In fact, the book is about the change of this neighborhood and Salih's family due to modernization. However, the movie is more about crime and drama. In the book, we read how Salih grows from childhood to adulthood, while in the movie, he just grows up after one event. On one of the comments, a viewer has written that there are many unrealistic things in the movie. On the contrary, I found the movie very realistic. However, it is a different reality which we've never seen. It is about a neighborhood to which cops are afraid to come and every known crime is committed openly. And about the cast, the acting is really awesome. Okan Bayülgen has the central role, but even he is just diminished by the strong acting of Savaş Dinçel, Zafer Alagöz, Burak Sergen and Mustafa Uğurlu. I would also recommend you to listen to the soundtrack of the movie.
10 Reviews
Agir Roman
slymnplbyk4 March 2014
This is Turkey's one of the most sensational films. The story is told by the narrator who is also the director. All the artists have done their job masterfully. Soundtracks and the poems are taking you to the world which the film was taken. This film is independent from place and time. It is taken in Istanbul's old streets. The scenario and the final of it are so dramatic. Okan Bayülgen has fitted the character perfectly. Experienced actress Müjde Ar done also great job. Film is based on the the relationship between young Salih (Okan Bayülgen)and Tina who is a mature prostitute. The ghetto life of 90's are mirrored so well in the film. You shouldn't miss the chance to watch.
Agir Roman, (based on Metin Kacan's novel) directed by Mustafa Altioklar takes place in a famous suburban region of Istanbul.
b_kurc14 July 2005
The movie is excellent at depicting the lifestyle of gypsies and the outlaws. Beyond their way of living, it's the love between an elderly prostitute and a young guy that touches me deeply every time I watch the movie. This unconventional and passionate love is accompanied by sufferings of the two as well as their cravings for each other. The Turkish gypsies' style of living, behaving and sorting things out is intensively depicted throughout the whole movie with gloomy, catchy scenes and dialogs. The director has done a great job at taking the well-known Turkish novel to a new dimension and making the film impossible to forget. It's a unique film on love, lust and revenge. For those who haven't seen it, I have to say it's a must-see movie.
Life in spite of everything
Arianrhod_B2 May 2002
I can say that this movie is one of the best Turkish movies in the 90s knowing that it was nominated for many awards in several film festivals. The story is about a family who's living in a suburban in Istanbul. This big city, that we know better for the Bosphorus, its history and all the beauty that it's surrounded with, has also another aspect: a society even stranger to the most parts of Istanbul that still has hope and will to survive. The youngest boy of this family, Salih, is the center of the chain of events of this poor neighborhood. He falls in love with a prostitute and has to prove his power against the villain who is a threat to everyone living up there. Love, family, passion, death, pain are the main themes as well as hope and rage which define the life in this area. People need to fight in order to survive. In the end, the tragic chain of events keeps going on as if in old Greek tragedies. All of the actors are quite convincing, especially the villain played by Mustafa Uğurlu who succeeds in being a sadistic killer and his rival, the prostitute's young lover played by Okan Bayülgen who is a famous TV star in Turkey. The growing cultural differences in Turkey creates such problems not only in İstanbul, but also in many other big industrial cities. By watching this movie, you get to face the facts that these stories are real and inevitable. The suburbia in he movie is called "Kolera - Cholera" like the illness bringing only dead, but the people still have dreams and hopes and fighting against it. I highly recommend you watch this movie to see some rare examples of good Turkish films and also to know more about the life in the poor areas in Turkey.
Can you stop the time or change the fate..?
korkmazhusem28 June 2007
Can you change your fate..? Of course not... Mustafa Altıoklar clearly proves the dominance of our fate on our lives. The film especially reflects the lifestyles of a special group of people (gypsies) in Istanbul. For some, they are disgusting; for some, outlaws; but for me: reality! No one has been so courageous to show the realities of life as Metin Kaçar(author of the original story). The film has the life itself in it: love, hate, crime, mercy, faith, honor, blood and even prostitution! Another and maybe the most important factor that makes the film worth watching at least 10 times is excellent performance of Mustafa Uğurlu(Reis). If you feel ready to face the facts of life, leave your comfortable seats for a while and go deep into narrow and gloomy streets of Istanbul... Don't hesitate, you will find yourself...
It's a pleasure watching Okan Bayulgen!
asliguruney5 August 2001
Warning: Spoilers
Based on a best seller novel, Cholera Street tells us the story of a breaking up family, living in the faubourg of Istanbul. The main character of the movie is Salih (Okan Bayulgen), who becomes the rowdy of Cholera and falls for a prostitute. His short life ends tragically, because of this love, but he never gives upon her. I like this movie too much, it has a special taste and sensitivity that surrounds you during the movie. In his first main role, Okan Bayulgen is perfect.
KEY BAYULGEN MOMENT In the scene where Salih rescues his blood-brother from the fire, Bayulgen is shivering.
KEY BAYULGEN MOMENT In the scene where Salih rescues his blood-brother from the fire, Bayulgen is shivering.
I was sooo disappointed
muge-116 June 2003
Warning: Spoilers
I had looked forward to viewing this movie, it seemed anyone who had seen it loved it. I was completely disappointed. The acting was so overdone. The script seemed like the writer had gathered 25 different scripts from various movies and randomly chose dialogue and pieced them together to form one plagarized script.
Spoilers: Was any cliche omitted in this movie? There was a mobstyle hit, homosexuality, prostitution, a serial killer, a fire, numerous godfather wannabees, the main character in love with the prostitute, cross dressing, torture by the police, Hannibal Lechter style mutilations, I could go on and on.
Line's like (the godfather wannabe to the prostitute)
-"Ben senin arik calismani istemiyorum" (I don't want u to work anymore)
-"Ben calismasam kirayi kim odeyecek?" (Who would pay the rent if I didn't work)
Unrealistic scenes: We never saw a single policeman during the serial killer scenes, yet when the main character disappeared his father was taken in by the police and tortured for weeks.
The only way I can make sense out of this whole movie, is if the version I had scene was severely edited from the original. I definitely do not recommend it, and would greatly enjoy discussing it further with anyone who would care to do so.
Spoilers: Was any cliche omitted in this movie? There was a mobstyle hit, homosexuality, prostitution, a serial killer, a fire, numerous godfather wannabees, the main character in love with the prostitute, cross dressing, torture by the police, Hannibal Lechter style mutilations, I could go on and on.
Line's like (the godfather wannabe to the prostitute)
-"Ben senin arik calismani istemiyorum" (I don't want u to work anymore)
-"Ben calismasam kirayi kim odeyecek?" (Who would pay the rent if I didn't work)
Unrealistic scenes: We never saw a single policeman during the serial killer scenes, yet when the main character disappeared his father was taken in by the police and tortured for weeks.
The only way I can make sense out of this whole movie, is if the version I had scene was severely edited from the original. I definitely do not recommend it, and would greatly enjoy discussing it further with anyone who would care to do so.
Just decent; nothing great.
hessianmercenary4 September 2000
To be frank, Agir Roman, though highly praised by most of the critics in Turkey, was not totally a great work of Mustafa Altioklar.It had some innovative aspects-especially in terms of direction when compared with most of the previous Turkish movies- as well as remarkable shortcomings.
First of all, as for the direction, this movie was quite an accomplishment for Mustafa Altioklar as far as his personal direction style is concerned- I found it very specific, very original and -though rarely- visually stunning. Especially the way he shot the scenes and the stylish camera movements fairly reminded me of the independent films in US. I think in a few years' time, "Agir Roman" may be regarded as a milestone in the Turkish film industry by Turkish critics since it gave rise to the recent popularity of the Turkish movies that were more likely to be shot in "independent film" style (e.g. Karisik pizza, asansor).
As for the acting, I found it quite successful. The cast was simply great. Okan Bayulgen was especially outstanding and thus proved himself a splendid actor, giving the impressive portrayal of an ordinary young man born in a ghetto.
In the next place, however, I would like to point out that if some of the audience did not like this movie despite the high praise of critics, I think the screenplay was the basic reason for that. I especially found the dialogue in most of the scenes fairly unrealistic, as though the events took place almost in a dream world rather than a Turkish ghetto. Moreover, the screenplay was not comprehensible enough to be fathomed by most of the audience so that a considerable number of people I know did not grasp the whole plot for the first time they watched the movie.
Finally, I recommend this movie to the ones who do not expect too much. Yes, it was quite decent but certainly not a must see one!
First of all, as for the direction, this movie was quite an accomplishment for Mustafa Altioklar as far as his personal direction style is concerned- I found it very specific, very original and -though rarely- visually stunning. Especially the way he shot the scenes and the stylish camera movements fairly reminded me of the independent films in US. I think in a few years' time, "Agir Roman" may be regarded as a milestone in the Turkish film industry by Turkish critics since it gave rise to the recent popularity of the Turkish movies that were more likely to be shot in "independent film" style (e.g. Karisik pizza, asansor).
As for the acting, I found it quite successful. The cast was simply great. Okan Bayulgen was especially outstanding and thus proved himself a splendid actor, giving the impressive portrayal of an ordinary young man born in a ghetto.
In the next place, however, I would like to point out that if some of the audience did not like this movie despite the high praise of critics, I think the screenplay was the basic reason for that. I especially found the dialogue in most of the scenes fairly unrealistic, as though the events took place almost in a dream world rather than a Turkish ghetto. Moreover, the screenplay was not comprehensible enough to be fathomed by most of the audience so that a considerable number of people I know did not grasp the whole plot for the first time they watched the movie.
Finally, I recommend this movie to the ones who do not expect too much. Yes, it was quite decent but certainly not a must see one!
Totally missed chance
cagsun-910-5401516 December 2016
This film was one of the worst book adaptation movies I have ever seen. Although the book was great, they changed the whole story line, added new scenes, changed the order of events and turned the film film into some kind of a Frankenstein. I can't understand how it was approved to go to market with such an amateur way of script writing.
Being a completely missed chance, acting in this movie remains as an irrelevant discussion as the conversations are completely unrealistic, and the characters are left dull again unlike the book.
I would suggest everyone to read the book, which is a marvelous piece of literature, and skip the film. This movie is nowhere near decent film making.
Being a completely missed chance, acting in this movie remains as an irrelevant discussion as the conversations are completely unrealistic, and the characters are left dull again unlike the book.
I would suggest everyone to read the book, which is a marvelous piece of literature, and skip the film. This movie is nowhere near decent film making.
It's an art piece!
hazaraltindas31 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Okan Bayulgen's acting is becomes more stunning as he evolves into a "Kabadayi". First of all it's an adaptation of Metin Kacan's first novel. "Cholera" is actually Dolapdere-Tarlabasi and all the scenes were shot in that district. First of all the camera shots are amazing especially the running scene where Salih's dad and people from neighborhood running to help Tibi. Okay, the movie is not like the book, acting is unrealistic, yeah 'cause it be like that. It's a movie, it's a form of art. Even though it is an adaptation of a novel it can be different from the actual novel.
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