All the foolishness and energy of a naive, ambitious young German film-maker with Turkish parents is beautifully observed by German writer(s?) and directors with Turkish parents. The original observation mixes with homages to all kinds of directors. As a non expert, I got the Matrix and the Battleship Potemkin references. Lord knows how many martial arts films were parodied, and was there a homage to the Three Stooges in there? There's a shambolic, happy feeling to the film with its silly plot twists and fight scenes that captures the essence of young male film-maker energy and gives you lots of laughs.
Things only go wrong when the film has to deal with women. Enter the US-style clichés:
precocious pre-teen sister;
eminently sensible mother;
neurotic, self-obsessed mother in law;
unpretty (and therefore socially awkward and untalented, of course) flatmate of love interest;
very pretty (which means lots of close-ups), very confident and apparently very rich love interest, whose means of support is not mentioned, but who looks about 20, studies drama, drives a car, lives in a nice flat and plans to have a baby, without any mention of a job. She solves her problems the Hollywood way; by means of a spontaneous monologue about her youth and passion that wows the judges and the undecided boyfriend in one fell swoop.
Oh, I almost forgot the last and ugliest cliché; the femme fatale who sucks her fingers and wears a leopard-skin corset and looks out from under her lashes at the hero because of his film-making talent.
My boyfriend and I started out laughing every two minutes at this wonderful film. I ended up cringing every two minutes and thinking that the Turkish machismo mentioned in the film must be very strong indeed for the writer(s?) and directors to have observed themselves so well and women so badly. It's not just Turkish machismo, though. They're not the first to have cut and pasted all of their female characters from the big book of Hollywood stereotypes.
Things only go wrong when the film has to deal with women. Enter the US-style clichés:
precocious pre-teen sister;
eminently sensible mother;
neurotic, self-obsessed mother in law;
unpretty (and therefore socially awkward and untalented, of course) flatmate of love interest;
very pretty (which means lots of close-ups), very confident and apparently very rich love interest, whose means of support is not mentioned, but who looks about 20, studies drama, drives a car, lives in a nice flat and plans to have a baby, without any mention of a job. She solves her problems the Hollywood way; by means of a spontaneous monologue about her youth and passion that wows the judges and the undecided boyfriend in one fell swoop.
Oh, I almost forgot the last and ugliest cliché; the femme fatale who sucks her fingers and wears a leopard-skin corset and looks out from under her lashes at the hero because of his film-making talent.
My boyfriend and I started out laughing every two minutes at this wonderful film. I ended up cringing every two minutes and thinking that the Turkish machismo mentioned in the film must be very strong indeed for the writer(s?) and directors to have observed themselves so well and women so badly. It's not just Turkish machismo, though. They're not the first to have cut and pasted all of their female characters from the big book of Hollywood stereotypes.