As I made it clear in the title, I'll try and explain the characters' behavior, especially Aydin's and Ismail's, by explaining the culture that creates their type of characters. So this is more of a character analysis and its explanation than a review, but I might also review it a little bit. I'm typing this as I go along, bear with me.
At the end of the 90s a Korean airline company Korean Air was having significantly more accidents compared to rest of the other airline companies around the world. This was not because of bad pilot training or poor maintenance or old planes, according to a theory the reason was the Korean culture. The theory claimed that the hierarchy and the power dynamics between the pilots, which was demanded by the culture, compromised a healthy communication in the cockpit. The younger person has to respect their elders and superior colleagues to the degree of not correcting their mistakes. Now, I don't know if this theory is 100% correct, but when I first heard this theory, it didn't surprise me at all, and that's the point. Culture has tremendous influence over individuals' behavior in a society. And, every culture has some good sides and then some bad ones, and boy, do we have some bad qualities to our culture here in Turkey...
When Ismail picked up the money and threw it in the fire, I immediately thought to myself, most western audiences, especially Americans, will think that that's a very unlikely, unrealistic and far-fetched reaction that would never happen in real life. But to a Turkish audience, that's a very realistic scene. In schools, we are taught stories, in one of which a man chops his own arm because he's pushed too far by the guy who paid to save his life from false prosecution, well it's more complicated than that but you got the point. Why did Ismail, and his brother before him, refused this charity money, which was offered to them by a woman who showed no condescension whatsoever and on the contrary, came with all the best intentions and humility in the world? That's because Ismail has nothing in life other than his empty pride, which he evidently values even more than his son's future. He uses his pride as a cover to hide all his insecurities and inferiority complexes. In the inlands and the eastern parts of Turkey and to some degree in the slums of the big cities, the Turkish culture is to inherit oppression from parents and later, to leave it as a legacy to the children. A kid cannot question anything in life, especially religion. Women can't flirt with guys or else they are sl**s and may even got killed to restore the family's honor which is called ''namus'' in Turkish, a narrower definition of the word, slightly more specific, it is the ''honor'' of your daughter or sister or your mother not having sex or even flirt with anyone in their lives, unless they are married. This oppression prevents the youth from expressing themselves. A teenage boy cannot wear earrings or have a long hair. Girls have to cover their hair, some families start practicing this when the kid's at the age of 5. But of course, not every family is like that. These kids grow up watching the world around them live their lives, while they are oppressed to a crippling state. They become bitter and frustrated. Boys start bullying others, girls become shy nuns who will have bad marriages because they had no experience. And later in their lives, these men will have no qualities as individuals, nor a decent education. They all become ''silent heroes'' with delusions of grandeur that is completely unwarranted. Their sick ''love'' is the purest love in the world, that's why they can't accept rejection and might kill a woman who rejects or attempts to divorce them. Their ''patriotism'' is the highest anyone can have, that's why they are incapable of listening to any nuanced argument of policy, they might kill you because you are a ''traitor'' or even a ''terrorist'' to them because you want a better, secular country that invests in education and science instead of religion and propaganda. Ironically, they are the ones terrorizing the educated and intellectual people in this country, but of course this irony is lost on them. But then again, what does irony mean, try explaining that to them. This society is the major reason of the brain drain from Turkey, not the economy. They do most things banned by their religion, but they criticize others for the same things they are doing, their hypocrisy is only matched by their shamelessness and the lack of a sense of justice. If they are involved in a minor fender bender, they'll come out of their cars yelling expletives and with our version of a baseball bat in their hands, regardless of whose fault the accident is. These sexually frustrated, oppressed, uneducated, brainwashed men proceeds to perpetuate this same culture that has created them. The Turkish right wing has always liked and used these kind of men throughout the history of our country. Their ignorance is easy to weaponize and create a mob to use against their political rivals. And these poor men love the idea of a dictator, they also love mafia figures and make role models of them, because they've been taught to worship power all their lives, not realizing they are the ones who stole their lives from them. These ''silent heroes'' never rise against oppression or power, but they outnumber and gang up on the powerless, because they are very brave, indeed... So, this is the kind of culture that creates Ismail, he would never accept that kind of a charity, let alone from a woman, that's unheard of. He'd rather spend what little money his brother makes, on alcohol, which is very expensive in Turkey. What an honorable and dignified young man, not accepting that charity...
Aydin, on the other hand, is not the antithesis of Ismail, not even close, despite his good education. His name 'Aydin' can be translated to English as 'Enlightened' but we use that word interchangeably with 'Intellectual', like most attributes Aydin has, even his name is very on the nose and obvious. Aydin represents the ''intellectual'' and out of touch, disconnected bourgeoisie who takes no responsibility to change the world around them for better, despite their power and influence. When confronted and called out for his selfishness(subtly by the teacher) he cries ''I didn't create the system!'' but he perpetuates and benefits from that broken and unfair system and does nothing to fix it, when he has all the power to do so. He's cynical and pro status quo like most wealthy people. It's so easy a thing to remove oneself from any responsibility or guilt, to convince that it's not your fault, there is nothing you can do about it. This kind of thinking is prevalent all around the world, but we take it to new levels here in Turkey. If you are a good teacher, your colleagues might ask you, sarcastically and condescendingly with a smug smirk in their face, ''Are you an idealist or something?'', as if being an idealist is something bad, something to ridicule... Never do anything to fix anything, why do you think it's your job to fix things? You'll get discouraged even by your parents and family if you want to fix something that's accepted as status quo. No pedestrian is waiting for the traffic lights, why are you? Is something wrong with you? Are you going to save the world by recycling? Aydin might have had a better start in life compared to Ismail, but he's only one generation away from his feudal lord ancestors, which is called ''aga'' in Turkish. His father was the aga(lord) of that village and owned everything in that village. Although we are not given enough information about his parents, knowing that he was an aga, I can assure you that he was not an intellectual nor an educated man. He probably used and oppressed the people like slaves. So Aydin didn't grow up in an ideal environment or with ideal parents either. Perhaps that's why he's so out of touch. He writes his ridiculously out of touch, pseudo-intellectual pieces like criticizing the lack of aesthetics in the poverty-stricken small villages of Turkey that are one step away from famine. Then he publishes these on a local paper which literally has one and a half readers, one of which being his sister and he can't take any criticism from his sole regular reader when she calls him out on his bs. And he is full of bs and he knows it. As he's going through his midlife crisis, deep inside, he slowly understands and accepts that he didn't live up to the expectations, best of his life is behind him and it wasn't very good even at its best. Because he has a problem of expressing his love both to a romantic partner and to his family as well. His ''trophy wife'' loved him at first, I have no doubt, but as time went through, it degraded because of his behavior. Despite all his faults, Aydin is such a likable character, because at this turning point in his life, he's showing some sings of maturing and perhaps change. He's starting to accept that he's full of bs and he admits it in what I assumed was a letter to his wife, at the end of the film. He begs his wife to accept him as he is. And the film ends there, we don't know if his pride will allow him to deliver this letter to her or even if he does, we don't know if his wife is capable of forgiving him any more...
Lastly, I'd like to say a few things about Haluk Bilginer(Aydin). He gives such a wonderful performance that he makes a disgusting character somewhat likable, because his acting is so good, it makes the character realistic, instead of what would have been at the hands of a lesser actor, a caricature of a villain. His performance reminded me of Christoph Waltz and his Nazi role in Inglourious Basterds.
At the end of the 90s a Korean airline company Korean Air was having significantly more accidents compared to rest of the other airline companies around the world. This was not because of bad pilot training or poor maintenance or old planes, according to a theory the reason was the Korean culture. The theory claimed that the hierarchy and the power dynamics between the pilots, which was demanded by the culture, compromised a healthy communication in the cockpit. The younger person has to respect their elders and superior colleagues to the degree of not correcting their mistakes. Now, I don't know if this theory is 100% correct, but when I first heard this theory, it didn't surprise me at all, and that's the point. Culture has tremendous influence over individuals' behavior in a society. And, every culture has some good sides and then some bad ones, and boy, do we have some bad qualities to our culture here in Turkey...
When Ismail picked up the money and threw it in the fire, I immediately thought to myself, most western audiences, especially Americans, will think that that's a very unlikely, unrealistic and far-fetched reaction that would never happen in real life. But to a Turkish audience, that's a very realistic scene. In schools, we are taught stories, in one of which a man chops his own arm because he's pushed too far by the guy who paid to save his life from false prosecution, well it's more complicated than that but you got the point. Why did Ismail, and his brother before him, refused this charity money, which was offered to them by a woman who showed no condescension whatsoever and on the contrary, came with all the best intentions and humility in the world? That's because Ismail has nothing in life other than his empty pride, which he evidently values even more than his son's future. He uses his pride as a cover to hide all his insecurities and inferiority complexes. In the inlands and the eastern parts of Turkey and to some degree in the slums of the big cities, the Turkish culture is to inherit oppression from parents and later, to leave it as a legacy to the children. A kid cannot question anything in life, especially religion. Women can't flirt with guys or else they are sl**s and may even got killed to restore the family's honor which is called ''namus'' in Turkish, a narrower definition of the word, slightly more specific, it is the ''honor'' of your daughter or sister or your mother not having sex or even flirt with anyone in their lives, unless they are married. This oppression prevents the youth from expressing themselves. A teenage boy cannot wear earrings or have a long hair. Girls have to cover their hair, some families start practicing this when the kid's at the age of 5. But of course, not every family is like that. These kids grow up watching the world around them live their lives, while they are oppressed to a crippling state. They become bitter and frustrated. Boys start bullying others, girls become shy nuns who will have bad marriages because they had no experience. And later in their lives, these men will have no qualities as individuals, nor a decent education. They all become ''silent heroes'' with delusions of grandeur that is completely unwarranted. Their sick ''love'' is the purest love in the world, that's why they can't accept rejection and might kill a woman who rejects or attempts to divorce them. Their ''patriotism'' is the highest anyone can have, that's why they are incapable of listening to any nuanced argument of policy, they might kill you because you are a ''traitor'' or even a ''terrorist'' to them because you want a better, secular country that invests in education and science instead of religion and propaganda. Ironically, they are the ones terrorizing the educated and intellectual people in this country, but of course this irony is lost on them. But then again, what does irony mean, try explaining that to them. This society is the major reason of the brain drain from Turkey, not the economy. They do most things banned by their religion, but they criticize others for the same things they are doing, their hypocrisy is only matched by their shamelessness and the lack of a sense of justice. If they are involved in a minor fender bender, they'll come out of their cars yelling expletives and with our version of a baseball bat in their hands, regardless of whose fault the accident is. These sexually frustrated, oppressed, uneducated, brainwashed men proceeds to perpetuate this same culture that has created them. The Turkish right wing has always liked and used these kind of men throughout the history of our country. Their ignorance is easy to weaponize and create a mob to use against their political rivals. And these poor men love the idea of a dictator, they also love mafia figures and make role models of them, because they've been taught to worship power all their lives, not realizing they are the ones who stole their lives from them. These ''silent heroes'' never rise against oppression or power, but they outnumber and gang up on the powerless, because they are very brave, indeed... So, this is the kind of culture that creates Ismail, he would never accept that kind of a charity, let alone from a woman, that's unheard of. He'd rather spend what little money his brother makes, on alcohol, which is very expensive in Turkey. What an honorable and dignified young man, not accepting that charity...
Aydin, on the other hand, is not the antithesis of Ismail, not even close, despite his good education. His name 'Aydin' can be translated to English as 'Enlightened' but we use that word interchangeably with 'Intellectual', like most attributes Aydin has, even his name is very on the nose and obvious. Aydin represents the ''intellectual'' and out of touch, disconnected bourgeoisie who takes no responsibility to change the world around them for better, despite their power and influence. When confronted and called out for his selfishness(subtly by the teacher) he cries ''I didn't create the system!'' but he perpetuates and benefits from that broken and unfair system and does nothing to fix it, when he has all the power to do so. He's cynical and pro status quo like most wealthy people. It's so easy a thing to remove oneself from any responsibility or guilt, to convince that it's not your fault, there is nothing you can do about it. This kind of thinking is prevalent all around the world, but we take it to new levels here in Turkey. If you are a good teacher, your colleagues might ask you, sarcastically and condescendingly with a smug smirk in their face, ''Are you an idealist or something?'', as if being an idealist is something bad, something to ridicule... Never do anything to fix anything, why do you think it's your job to fix things? You'll get discouraged even by your parents and family if you want to fix something that's accepted as status quo. No pedestrian is waiting for the traffic lights, why are you? Is something wrong with you? Are you going to save the world by recycling? Aydin might have had a better start in life compared to Ismail, but he's only one generation away from his feudal lord ancestors, which is called ''aga'' in Turkish. His father was the aga(lord) of that village and owned everything in that village. Although we are not given enough information about his parents, knowing that he was an aga, I can assure you that he was not an intellectual nor an educated man. He probably used and oppressed the people like slaves. So Aydin didn't grow up in an ideal environment or with ideal parents either. Perhaps that's why he's so out of touch. He writes his ridiculously out of touch, pseudo-intellectual pieces like criticizing the lack of aesthetics in the poverty-stricken small villages of Turkey that are one step away from famine. Then he publishes these on a local paper which literally has one and a half readers, one of which being his sister and he can't take any criticism from his sole regular reader when she calls him out on his bs. And he is full of bs and he knows it. As he's going through his midlife crisis, deep inside, he slowly understands and accepts that he didn't live up to the expectations, best of his life is behind him and it wasn't very good even at its best. Because he has a problem of expressing his love both to a romantic partner and to his family as well. His ''trophy wife'' loved him at first, I have no doubt, but as time went through, it degraded because of his behavior. Despite all his faults, Aydin is such a likable character, because at this turning point in his life, he's showing some sings of maturing and perhaps change. He's starting to accept that he's full of bs and he admits it in what I assumed was a letter to his wife, at the end of the film. He begs his wife to accept him as he is. And the film ends there, we don't know if his pride will allow him to deliver this letter to her or even if he does, we don't know if his wife is capable of forgiving him any more...
Lastly, I'd like to say a few things about Haluk Bilginer(Aydin). He gives such a wonderful performance that he makes a disgusting character somewhat likable, because his acting is so good, it makes the character realistic, instead of what would have been at the hands of a lesser actor, a caricature of a villain. His performance reminded me of Christoph Waltz and his Nazi role in Inglourious Basterds.