Teyzem (1986) User Reviews

a poetic story with oriental blues

[aysecoskun77 · 8/10 · 24 September 2009]

I was around 13-14 when I first watched "teyzem" and I was stoned with the look of Mujde Ar and this movie became one of the best movies I have ever seen. I love the pureness of Umur and his native love to his aunt.And behind their relationships, a criticize to family relationships, a beautiful panorama of Istanbul and the beauty of Mujde Ar keeps the follower to watch the movie until the end. I am not sure if you would be able to find a DVD including English subtitles but if you would be able to find, I believe that moviegoers will also put this movie in the first numbers of their best of movie lists. I can recommend the movie with all my heart. (apologizes for my English, this is the best ı can write:)

It's a great film

[basak-tosun · 9/10 · 5 August 2007]

I had opportunity to watch this film several times on TV. Each time it was able to capture me. The story is very realistic and touchy. It is so successful at telling hypocritical morality of a conservative "Turkish family. The pressure implied on women for keeping family honor" whereas conniving mistreatment of those women. Such mistreatment lead Uftade, the youngest daughter of the family and the aunt of the story teller- become schizophrenia over years. The film also allow us to observe the daily life of a low income Turkish family in early 1980s, see appearances of the country from those years and lead to nostalgia. All players are so successful.

Few films have been such realistic and capturing in my life.

[ocenkg · 10/10 · 24 April 2004]

If I am not mistaken, the scenario of this film is based upon an award winning story from Cumhuriyet,a prestigious paper in Turkey.Teyzem( My maternal aunt) is a very sentimental and successfully- managed story of relation between a young aunt in Istanbul and her nephew coming to the city to visit her and his grandparents.The aunt and her nephew, Baris,manage to construct a sound and secret friendship and alliance amongst each others during summer holiday and arrange visits to the former's boyfriend who is a handsome guitarist in a local band. Noone in the family is aware of these secret visits.In the film, the audience is given opportunity to observe daily life of an Istanbul family making his way through a very moderate economic resources.For grandparents, nothing could be more important than their daughter's eventual marriage with a decent man.They are also worried about their son who makes his life in little and simple earnings. However,as the heroine living in the world of fantasies and hallucinations, the aunt insists on dreaming herself in perfect togetherness with the guitarist.Things turn to get worsened each day for the family.Grandma gets paralysed, Step-father gets more and more uneasy in the family,economic problems force the family to sell the old mansion and concede to the building of an apartment building instead.To complicate matters, lazy and poorly-educated boy of the family escapes from home to live in Germany, a magnet of attraction of many Turks in the past. Baris, story teller of the film, experiences dramatic fall of his idol,auntie, in his eyes rapidly. Guitarist boy chases pocket rather than heart and abandones auntie.Deeply influenced by this abandonment, the auntie gets insane and becomes an acute sychszophrenic.The interesting point in the film is that Baris is in secret and mutually felt love with his aunt.It is the greatest time for them to hide their agendas, share their privacies and dream together. The film is much successful in matching actors and actresses with roles.Besides, music, background have been much impressive for me.Although I saw this film a decade ago,I could still keep in my mind many dialogues vividly. I sometimes wonder why International audience could not see this film. If - in any case- you have the chance to magnify into Turkish urban life and society in industrialisation crisis, watch this film.Pursuit of money , individualising relations in a communitarian society , alienation of masses, reflect themselves perfectly in Teyzem.

MASTERPIECE OF TURKISH CINEMA!

[tanaykolmedia · 10/10 · 19 June 2020]

Brilliant actings, awesome story etc. So sad, so emotional also... Good example of "Must Watch". One of the BEST movie of Turkish Cinema...