Vücut tells the story of a mature porn star Leyla. Leyla (Hatice Aslan) is pushing forty. She and her boyfriend Yılmaz ( Cengiz Bozkurt) had been in the adult industry for 25 years. A short while ago, they moved to Istanbul and Yılmaz ditched Leyla for another woman he picked up at a sleazy tavern. For reasons quite unknown to us, Yılmaz comes up with a last minute request before they break off all their romantic and financial relations; Leyla is supposed to do one more adult film for him. Yılmaz happens to find this twenty year old guy named İzzet (Hakan Kurtaş) to play the male partner. İzzet actually needs the money. He doesn't have a steady job and he usually wasted time in trifling jobs. Though he has never played in a porn, he takes the job. Yet, he can't find wood and he makes a real botch of a job he can hold on to for a while.
Vücut's storyline could have left one of the most indelible marks on Turkish cinema if it could just focus on Leyla and her life. We live in an age on which a sex {partner} is a product with in-built obsolescence. The spiral of the Zeitgeist demands that you look beautiful no matter how old you are, where you come from, whatever you do. You mustn't be fat, not even a bit chubby. You have to embellish your look because your look is actually your business card. For that matter, the story of Vücut is quite important. Yet, there are so many characters in 'Vücut' that the focus sways further away from Leyla and it becomes vaguely intricate. A story which would focus on Leyla with a slightly better dialogue and more convincing characters, Mustafa Nuri's story could have been an incisive social commentary. Think about this We live in a society in which people are culturally conditioned not to allow their natural sex urge to be expressed freely. In some parts of this country young people can't even walk hand in hand let alone talking about their first kiss. Ironical as it may sound, the very rural young men who can't have a few drinks with their girlfriends would boast of losing their virginity in a brothel. While female sexuality and nudity is a taboo, male licentiousness is not always frowned upon. At that point, Mustafa Nuri's story tries to make a mockery of this hypocritically self-righteous and condemnatory patriarchal attitude. While doing this, unfortunately, his characters and dialogue doesn't convince us. Let me give you a few examples. When Leyla is permanently back from Germany, her sister Nurgül (Şebnem Dilligil) invites her to dinner. When she sees Leyla doesn't have any proper dress she judges her yet secretly she covets the way she looks. To be desired at any age is a natural female urge. At the dinner table Nurgül's husband says "Looks like your ex took good care of you. You're only 3 years younger than your big sister, but she's let herself go." In spite of all the hypocrisy, a traditional man would rarely dare to say that in front of his kids. Later, we see a few young men ogling Leyla in a supermarket. A scantily-dressed woman would catch attention in anywhere where most women get dressed properly and only a few guys would eat up her with their eyes. Making asocial commentary doesn't require making sweeping generalizations. In today's Istanbul, you can see headscarved women alongside their scantily-dressed friends and there is not necessarily a tension between them. Scenes like that put a big dent in the sincerity of this story and turn it into a kitsch piece.
In spite of all of her adult industry experience Leyla acts like she is a naïve woman. When her sister questions her actions about the young man who's been chasing her : "What are you doing with him, Leyla! He's young enough to be your son." Leyla just says "I haven't done anything. I helped him. He's thanking me." She just talks like she doesn't really know where this is going. Hatice Aslan is a great actress and she's probably the best choice to play an ex porn star but the dull dialogue and unconvincing character development limits her skills. Hakan Kurtaş starring as the young boyfriend is indeed a promising actor but again the bad script makes his character unconvincing too. When he can't get it on in the studio, apparently he wants to prove his masculinity. Ostensibly, he falls in love with someone who is not afraid of displaying her nudity. He is more interested in expressing his sexuality, yet a traumatic childhood shaped by an abusive father which we witness through repetitive flashback doesn't necessarily explain his actions. Honestly, His mother (Şeyla Halis) and his sister (İlayda Süren) look more convincing. Nowadays, mothers urge their daughters not to pay much attention to their external beauty but only a few mothers leave for work without make-up. They don't really set proper examples and the young people's psyche is shaped by how they look because they do know that 'sex sells'. No matter how old they become they realize there is no stopping; they just need to think about preserving their look at any coasts. Let's hope Mustafa Nuri will offer a more convincing story next time so that we can find more to empathize with his characters.
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