My new found interest in Turkish movies has grown from watching the new wave of dubbed Turkish TV serials on Arabic television - and I can honestly say that I am really impressed. I wasnt quite sure what to expect from Turkish movies but after watching Son Osmanli, its definately left me wanting to watch more. Son Osmanli hits the right notes for me — like going to a restaurant and satisfying your taste buds by trying a litle bit of everything — comedy, history, action, romance etc and its all done very nicely. Perhaps not perfectly, but its that very raw style that attracts me…in movies that is

Turkish cinema clearly has a lot to offer to the global film platform.

A side note - it’s not easy getting your hands on English subtitled Turkish movies in the UK so I am planning a trip to Turkey to sort that out!

It is not a 100% accurate depiction of the era it is set in, but then the film was never marketed nor indeed did it set out to be a historically accurate drama.

It is entirely based on a comic.

I am not a fan of Cansu Dere, i do not believe she can act in the slightest, but the woman can sure wear a dress well!! she was afterall a model previously
Ofcourse, watching these types of films, you will never be able to fully grasp the movie unless you are a native speaker of the language and know the history of the country rather well.

Much like when i was watching Nightwatch & Daywatch

apparently the movies are littered with Stalin era references and specific Russian culture inclusion, which as a non Russian i did not even pick up.

Still… a good movie, is a good movie..in any language!!

I had to track down a fansub subtitle pack in order to watch this movie since Son Osmanli was never intended to be seen outside of Turkey. Maybe it was shown in select European markets where there was a much more dense Turkish population but this sort of movie didn’t get ANY North American release.

I’ve seen fansubs in the past that actuually go out of their way to define certain nuances of the language to western viewers. Typically, in Japanese movies, when characters use unfamiliar slang or make some kind of cultural reference, there will be a supplementary subtitle that tells you what they’re talking about. I have NEVER seen a commercial set of subtitles do this. I would have loved something like that for Son Osmanli because there is a very significant historical subtext in the movie that I think is important for westerners to understand if they’re going to see the movie. It works fine as a two fisted action movie but the end of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1 add a context to the movie that elevates it a bit.

I’ve talked to one or two folks from Turkey recently that have started to make fan subtitles for a movie or two that they know there’s some interest in. It really is a fair amount of work for someone to do for free, so it’s a real labor of love. I’ve cleaned up English subs for my own movies once or twice (fixing spelling, punctuation, etc), and even that was a lot of work.

I am not sure who is responsible for the subtitles. Doesn’t the director or anybody that puts so much effort to make this film have any saying on this.

A few years ago when I went to the London film festival to see The Distance and the director of the film Nuri Bilge Ceylan had a chat with the audience, I wanted to ask him the same question because it was exactly the same situation. He seemed to have a very good English himself, I really wondered if he felt frustrated to see what he wanted to say didn’t get across.

There are lots of people in Turkey, who have an excellent education and speak the language really well, why these people are not doing something about it?

I may look into this.

Hopefully the continued internet/globalization of the film world will have a positive effect on this, and subtitles will start showing up. Really good subs sometimes point out some of the little cultural details you mention if they are pertinent to the film, Funda.

And as one fansubber once said: “Subtitles are like women: they can beautiful or faithful, but rarely both.”

He might be wrong, but the quote is kind of amusing.

I agree that this film hasn’t got any similarity with Indiana Jones movie, I can’t really understand how anybody can compare those two films. I like Indiana Jones, I can watch it again and again but the story, place, acting everything is different.

To understand this film ,one has to have some knowledge about the Turkish history, which can be quiet confusing sometimes. There aren’t any explaination about the history in this film, I think the idea wasn’t to educate the audience but tell a love story, which happened at that time. Luckly I am reading a book about that period in Turkey so I managed to follow it better.

For example the soldier that Ali killed on the boat wasn’t a british soldier, he was German. Eventhough we Turks were on the same side with Germans in that war, the Turkish history claims that Ottoman Empire was pushed into that war against their will, it was a German trick on Turks. So in the film when the German soldier tells off the Turkish officer for not joining Germans to celabrate their small victory ,Turks get angry because they don’t want to be in the war. Then an argument starts and Ali ends up killing the German in order to defend his Officer ,more importantly national pride.

I personally don’t like watching films with subtitles because they don’t translate everything and sometimes the translation can be wrong. And it is really easy to miss some points. For instance the Istanbul prostitue was in fact Russian, the only way to tel this, from her broken turkish in Russian accient. I suppose that was to indicate how multi national the Ottoman was at the time and how some foreigners lived and loved Ottoman as their own country, took risks to help in those difficult days. This was important because some Turks didn’t hesitate to sell their country to foreigners for their own benefits.
So I don’t agree that there was unjustified racism in the film. Defne’s Greek husband was also sympathetic towards Turks, his wife was a Turk, whom he seemed very much in love with.

Ali like many Turks weren’t aware of what was going on in their country, people weren’t literate or they were just forgotton by the government. Ali wans’t aware of the real danger until he started to realize it and his love became irrelevat against his country.
I am not sure about this particular character Ali, but the evets were true and there were many guys like Ali in Istanbul in those days.

I am glad that you liked this film. It is very different movie in my opinion, I wouldn’t have expected from anybody from outside to understand it at all. it is nice to find out that people from completely different cultures have interests to watch this kind of films. Most of your findings about history and culture quite true.
Thanks

I swear, buying a region free dvd player was the best thing I ever did for myself. I can watch movies from all over the world.

But you fail to understand my biggest point: I loved this movie.

I also say that it’s not correct to call it Turkish Indiana Jones, but in the tradition of western reception of other, much older, much more ridiculous Turkish movies such as 3 Dev Adam (aka Turkish Spiderman) and Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (aka Turkish Star Wars) it just seemed to fit. Since you call Valley of the Wolves Turkish Rambo, you are obviously familiar with this. If you’re upset about it, don’t blame me, I didn’t start it.

And if you must know, Twitch Film was the first site to call it Turkish Indiana Jones. I think you completely missed the sense of humor that is all over this site.

Sorry if you were offended.