Paper Lives

A very moving, riveting story that touches the heart. The story and cinematography are amazing- I like how they help make the scenes more poignant. The acting was on point and no scene was out of balance.

" When there is misery all around, a little laughter feels cruel" A somewhat mawkish and a little tonal whiplash.. also, it could use a little more snipping, less less screaming ..while the conclusion is not unforeseeable, it does feel rushed in in unfastening it... but great cinematography, reminds me of my Istanbul trip... reveals the poverty that prevails in that part of the world ...once which was an imperial capital and now a economic capital with strong GDP....storyline is a Oliver Twist with a twist and heartbreaking.. few beautiful moments and sequences .. a great watch..

Or may I also say Hector Babenco - the author of PIXOTE - the Brazilian masterpiece speaking of poverty, ghettos and the urban jungle where it is a terrible struggle to survive. The most painful in watching this kind of feature is to think that there are tons of them which remain under the radar of the distributors and other festivals. Thanks to Netflix to release them. This movie is however a bit smoother than PIXOTE, though remaining very dark and gloomy. I also found a tiny relation between this film and Fritz Lang's MOONFLEET, because of the adult child relationship, a touching and poignant line for this unforgettable film. But maybe this is a bit too artificial, destined to make audiences weep. But that's my own opinion and that doesn't remove anything from this movie, that could have taken place in Mexico or any Central America country, where poverty spreads like a plague.

Sweet, angelic, sensitive, exciting, passionate, delicate... Emir Ali Dogrul's performance is fantastic, painful scenes, stupendous, Çagatay Ulusoy also delivered an impeccable and intense, visceral performance ... Beautiful photography, referring to playfulness and poetry, contrasting with the poor and dirty reality of the scavengers ... The Turks know how to hurt, they leave us with a little heart tight ... And what an outcome, what an outcome !!!

"They say that abandonment is a wound that never heals. I say only that an abandoned child never forgets." Mario Balotelli

Netflix takes us to the streets of Istanbul, Struggle Alley (!) as they call the area, in a neo-realist melodrama, Paper Lives, about child abandonment and love that knows no bounds. The paradox comes true as Mehmet (Cagatay Ulusoy), a solid waste warehouse owner and dumpster diver meets a homeless 9-year-old, Ali, and nurtures him with an intensity as if he were the boy himself.

Although Mehmet says he's concerned to find Ali's mother, he enfolds him like his own child with the self-knowledge that Mehmet himself had been abandoned. Although the psycho trauma of those involved in abandonment is apparent from the beginning, director Can Ulkay intersperses the claustrophobic with images of freedom and joy, such as Mehmet teaching Ali to swim or the two racing the streets pulling carts and picking up discarded paper and bottles. Paper Lives has little of Slumdog Millionaire's romance and none of Annie's unreal color, but these street urchin stories tug at the heart nonetheless. Around the world, the search of mom is a common theme, even in our superhero fantasies.

Although waste picking may seem about as darkly realistic as city slums could get, Mehmet's exuberance and his love for Ali make it seem like a holiday. However, spectral images of mothers and Ali's urge to return to his mother keep a tension that mitigates the boredom of their work.

As if being motherless were not enough, the film shows Mehmet suffering from a debilitating kidney problem and Ali hallucinating about photos where he mistakenly sees himself with his mother when Mehmet is the subject. The film has complicating layers such as the confusion of Mehmet as Ali that enhance the figurative embodiment of the two being one and the same. As a study in Turkish slums, Paper Lives is stark if not a bit over the top; as a testimony to the importance of stable family life, it soars. On Netflix