ozgur_ozbek

The relationship between the audience and Behzat Ç has always been...significant. While the direction of the emotions shifted the magnitute has always been huge; once a darling for a certain portion of the Turkish audience became a target after its creator went through a difficult phase in his life.

It is also widely accepted that after the show moved to the streaming world it lost some of its magic. With the new "Gül ve Çekiç" series, we once again meet our favorite local crime fighters sans dear Harun whom we almost all adored. We now have Osman Harun as a replacement with similar goofy characteristics but with a darker past. Overall I found the season satisfying because my experience with Behzat is mostly related to Ankara being the centerpiece of the story and it is still undeniably there. But for someone who is not a local or who is less sentimental on the point will not find it hard to come up with problematic issues. For me the biggest issue is the caricaturization of the main figures; all of the personal traits and pecularities were taken to the max, harming the believability of them at many points.

I am not sure if the main story carries the viewer along, for me it did not. I always struggle to buy in the evil characters in Turkish productions and unfortunately this was not an exception. Demirdelens as a family did not resonate to me, neither with their stories nor with the acting.

Finally, sorry to say but Sule has never been a part of the story that I could understand or like but this was the most forced addition of the character into the center of the story; it could unfold so more fluidly without her I felt...

The main problem with Behzat is that he already went through hell, a few times more than a mortal can endure; putting him into similar challenges is nothing but unfair to our memories with him. After all, this is not Mission Impossbile: Bir Ankara Polisiyesi.

It was impossible to stay away from the hype for a new Berkun Oya movie after the great Bir Baskadir. In that sense maybe Cici does not hit as hard but it is no way a waste of one's time. The relationship between the father and the son is a very important theme and Orhan Pamuk says the father always kills the son in the East, which in a way is the case here. In Cici, the storyline that did not translate to me was the Cemil-Saliha love as I can not picture Saliha remaining emotionally attached after moving to the big city. The scene where Olgun Simsek argues with Okan Yalabik was incredible where I can swear it happened just in front of me. The casting was perfect with the transitions between young and old versions were flawless. The family discussion at the barbecue/mangal revealed all the real intentions of characters in a very natural way where the writing was sublime. One last bit of question on my side is whether Saliha spent enough time in Ankara to become the rather sophisticated urban woman that is portraited but this might be quite picky.

This is a very good film amidst all the drama surrounding the artistic product. In some ways, one can feel that the whole story was invented to bring us, the audience, to the masterfully symbolic ending of the movie. In a lot of ways that last 15 minutes is an encapsulation of last few years of Türkiye. Those being said, I did not find the relationship between the prosecutor and the journalist (which was quite central to the story) very realistic both in practical and aesthetic terms. Also, there were too many loose ends that were left open which can undermine the director's message. The movie will most certainly occupy an important place in Turkish cinematography, hopefully as a reminder of once crazy times.