Reviews edited by Mark Adams mark.adams@emap.com


REVIEWS


Our Grand Despair REVIEWED BY JONATHAN ROMNEY


According to the market model, comedy and drama combine to make the genre called ‘dram- edy’. Unfortunately, the mix often classifies instead as ‘coma’ — which is the case for inert love-trian- gle cum buddy bagatelle Our Grand Despair (Bizim Buyuk Caresizligimiz). Two middle-aged Turkish men provide a home


for a beautiful young student, and the result is emotional butterflies all round. This is not cutting- edge stuff, but affable casting and undemanding good humour could make Seyfi Teoman’s film moderately marketable. It could just as easily, though, end up being remade as US romcom fod- der — almost certainly with Vince Vaughn and some other Hollywood rent-a-nice-guy. Set in Ankara, the film begins with a funeral,


following a car crash in which a couple have been killed. Before flying home to Germany, their adult son Fikret (Davrak) asks his best friends to look after his younger sister, university student Nihal (Sayin). The pair are lifelong chums and now flatmates


— a by-the-book ‘odd couple’ duo comprising bespectacled highbrow Ender (Aksum) and hir- sute gentle giant Cetin (Al). Nihal enters a period of depression, but after her friends deliver her to the buddies’ door, blind drunk, she moves in with them. At first, the solicitous and always gentlemanly


duo are delighted to have an adoptive kid sister around the place, but inevitably their hearts start fluttering for this charming beauty, and their lives become a lovelorn misery. But, barring the odd squabble, little happens to trouble their equanim- ity, until a younger rival comes on the scene. The film is essentially a bromance — the two


men admit to being deeply in love with each other, but hey, in a manly way. Still, referring openly to


n 6 Screen International in Berlin February 17, 2011 COMPETITION


Turk-Ger-Neth. 2011. 102mins Director/screenplay Seyfi Teoman Production companies Bulut Film, Unafilm, Circe Films International sales The Match Factory, www. the-match-factory.com Producers Yamac Okur, Nadir Operli Cinematography Birgit Gudjonsdottir Editors Cicek Kahraman Production designer Nadide Argun Main cast Ilker Aksum, Fatih Al, Gunes Sayin, Baki Davrak


John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men is a crashingly literal note. Too restrained to be either openly sen- timental or downright crass, the film nevertheless contains some distinctively off notes. One is a bucolic picnic, where Nihal flits around


in a diaphanous gown; the other is the moment when she earnestly asks Ender, “Write me a poem about the pain and uncertainty I’ve been through.” What red-blooded male could resist? The male leads are skilfully sketched and likea-


ble — at least until they mooch around dorkishly that bit too long. Ilker Aksum and Fatih Al are attuned to each other, interacting with pleasant ease. As Nihal, Gunes Sayan fits nicely into the tri- angle, and the three operate very comfortably with each other. But as a character in her own right, the


sweetly gauche student is a paper-thin confection and Sayan does not have the chance to do much other than impart doe-eyed vivacity. The direction by Teoman — who won several


prizes with his first film, 2008’s Summer Book — is economical and poised, and good location use is made of Ankara over the course of a year. But the film never quite finds its footing on the humour/ drama tightrope, and ultimately comes across as downbeat kitchen-sink stuff with the odd comic insight. Still, at least Nihal never gets to tell her adoptive brothers, “You guys are the best,” though it’s a near thing.


SCREEN SCORE ★★


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