Gemide

Turkish film director Serdar Akar teamed-up with fellow débutante Önder Çakar for this shocking companion piece to "A Madonna in Laleli" by film school classmate Kudret Sabancı, which picked up multiple awards at film festivals in Antalya and Ankara, including the coveted Golden Orange for Second Best Film.

Captain İdris (Erkan Can) heads up the motley crew of a dredger out of Istanbul who while on a drunken shore leave one night in the city's red light district assault a gang of mobsters and kidnap a foreign prostitute to take back with them to their ship in the simple backdrop for this tense character-driven drama.

Golden Orange and Orhan Arıburnu Award-winning actor Erkan Can ("Bana Old and Wise'ı Çal") puts in a star making turn as the worn-out captain with superb support coming from the sleazy Haldun Boysan, the naive Yıldıray Şahinler, the untrustworthy Naci Taşdöğen and the strong yet vulnerable Ella Manea.

The Golden Orange and Orhan Arıburnu Award-winning freshman director, straight out of film school, breaks away from the standard idioms of Turkish cinema to show the squalid lives of these men in a somewhat stylised but highly original way which marks him out as a filmmaker to watch out for in the future.

"Anyway, where were we?"

I always complain about the language of Turkish movies. You can see a street punk or a bad gangster speaking with a perfect language. No slang, no bad language. So none of this movies could reflect the characters. In the latest movies this was overcome. But this movie is reflecting the characters perfect. Everything is as it should be. Besides, the acting and the story is very good for a low budget movie. I didn't know that Erkan Can was such a good actor before I saw this movie. Especially the marijuana scenes are perfect and funny as hell. It's said and confirmed that they were really high during the making of these scenes. The story is original also. Four randy, junkie and accidentally murderer sailors and a virgin prostitute in a sand ship. You think what will happen.

I strongly recommend this movie to especially Turkish young. You can learn some creative curses like "Elephants are f..king in my head" or "Bears are screaming in my ass"

And some facts about the movie:

Some scenes in this movie were used in another movie:"Laleli'de Bir Azize" (A Saint in Laleli). For example in the the bar scene, the man who walks in front of the bar is starring and the woman who enters the bar is a walk on. But in "Laleli'de Bir Azize", the same location and time but with another camera, the woman who enters the bar is starring and the man who walks in front of the bar is a walk on.

The movie was made before the Kocaeli earthquake on August 17th. In a scene the captain says "The buildings made with the sand we collect from the sea will return to the sea" In the earthquake, the buildings made with sea sand in Kocaeli was buried into the sea. And the movie was aired on television for the first time at the night of the earthquake. :? Interesting

I watched the film yesterday at home, 8 years later. Firstly, there are too many bad words, about in every sentences. The start is not very good, but it is alright. It is an interesting story, later we learn in the film. The development of the movie is good, but there are too many unnecessary and boring scenes, such as collecting sand from the sea. The end of the film was terrible; is the famous gemide movie this, we said after the film. And about 8 years later, a new film of Serdar Akar,Barda release. Barda is also consists of slang language, it must be Akar's choice. But it does add no art to film. Erkan Can's performance is the best thing in this movie.

First of all, Green Pine (Yeþilçam) is what Turkish cinema sector is referred to in Turkey. Like Hollywood of the U.S. Yeþilçam is actually the name of a street in Istanbul where actors and actresses used to hang out.

About the movie, it's an extreme example of Turkish cinema. The language it uses somewhat loses its strength when translated, but it's still interesting as far as its style is concerned. It has some grotesque scenes, and slightly exaggerated street language. The casting is absolutely awesome, and the story is not too much exaggerated except for the kidnapped girl being a virgin at that age. It reflects some aspects of the life in Turkey, but mostly the darker stuff. It does make the viewer feel like he's actually spent time with those people on board. It will probably be shown in Istanbul International Film Festival for a few more years, so follow. Very good for those who are bored of American movies which feel like buns baked in the same bakery.