"Sumela'nın Şifresi: Temel" tells the story of Temel (Alper Kul), a modern Keloğlan in today's Trabzon (city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey. Like the iconic Keloğlan who is the quintessence of starry-eyed,ingenuous Anatolian man, Temel is uber-romantic, overly optimistic and naively enthusiastic. The only goal in his simple life is to win his childhood's sweetheart's love,Zuhal (Aslihan Güner.)Even if such a story-line still appeals to modern,hopeless romantics it should be hard-work to make a decent comedy out of such histrionics. All the wisecracks Temel makes in his noble,unselfish and Spartan willingness to accept sufferings sounds so cheap and clichéd. Some of them are surely aimed at the local cinema-goer and imagine a line like "I am Mel.Temel" which sounds so insulting a quip for even the average cineaste. What's more many scenes which are intended to be funny like the scenes shot in a mosque are not related to plot at all and they do sound like poorly interconnected sketches. The local imam who is an aficionado of the local football club (Salih Kalyon),Anastasiya Pavelyeva as the voluptuous callipygous Russian hooker,kolbastı (popular traditional Black Sea dance) and sights of Trabzon like the Sumela Monastery will surely appeal to those who love screwball comedies but if you do expect more than that-a better storyline,more convincing plot, memorable dialogue and lively acting-- you will be disappointed.
