Okay, I don't say this often... but this movie was effing great. Awesome piece of cinema. The plot drew me in, I fed off the characters, rose and fell with every one of Nejat's whims. I recommended it to my mom, even though she only likes films with Kevin Costner; I liked The Edge of Heaven that much.
With my enjoyment came a couple key questions: 1) Is that really what Istanbul is like? Kids stealing purses and shooting young women, really?, and 2) Are Germans really Good Samaritans at heart? I wonder if a German watches the movie and thinks it is unrealistic for a German girl to adopt a Turkish exile, love story aside.
As for the first point, regarding the Third World qualities of Istanbul. It is unfair to assume that Third World inhabitants are more likely to steal or harm others, but the trend typically holds that poorer cities like Istanbul are less safe for outsiders than, say, Minneapolis. And that danger is what I want to find. (Not too close, of course. Julie would/will strangle me.) When we go to Istanbul, I want to immerse myself in the seedy, cutthroat, real culture of the city. Before we see all the famous landmarks and tourist traps, I want to know where the Average Mehmet gets his lunch and plays with his kids. I would love to see what someone living in a gecekondu settlement does for entertainment -- maybe a gecekondu nightclub? Who knows?
Secondly, I would like to find out if Germans ever take Turks under their wings like the Staub family did for Ayten. Though, again, this judgment is probably too naive to be accurate, it was my understanding that the influx of Turks bothered Germans much in the same way that Mexican immigration irks many Americans. Are the Staubs just a run-of-the-mill family taking care of a Turkish girl who needs a helping hand? Or are they an exceptional pair of German ladies?
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