Sadly Over-hyped

I really don't get the hype.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

For a long time after 1980, there has been a violent supression on the people of my suffering country. The governments which came after the military period all ruled my country as their successors. They were brutally militarist and fascist. The director of the movie is a director who has been sent to prison and been tortured on that evil period just because he had socialist ideals. They have been hunt down and slaughtered in the very dark corners and 3000 people haven't been found. A little Pinochet is the general who arrives the city at the end of the movie. The ignorant young people who believed that they were socialists but were only a band of stupid idealists were shown to be responsible of killings and massacres. This movie is a very good movie which tells the truth from a very far corner. Maybe because director is still afraid that he will face the same tortures again. But still he wants you to see who they were in fact. They were young men and women, 18-30 years old, grown up in the 60s and 70s with the belief that one man can change the whole world. All they did was listening to the communist international (turkish translation: beynelmilel), speak stupidly of how the world should be. That's a very sad story told in a very touching way. You laugh all through the movie but in the end there is a big fist in your throat which maybe for generations we will not be able to swallow. Thank you for a great movie like this.

One of the best Turkish movies that I watched in years! It is certainly in the class of great Italian movies; the script, acting, cinematography, and the music are all great! This movie tells the story of an era in Turkish political history full of military oppression, violence, prosecution, and ignorance in a satirical way. The choice of the song "International" as the theme music in the movie is smart and wonderful!I have only one criticism about the script and that's why I did not give a perfect score: the events in the last 5 minutes of the movie have evolved very quickly and ended in an unusually dramatic way, which made me think if there were financial reasons for ending the film so abruptly. Otherwise, it had the potential to win prestigious international awards. Congratulations to the crew who produced such a great movie with a small budget!

What a wonderful movie, showing us many aspects of life in Eastern Turkey and the oppressing role of the army, in a very subtle,ironic way. One of the first scenes: A band of street musicians, are setting up their trade now forbidden by the army, in a truck, near the local graveyard in outer-Turkey. An army platoon, set on their trail, prepares to attack, rifles aimed at the back of the truck. Very slowly, the back flap is lifted and we see .... a young man, dressed up as a belly dancer and a band of musicians playing. Such ironic contrasts work through the whole movie: The band leader hears by coincidence the Internationale, thru the love of his daughter for a young die-hard communist and thinks it is THE music to be played for a military audience, not having a clue about it's origins. However, the real tone of the story is rather sad and moving: The hard life of the musicians, trying to make a living, the mother- and wife-less home of the band leader, who lost both in childbirth. And the abrupt end, which we cannot elaborate here, thanks to spoiler policy .... Every European and US-citizen should go see this movie, since it seems to give a realistic picture of Turkey even now. The army is still in power. I do hope this movie will have a wide distribution in Turkey proper. Will it?

Beynelmilel Amsterdam has a large Turkish population and this was my first Turkish movie of life. I went to see this movie because I read good review of this movie.The story is in a small town in Turkey in 1982 where the local military head hires a musical troupe to play for the arrival of their chief. The lead maestro's young daughter and her lover boy are influenced by communism movement. One day on hearing a communist song being secretly played by the daughter the musician assume it as an international song (thus the name of the movie) and composes a musical piece for the arrival of military chief. It is only during the last performance that everybody realizes the performance is of a communist song. The movie is a light arty comedy with a simple love story woven in it. But the ending of the movie is sad.Cezmi Baskin as the musician has played his role with ease, his daughter's role is played by beautiful Ozgu Namal; her lover's role is played by Umut Kurt. There are lots of other character actors who have all played their role nicely.This is the first directoral debut for Muharrem Gulmez. He has given a simple, light hearted approach to the serious topic, and it is there within his low budget parameters he excels to keep things real and enjoyable.I am from India and I do not understand Turkish, but seeing the movie reminded me of the 1970's era of Indian movie where there were many art movies made on the backdrop of communist movement.Just a trivia –There were 9 Turkish ladies who had come to see this movie and I think this was also the first movie of my life when I was the only male in the audience.(Stars 7 out of 10)