Tabutta rövasata
Turkey,
1996, 76 min
Shown in 1998
CREDITS
- dir
-
Dervis Zaim
- prod
-
Ezel Akay, Dervis Zaim
- scr
-
Dervis Zaim
- cam
-
Mustafa Kusçu
- editor
-
Mustafa Presheva
- cast
-
Ahmet Ugurlu, Tuncel Kurtiz, Aysen Aydemir, Serif Erol, Fuat Onan, Ahmet Çadirci
- source
-
TFR, Eski Büyükolere Caol. No. 75, 80 670 Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey. FAX: 90-212-276-6276. WORLD SALES- Keriman Ulusoy, 4, rue de Veribois, 75003 Paris, France. FAX: 33-1-48-87-35-87
-
COMMENTS
Skyy Prize winner. Dervis Zaim in person.
OTHER
“We have a lot to be sad and harsh about in Turkey, but it usually doesn’t come through in our films,” says director Dervis Zaim. Yet with a mere $15,000 budget, Zaim has made that harshness come through loud and clear in this engrossing feature debut. Veteran Turkish stage actor Ahmet Ugurlu makes an unusual foray into film (for no fee, no less) to portray a homeless alcoholic named Mahsun. To find shelter from Istanbul’s freezing nights requires creativity and audacity, but Mahsun’s methods—he’s a master car thief—usually result in fierce beatings from police, who are reluctant to send him to jail since he steals from wardens as well. Scrounging meals is another challenge: Mahsun abducts of one of 50 prize peacocks displayed to the public in a local castle. The bird seems at first a chance for companionship for Mahsun, and then, alas, more basic needs prevail: He roasts the stolen bird for dinner. Eventually, to compensate for nearly 500 cups of unpaid-for tea, Mahsun is given a job cleaning toilets in a coffee house and a bed to sleep in upstairs, but his attraction to Fulya, a heroin-addicted prostitute, threatens even this modicum of salvation. The hapless Mahsun never succeeds in escaping from his own bad habits—but in his resistance and his survival there’s a comment about the society that condemns him. With its gritty neorealist theme and visual style, Somersault in a Coffin is an unflinching look at the dregs of Istanbul’s underclass that successfully blends poignant drama with black humor.
FACTOID #188
According to an item in the 1969 Halloween edition of the Hollywood Reporter, Swedish director Bo Widerberg cancelled a Festival tribute at the last minute with a cryptic telegram from Stockholm that read, ’Sorry impossible to come. Must stay in bed.’
