Yeşilçam Nostalgic

Takes (889)

• Miracle in Cell No. 7 (7. Koğuştaki Mucize)

  Anyone raised on Yeşilçam's tearful father-and-child stories will find this instantly familiar. An innocent man wronged, a little girl's… Read more →

• Among Family (Aile Arasında)

  Aile Arasında feels like a present-day take on the old-fashioned comedy of misunderstandings. A man who simply can't lie forced to play the… Read more →

• Wedding Feast 2: Circumcision (Düğün Dernek 2: Sünnet)

  A circumcision feast, a commotion that sweeps up the whole city, an affair everyone has a hand in... The premise recalls the family… Read more →

• Ezel

  Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo is a novel of loyalty and betrayal read across generations, and Ezel boldly brings this classic… Read more →

• Hababam Class (Hababam Sınıfı)

  Hababam Sınıfı is a shared memory not of one generation but of several. Münir Özkul's Mahmut Hoca remains a matchless portrait of a teacher… Read more →

• Alone (Issız Adam)

  Issız Adam is one of the rare films that rebuilds the longing for Yeşilçam's love stories in present-day Beyoğlu. Its nods to classics such… Read more →

• Kardeşim Benim 1 (My Brother)

  Estranged brothers brought back side by side by a funeral and then a will: it's a modern take on the family-reconciliation stories Yeşilçam… Read more →

• Polite Feyzo (Kibar Feyzo)

  Kemal Sunal, Şener Şen, Adile Naşit, İlyas Salman, Müjde Ar... Just seeing this cast together brings back Yeşilçam's most fruitful years.… Read more →

• Müslüm

  For a generation that grew older to arabesque's aching voice, Müslüm feels like a debt of gratitude paid on the big screen. It tells Müslüm… Read more →

• The Girl with the Red Scarf (Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım)

  Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım is a film that asks what love really is, and it asks without raising its voice, with great delicacy. Türkan… Read more →

• The Fall of Leaves (Yaprak Dökümü)

  For anyone who has read Reşat Nuri Güntekin's Yaprak Dökümü, this series is a fine example of how a novel can live again on screen. A… Read more →

• Dad's Money (Baba Parası)

  Siblings who never knew about each other, chasing an inheritance... The subject recalls the sweet chaos of the old family comedies. Baba… Read more →

• Dance with the Jackals 4 (Çakallarla Dans 4)

  Four friends forced to share a home because money is tight carry the sense of solidarity the old neighbourhood films loved. The vague map… Read more →

• Dance with the Jackals 5 (Çakallarla Dans 5)

  A series that still draws this many viewers by its fifth instalment has clearly won a place in people's hearts; well over 1.4 million… Read more →

• Music and Dance, the Two of Us (Çalgı Çengi İkimiz)

  Wedding musicians are a world Turkish comedy has always loved; plenty of warm stories have grown out of dance tunes and dreams of fame.… Read more →

• Staged Murder (Cinayet Süsü)

  Seeing Uğur Yücel, Cengiz Bozkurt and Binnur Kaya on the same team will please any viewer who values fine acting. This floundering… Read more →

• Grandpa's Plug (Dedemin Fişi)

  A grandfather, a grandson and a crowded family chasing an inheritance... The premise recalls the warmth of the old family comedies. The… Read more →

• Delibal

  Delibal is a modern-day relative of Yeşilçam's tearful love stories. The passionate love of two students at the same university, a marriage… Read more →

• Sour Apples (Ekşi Elmalar)

  A stern father, an orchard the whole town envies and three daughters of marrying age: Ekşi Elmalar has the familiar warmth of Yeşilçam's… Read more →

• 61 Days (İftarlık Gazoz)

  An Aegean town in the early 1970s, a boy apprenticed to a soda maker, and a fast kept secret from his family... İftarlık Gazoz is a… Read more →

• For the Two of Us (İkimizin Yerine)

  A young woman hemmed in by provincial life, a mysterious literature teacher newly arrived in town, and a forbidden love neither can resist… Read more →

• What Happened, Happened (Olanlar Oldu)

  A seaside town on the Aegean, a captain fussing over his boat and a mother determined to marry off her son... Olanlar Oldu feels like the… Read more →

• Cingoz Recai (Cingöz Recai: Bir Efsanenin Dönüşü)

  The benevolent thief created by Peyami Safa is one of the beloved characters of our literature. This third screen adaptation feels like an… Read more →

• If She Returns, She's Yours (Dönerse Senindir)

  I look for the warmth of our old romantic comedies in this film and partly find it. Mehmet's effort to win back the woman he loves is… Read more →

• Second Chance (İkinci Şans)

  The way Yasemin and Cemal meet, in a quarrel, recalls the old Yeşilçam romances built on opposites attracting. A mathematics teacher and… Read more →

• Red Istanbul (İstanbul Kırmızısı)

  A writer returning to Istanbul to face his past, a director who vanishes and a truth that does not fit into books. I like films where… Read more →

• Losers' Club on the Road (Kaybedenler Kulübü Yolda)

  Returning to the story of the two radio friends is a kind of reunion for those who loved them. A film that blends comedy and drama and… Read more →

• Kayhan

  Bringing a television sketch character to the big screen takes nerve, but the cinema asks for a longer breath, and one idea alone is hard… Read more →

• Precious Life (Nadide Hayat)

  A woman holding on to life again after losing her husband suits Çağan Irmak's tender gaze very well. Demet Akbağ's ability to carry sorrow… Read more →

• Lucky Me (Şansımı Seveyim)

  An unlucky man returns to the neighbourhood, worried neighbours, a girl and an old grievance: this material comes from the familiar world… Read more →

• Endless Love (Sonsuz Aşk)

  The love of a surgeon and a young woman content with small joys: the meeting-of-two-worlds story that Yeşilçam adored. This fairy-tale… Read more →

• Love, Surreal and Odd (Tatlım Tatlım)

  For those who saw Haybeden Gerçeküstü Aşk on stage, there is a familiar flavour here. Yılmaz Erdoğan's pen keeps the rhythm of the… Read more →

• Vizier's Finger (Vezir Parmağı)

  Seeing familiar faces like Altan Erkekli, Cezmi Baskın and Talat Bulut together recalled the richness of casts in older cinema. The… Read more →

• Fork in the Road (Yol Ayrımı)

  The partnership of Yavuz Turgul and Şener Şen is one of the most precious collaborations between masters in Turkish cinema. Turgul has cast… Read more →

• Heavy Romantic (Ağır Romantik)

  A love between young people from two different worlds, a lie and its consequences: a skeleton that recalls the rich-poor love stories of… Read more →

• The Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Ağacı)

  This story, which tests a book-loving young man's dreams against his father's debts, recalls the poor but dignified characters of the old… Read more →

• My Mother's Wound (Annemin Yarası)

  Putting the bond between mother and child and the longing for a lost home at its centre, this story comes from the vein of the old… Read more →

• My Father (Babam)

  Yusuf, whose factory is on the brink of failing, has to face the son he has never been able to accept, Arif: a warm story that recalls the… Read more →

• My Stepfather (Cici Babam)

  A mother remarrying while the children dig in their heels is just the sort of family matter Yeşilçam loved, so the premise feels familiar… Read more →

• Don't Run, Brother (Kaçma Birader)

  The youngest son runs off from Yozgat to Istanbul for the girl he loves, and his one-of-a-kind family follows: a rural-meets-urban comedy… Read more →

• The Con (Ketenpere)

  A film extra who takes small parts has a big dream, and Vefa Abi, who takes him under his wing, wants to make a film: this recalls… Read more →

• My Name Is Feridun (Benim Adım Feridun)

  A false identity, a wedding, a one-night adventure: a familiar flavour for those who love the mix-up comedies of Yeşilçam. The inconsolable… Read more →

• You Are My Everything (Sen Benim HerŞeyimsin)

  A man whose father died young has a baby left in his arms and his life takes shape around his little daughter: a warm vein, since the love… Read more →

• Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

  Yeşilçam had its own spy and adventure films; this one is a relative arriving in Hollywood's glossy packaging. The appeal of the cast, the… Read more →

• Bandits Will Not Rule the World (Eşkıya Dünyaya Hükümdar Olmaz)

  An old Istanbul neighbourhood, an unwritten code, friendship, loyalty and honour: this is the stuff neighbourhood stories love. Humour and… Read more →

• Galip Derviş

  Galip Derviş is a man in mourning who never lets go of his intelligence, and I find that human side of the series warm. The comedy is not… Read more →

• Karadayi

  A father is wrongly sent to prison and his son tries to clear the family name: honour, justice and conscience are the weighty themes our… Read more →

• Kırgın Çiçekler 1

  Stories of orphaned girls without family are a vein the old Yeşilçam films loved too, and there is real heart here. Eylül, landing in the… Read more →

• Leyla and Mecnun (Leyla ile Mecnun)

  Leyla and Mecnun is one of the best-known love stories in our literature, and rebuilding the classic with absurd humour and science-fiction… Read more →

• Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem

  Lavish sets, a crowded cast, a sweeping palace story: the fact that it was previewed at MIPCOM in Cannes and sold to more than 50 countries… Read more →

• As Time Goes By (Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki)

  1960s Istanbul, the Akarsu family and a title borrowed from an Erkin Koray song: a good start for a sad, warm melodrama. Erkan Petekkaya… Read more →

• Shattered (Paramparça)

  Swapped babies, girls raised in two different homes, a truth that comes out years later: this is the kind of story Yeşilçam loved too. The… Read more →

• Poyraz Karayel

  A man's fight to win back his lost job and his son is a story with heart. But when infiltrating the mob, the criminal world and comedy come… Read more →

• Unconscious Love (Şuursuz Aşk)

  Setting a love story in the corridors of a psychiatric hospital is a brave idea, and anyone who loves the bittersweet romances of old… Read more →

• Remember, My Dear (Hatırla Sevgili)

  A warm series that tells the kind of thwarted love story Yeşilçam adored, only at television length. The romance that begins in late-1950s… Read more →

• Life Knowledge (Hayat Bilgisi)

  Hayat Bilgisi is the story of a loving, idealistic teacher, and meeting such a heroine recalls the warm, instructive series of older days.… Read more →

• Inside (İçerde)

  To my taste, it is a rather harsh and dark world. The brothers being parted as children and meeting years later, though, recalls the theme… Read more →

• The Sea in My Heart (Kalbimdeki Deniz)

  A vanished husband, a helpless mother and a new hope crossing her path: this is a skeleton the old melodramas loved. Özge Özberk and Kutsi… Read more →

• Endless Love (Kara Sevda)

  A modest mining engineer and the painting daughter of a wealthy family: this is a modern version of the rich-poor love that Yeşilçam knew… Read more →

• Kurt Seyit and Shura (Kurt Seyit ve Şura)

  A love in the shadow of war and separation: the series, inspired by the true story of the author's grandfather, is drawn from Nermin… Read more →

• That Life Is Mine (O Hayat Benim)

  A girl taken from her mother at birth, a wealthy father's mansion, children swapped through a lie: this is the series version of the… Read more →

• Magic Carpet Ride (Organize İşler)

  Anyone looking for the warmth of Vizontele will meet a dark joke here, but Yılmaz Erdoğan's craft of making people laugh is intact. The… Read more →

• You Are My Homeland (Vatanım Sensin)

  A series that recalls the sadness and the love of country found in the old Turkish films. Told through the marriage of Cevdet and Azize… Read more →

• Ward 72 (72. Koğuş)

  Born of Orhan Kemal's impressions of Bursa Prison, this novel is a cornerstone of our literature and has long lived on the stage as well.… Read more →

• From Adana (Adanalı)

  Adanalı deals with the thin line between law and lawlessness and with the bond of brotherhood, a theme the old Turkish films loved dearly.… Read more →

• Mother (Anne)

  Motherhood, sacrifice and a child's innocence: Yeşilçam's favourite themes, this time inside a far darker story. Beren Gökyıldız plays… Read more →

• Love and Punishment (Aşk ve Ceza)

  A young woman betrayed, fate, coincidence and a new chapter opening in another town: Aşk ve Ceza brings the familiar stuff of Yeşilçam… Read more →

• Love and Blue (Aşk ve Mavi)

  A love that begins in letters... The phrase alone calls up Yeşilçam's favourite themes: patience, loyalty and a sacrifice paid for dearly.… Read more →

• Asmalı Konak

  Asmalı Konak makes the stone mansions of Cappadocia part of the story, and in that it recalls the love of place in the fine old films.… Read more →

• Hunting Season (Av Mevsimi)

  Şener Şen, Çetin Tekindor and Yavuz Turgul's pen: for an eye raised on the classics, expectations rise the moment these names come… Read more →

• My Name Is Gultepe (Benim Adım Gültepe)

  A 1980s neighbourhood, four close friends, a forbidden love and a big brother both feared and respected: Benim Adım Gültepe sets out with… Read more →

• One Thousand and One Nights (Binbir Gece)

  Binbir Gece takes its name and its spirit from Scheherazade's tales, and that alone is enough to soften a heart raised on literature. The… Read more →

• The Affairs of Our House (Bizim Evin Halleri)

  Bizim Evin Halleri feels like a link in TRT's gentle, warm tradition of family series. Love, affection, friendship and solidarity: themes… Read more →

• The Nanny (Dadı)

  Seeing seasoned names like Haldun Dormen and Kenan Işık in one cast warms the heart. Dadı may be an adaptation of an American comedy, but… Read more →

• Fathers Are the Last to Know (En Son Babalar Duyar)

  En Son Babalar Duyar is one of those series you watch as if dropping in on a large family. The daily bustle among a mother, a father, four… Read more →

• What Is Fatmagül's Crime? (Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?)

  This story has old roots: the screenplay Vedat Türkali wrote for the 1986 film directed by Süreyya Duru. An eye raised on the classics… Read more →

• Extended Family (Geniş Aile)

  Geniş Aile portrays the life of a crowded family with a light touch, almost a television continuation of the big-family comedies we know… Read more →

• Black Rose (Karagül)

  Even the name Karagül reads like a poem: it comes from the black roses that grow naturally only around Halfeti, on the banks of the… Read more →

• Rental Love (Kiralık Aşk)

  The question at the heart of Kiralık Aşk is an old and lovely one: do we choose love, or does love choose us? The distance between Defne, a… Read more →

• Kuzey Güney

  A baker's two sons, one like fire, the other like ice... Kuzey Güney carries that familiar, heart-aching air of the old brotherly dramas.… Read more →

• Where's Firuze? (Neredesin Firuze)

  A story set as the golden age of Unkapanı, of cassettes and the record business, slips away: Neredesin Firuze stirs something in anyone who… Read more →

• Tatar Ramazan

  Drawn from a novel published in 1969 and set in the years after the Second World War, this story gives us Ramazan, a town blacksmith who… Read more →

• A Long Story (Uzun Hikaye)

  Bringing Mustafa Kutlu's plain yet deep storytelling to the screen is no small task, and Osman Sınav has done it patiently and with real… Read more →

• You Name It (Adını Sen Koy)

  A union between two young people from different worlds that begins out of necessity and turns into love is one of Yeşilçam's most cherished… Read more →

• Acacia Stop (Akasya Durağı)

  Akasya Durağı revives the taxi-rank idea of Çiçek Taksi and tries to keep that old neighbourhood warmth. For a viewer devoted to Turkish… Read more →

• Arif V 216

  Travelling by time machine to the late 1960s and bringing that era's stars back to life, from Sadri Alışık and Ajda Pekkan to Zeki Müren… Read more →

• Asi

  Watching Asi brings to mind Yeşilçam's great melodramas of land, pride and family. The Antakya countryside, a farm kept going for three… Read more →

• Love Likes Coincidences (Aşk Tesadüfleri Sever)

  In flashbacks stretching from the 1970s to the 2000s, the fading pop culture and songs of those years leave a sweet melancholy throughout… Read more →

• Wren (Çalıkuşu)

  Reşat Nuri Güntekin's Çalıkuşu is a novel passed from hand to hand for generations, and Feride holds a special place in Turkish readers'… Read more →

• Ms. Dila (Dila Hanım)

  The name Dila Hanım first brings to mind the 1977 film with Türkan Şoray and Kadir İnanır. Reinterpreting this story, adapted from Necati… Read more →

• Güldür Güldür Show

  It is heart-warming to see Ali Sunal on stage, not in the shadow of the legacy left by his father Kemal Sunal but with a warmth of his own.… Read more →

• Gulperi

  Gülperi makes no secret of being inspired by Gülsüm Ana, the 1982 film starring Fatma Girik, and that will feel familiar at once to a… Read more →

• Lady's Farm (Hanımın Çiftliği)

  Seeing a novel by Orhan Kemal, one of the truest voices of our literature, on screen is a joy in itself for a viewer who prizes good… Read more →

• For Love and Honor (Kabadayı)

  The reunion of Şener Şen, Yavuz Turgul and Ömer Vargı was good news in itself for lovers of fine Turkish cinema. Kabadayı is the story of… Read more →

• Losers' Club (Kaybedenler Kulübü)

  Losers' Club is about people who can laugh even at their own loneliness finding each other around a radio show, and the idea itself is very… Read more →

• Cherry Season (Kiraz Mevsimi)

  Kiraz Mevsimi's bright, cheerful world is pleasant, but to an eye raised on the classics it feels a little too glossy and hurried. In our… Read more →

• Little Secrets (Küçük Sırlar)

  To an eye that knows Yeşilçam's rich-girl, poor-boy stories, Küçük Sırlar has a familiar vein: young people torn between money, pride and… Read more →

• Coming Soon (Pek Yakında)

  The most endearing thing about Pek Yakında is its love for old film sets, for extras and for a film dream that never got made. Zafer… Read more →

• My Magical Mother (Sihirli Annem)

  For anyone who remembers Bewitched, Sihirli Annem is an adaptation that carries the old American show into a warm, homegrown setting.… Read more →

• Foreign Groom (Yabancı Damat)

  Yabancı Damat brings the two shores of the Aegean together in a love story, and carries an old-fashioned warmth along with it. The real… Read more →

• Love is in the Air (Yer Gök Aşk)

  Two sisters, one man, a sorrowful fate and a scheming sibling... Yer Gök Aşk's story seems kneaded from the same dough as Yeşilçam's… Read more →

• My Love My Love (Aşkım Aşkım)

  A restaurant, a married couple living upstairs and a friendly rivalry in the kitchen: Aşkım Aşkım has the warmth of the old neighbourhood… Read more →

• Hold On, My Heart (Dayan Yüreğim)

  Women like Elvan, who shoulder every burden quietly and work tirelessly for their families without complaint, remind me of my favourite… Read more →

• The Life and Movies of Erşan Kuneri

  The film sets of the 1970s and 1980s are like a photo album of memories for anyone who loves Yeşilçam. Erşan Kuneri pokes fun at the… Read more →

• Giuseppe Verdi

  Telling a composer's life in the language of the tear-jerking melodrama, this 1953 Italian film feels anything but foreign to eyes raised… Read more →

• Poison Ivy (Zehirli Sarmaşık)

  A lost mother, a destroyed letter, an orphanage-raised girl preparing to slip onto a rich family's farm... Zehirli Sarmaşık is woven from… Read more →

• Mothers and Mommies (Analar ve Anneler)

  A story set in the early seventies, music by Toygar Işıklı and writing by Nazan Kesal and Berkun Oya: on paper, Analar ve Anneler was made… Read more →

• My Father and My Son (Babam ve Oğlum)

  Babam ve Oğlum is one of those rare films that bring Yeşilçam's family warmth together with a newer sensibility. Çetin Tekindor's Hüseyin… Read more →

• Telling Tales (Bana Masal Anlatma)

  Bana Masal Anlatma blends neighbourhood culture, old-fashioned melodrama and nostalgia with a fairy tale, and to an eye raised on Yeşilçam… Read more →

• Tell Me About Love (Bana Sevmeyi Anlat)

  A young mother whose baby is her only family, a man betrayed by his friends, and a dark husband casting a shadow over both their lives: the… Read more →

• Knife Edge (Bıçak Sırtı)

  Seeing Müslüm Gürses's song “Oğlum” find its way back into people's hearts through a television series is one more reminder of what music… Read more →

• I Loved a Child (Bir Çocuk Sevdim)

  The lovely daughter of a modest family and the only son of a rich one: in the golden years of Yeşilçam this story met audiences' tears… Read more →

• Our Folks (Bizimkiler)

  Bizimkiler is a warm comedy that brings an era's culture of neighbourliness to the screen through seven families sharing one apartment… Read more →

• The House You Were Born In Is Your Destiny (Doğduğun Ev Kaderindir)

  A young woman caught between fate and class is one of Yeşilçam's best-loved themes, and Doğduğun Ev Kaderindir takes up that vein again in… Read more →

• The Ferhunde Ladies (Ferhunde Hanımlar)

  Ferhunde Hanımlar is a memory of the years when television visited our homes at the same hour every day. As Türkiye's first daily serial… Read more →

• Under the Linden Trees (Ihlamurlar Altında)

  Ihlamurlar Altında tells of two young people raised in the same neighbourhood and parted by fate, and it carries the spirit of the old… Read more →

• Dark Angel (Kara Melek)

  Kara Melek is like a dark sibling of the old Yeşilçam melodramas about good versus evil. In the classic melodramas it is usually the good… Read more →

• Salvation Last Stop (Kurtuluş Son Durak)

  An apartment block, neighbours who hold on to one another, a story that makes you laugh and ache: Kurtuluş Son Durak brings the warmth of… Read more →

• Sparrow Palace (Serçe Sarayı)

  Serçe Sarayı captures the familiar warmth of the old family dramas with the story of a woman widowed young who has given all her strength… Read more →

• Fog and Night (Sis ve Gece)

  For eyes raised on the classics, Fog and Night is an unusually dark and cold world. It is the story of a man who puts his job before… Read more →

• Black Pearl (Siyah İnci)

  A young woman about to marry her fisherman fiancé, forced to marry a rich man instead; a lover who thinks he has been abandoned and sets… Read more →

• Whisper If I Forget (Unutursam Fısılda)

  Seeing Hümeyra, Işıl Yücesoy and Köksal Engür in the same film is a gift in itself for an eye raised on the classics. In Unutursam Fısılda… Read more →

• 300 Words of German (300 Worte Deutsch)

  Life abroad, brides, the struggle with a foreign language... Yeşilçam's films about emigrants told these themes through tears; here they… Read more →

• My Red Scarf (Al Yazmalım)

  Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım is a masterpiece etched into our memory by the unforgettable performances of Türkan Şoray and Kadir İnanır… Read more →

• Forbidden Love (Aşk-ı Memnu)

  For a reader raised on Halid Ziya's ornate, weighty prose, bringing the novel into the present is both a joy and a little sad. A joy… Read more →

• Father Dearest (Baba Candır)

  By centring on a working father who has lost his wife and tries to be both mother and father to his children, Baba Candır captures the warm… Read more →

• Love in Another Language (Başka Dilde Aşk)

  It has been a long while since a love story let silence say this much. Onur, who can speak but chooses not to because of the pitying looks… Read more →

• My Mother Is an Angel (Benim Annem Bir Melek)

  A big family, one apartment building, a cranky mother-in-law with a soft heart: this material is familiar from Yeşilçam's beloved family… Read more →

• The International (Beynelmilel)

  With the warmth of its small-town musicians and ordinary people, The International carries the vein of the good old Turkish films. Cezmi… Read more →

• The Endless Song (Bitmeyen Şarkı)

  A woman singing in a nightclub while searching for the child she lost, and the wealthy man from a traditional provincial family who pulls… Read more →

• My Grandfather's People (Dedemin İnsanları)

  Çağan Irmak returns to the emotional vein of Babam ve Oğlum, this time through the wound of the population exchange. Çetin Tekindor's… Read more →

• Heart Mountain (Gönül Dağı)

  Drawing on Mustafa Çiftçi's tales of steppe life, Gönül Dağı reminds me of the pure, heartfelt air of the old village films. Three cousins… Read more →

• Lovelorn (Gönül Yarası)

  When Yavuz Turgul and Şener Şen team up, you hope for the warm, melancholy storytelling you've missed since The Bandit, and Lovelorn… Read more →

• Heartbreaker (Gönülçelen)

  For anyone who loved My Fair Lady when young, Gönülçelen brings a sweet sense of familiarity. The wealthy family's musician son and the… Read more →

• Watchtower (Gözetleme Kulesi)

  Watchtower is a quiet, patient film. A man living alone at the top of a forest, a woman trying to hold on at a small roadside bus station… Read more →

• İffet

  For anyone who remembers Müjde Ar's 1982 İffet, this adaptation is both familiar and tiring. The neighbourhood, the taxi stand, the… Read more →

• The Headmen of the Neighborhood (Mahallenin Muhtarları)

  Mahallenin Muhtarları was one of those shows that brought the full warmth of a neighbourhood to the screen, with its coffee-house keeper… Read more →

• Meryem

  A pure-hearted young girl thrown by fate between two powerful people is a story we know well from the Yeşilçam melodramas. Meryem rebuilds… Read more →

• My Wonderful Life (Şahane Hayatım)

  In our old films the hero's heart was pure; troubles rained down, but they never strayed from the right path. Şebnem in Şahane Hayatım, by… Read more →

• Farewell (Veda)

  A story from Ayşe Kulin's pen, music by Zülfü Livaneli and Ferhat Livaneli, and Istanbul in the years of occupation... In the hands of the… Read more →

• Vizontele

  Vizontele tells of the first television set reaching a small town, and in doing so it recalls an innocence many of us once knew. Drawn from… Read more →

• Hüsnü the Troublemaker (Yedi Bela Hüsnü)

  Kemal Sunal's naive but good-hearted heroes are among the most endearing legacies Yeşilçam left us, and Yedi Bela Hüsnü is an enjoyable… Read more →

• I Still Have Hope (Benim Hala Umudum Var)

  A young woman of modest means is offered a chance to step in front of the camera, and her life changes along with love… This story is no… Read more →

• Wild Heart (Deli Yürek)

  Deli Yürek strikes me as one of the strongest examples of the folk-hero tradition brought to television. Yusuf Miroğlu carries the marks of… Read more →

• Turks in Space (Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam'ın Oğlu)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as the Man Who Saved the World once more brings a smile to anyone fond of the old films, and the cult love the first… Read more →

• Fatih Harbiye

  For lovers of Peyami Safa's 1931 novel, watching Fatih Harbiye in its shadow is unavoidable; the book had already been adapted once, as a… Read more →

• Gulbeyaz

  In telling of the love between the children of two feuding families, Gülbeyaz leans on that timeless theme the old storytellers loved: the… Read more →

• The Raindrop (Güle Güle)

  Seeing Metin Akpınar and Zeki Alasya together on screen again after thirteen years is a gift in itself for anyone who misses the old days.… Read more →

• Killing the Shadows (Hacivat Karagöz Neden Öldürüldü?)

  Hacivat and Karagöz are two shadows that have made generations laugh from behind the screen. Ezel Akay's film writes them a fictional… Read more →

• Hicran Street (Hicran Sokağı)

  Türkân Şoray, Hülya Koçyiğit, Cüneyt Arkın, Ayla Algan and Selda Alkor in one film — for anyone raised on Yeşilçam, the cast alone is a… Read more →

• Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul

  Hearing Müzeyyen Senar, Orhan Gencebay and Sezen Aksu in the same film is a gift in itself for anyone whose heart is full of old songs.… Read more →

• Brother's Share (Kardeş Payı)

  The worries that keep a family under one roof, squabbling siblings, a father's passion — these were familiar ingredients of Yeşilçam's… Read more →

• Koroglu

  Made by Atıf Yılmaz from Ayşe Şasa's screenplay, Köroğlu is a colourful Yeşilçam adventure that brings an epic tale of revenge to the… Read more →

• Bliss (Mutluluk)

  Zülfü Livaneli's novel, brought to the screen with Livaneli's own music, has become a film both painful and poetic. The trio of Özgü Namal… Read more →

• Orpheus (Orphée)

  For an eye raised on Yeşilçam, Orphée opens a very different door: instead of the warmth of our melodramas, there is the coolness of… Read more →

• The Eighties (Seksenler)

  Seksenler brings to the screen, with real affection, the memory of a neighbourhood, a handful of families and an era. Its story of… Read more →

• Water and Fire (Su ve Ateş)

  A love affair that begins on a flight between Yağmur and Kemal recalls those old-fashioned romances woven out of coincidence; anyone used… Read more →

• Yahsi Bati - The Ottoman Cowboys

  To eyes raised on the classics, the most endearing thing about Yahşi Batı is how it recalls the old comic tradition of two companions who… Read more →

• Sea of Green (Yeşil Deniz)

  Yeşil Deniz blends romantic comedy with drama, yet its humour never turns loud, and that recalls the gentle, neighbourly warmth of the old… Read more →

• Rich Girl, Poor Boy (Zengin Kız Fakir Oğlan)

  The rich girl and the poor boy is one of Yeşilçam's best-loved patterns, and this series rebuilds it in the spirit of a modern Keloğlan… Read more →

• Bitter Life (Acı Hayat)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Filiz Akın in the same frame is like reliving one of Yeşilçam's warmest memories. Acı Hayat follows a chance… Read more →

• Arabesque (Arabesk)

  Being Ertem Eğilmez's last film gives Arabesk a meaning that tugs at the heart as you watch. Şener Şen and Müjde Ar's star-crossed lovers… Read more →

• Soul Kitchen

  To eyes raised on the classics, this film stands quite far from the Turkish cinema we know. Still, its story of people gathering around one… Read more →

• A Small September Affair (Bi Küçük Eylül Meselesi)

  Bi Küçük Eylül Meselesi is a love story that even names itself with endearing lightness, and it opened on Valentine's Day. A young woman… Read more →

• Let This Be the Last Time (Bu Son Olsun)

  Bu Son Olsun brings back a figure Yeşilçam loved: poor, alone in the world, but good-hearted people of the street. Of five friends whose… Read more →

• Fighting Killer

  For a viewer with a soft spot for the co-produced adventure films of the seventies, Dört Hergele carries the spirit of its era. Erol Taş… Read more →

• From Lips to Heart (Dudaktan Kalbe)

  Reşat Nuri Güntekin's 1923 novel had been brought to the screen several times before; this series is the fifth adaptation. For a lover of… Read more →

• Wedding Feast (Düğün Dernek)

  Seeing the warm bustle of an Anatolian wedding in Düğün Dernek makes one smile: the village square, friends rushing to help, a father who… Read more →

• Topsy-Turvy World (Düttürü Dünya)

  For those who remember Kemal Sunal only for the laughter, Düttürü Dünya is a small surprise. In this Zeki Ökten film, Sunal brings a… Read more →

• Fadime

  Seeing Filiz Akın and Kartal Tibet in the same frame is like stepping back into Yeşilçam's sparkling years. Fadik, a poor but proud girl… Read more →

• Gülcemal

  It is hard not to see the familiar Yeşilçam melodrama vein in Gülcemal's story: a child abandoned by his mother, resentment stored up for… Read more →

• Hatred (Kin)

  Kin puts before us once again one of Cüneyt Arkın's most familiar guises: the wounded man bent on revenge. Written and directed by Natuk… Read more →

• Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu)

  For a reader raised on literature, Winter Sleep wins one over from the start by bringing together a Chekhov story and a thread from The… Read more →

• The Blue-Eyed Giant (Mavi Gözlü Dev)

  For anyone who grew up on Nâzım Hikmet's poetry, even the title warms the heart; taking it from the poem "The Blue-Eyed Giant, the Tiny… Read more →

• Melikshah

  For fans of Cüneyt Arkın's historical adventures, Melikşah is a showy example, shot in colour and CinemaScope. The young villager Ali's… Read more →

• The Ambassador's Daughter (Sefirin Kızı)

  Sefirin Kızı starts from a pure Yeşilçam fable: an ambassador's daughter and a boy from a poor family, a childhood love that begins in… Read more →

• Your Story (Senin Hikayen)

  Senin Hikayen retells, in today's language, the old themes Yeşilçam loved: family, marriage and love across generations. A mother… Read more →

• Supermen

  The strange, daring air of the late-seventies Turkish-Italian co-productions is on full display in Süpermenler. Travelling back to the last… Read more →

• The Bride (La novia)

  Lorca's Blood Wedding is a heavy, beautiful tragedy that anyone whose path has crossed literature keeps tucked away somewhere. The Bride… Read more →

• Vavien

  To an eye raised on the classics, Vavien's dark humour may feel a little cold at first; its hero's secret schemes and escapades do not… Read more →

• Vizontele Tuuba

  For eyes raised on Yeşilçam, seeing Tarık Akan as a librarian exiled to a small town is a gift in itself. Drawing on his childhood… Read more →

• Bitter Life (Acı Hayat)

  Hearing that the 1962 film Acı Hayat had been adapted for television makes the heart flutter a little; the story of a poor but dignified… Read more →

• Voyage of the Scorpion (Akrebin Yolculuğu)

  Finding Tuncel Kurtiz, Mehmet Aslantuğ and Attila Özdemiroğlu's music in the same film is like opening a letter from an old friend. Yet… Read more →

• Scorpion's Nest (Akrep Yuvası)

  A 1977 film with Cüneyt Arkın as a police chief and music by Orhan Gencebay; those two alone are enough to bring back the atmosphere of the… Read more →

• Dance with the Jackals 3 (Çakallarla Dans 3: Sıfır Sıkıntı)

  Four former convicts rallying for a friend's happiness is, at heart, a story of friendship and sacrifice of the kind Yeşilçam loved. The… Read more →

• Cemil

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as an honest commissioner chasing justice is a return to Yeşilçam's world, where good and evil are divided by clear… Read more →

• Clash of Civilization Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio)

  Films about the residents of one building, their small quarrels and their intertwined lives always feel warm to me, and this Italian comedy… Read more →

• Lightning Struck the House (Eve Düşen Yıldırım)

  Eve Düşen Yıldırım is adapted from Nahit Sırrı Örik's 1936 novel, and to my mind seeing one of our underappreciated masters of literature… Read more →

• Eyes Like the Black Sea (Gözleri KaraDeniz)

  A young man loses the woman he believed was his mother and learns he is the missing heir of one of Turkey's most powerful families... The… Read more →

• The Chaos Class in the Military (Hababam Sınıfı Askerde)

  For anyone raised on the classics, Hababam Sınıfı, born of Rıfat Ilgaz's work, stands for the affection hidden behind mischief and the warm… Read more →

• Second Spring (İkinci Bahar)

  Bringing Türkân Şoray and Şener Şen together in one story is a gift in itself for anyone raised on Yeşilçam. İkinci Bahar handles a love… Read more →

• Perfidious Byzantium (Kahpe Bizans)

  Kahpe Bizans is a parody of the kitsch historical Yeşilçam films of the 1970s, and for an eye raised on them, catching the references is a… Read more →

• Trouble on Wheels (Kara Bela)

  A man who has always lived by the rules discovering friendship and the joy of life on the road is just the kind of warm idea our old films… Read more →

• Kara Murat vs. Sheikh Gaffar (Kara Murat Şeyh Gaffar'a Karşı)

  The Kara Murat films are among the emblems of the years when Cüneyt Arkın became a hero to a whole generation. Rahmi Turan's comic-book… Read more →

• Memoirs of a French Whore (La Dérobade)

  This is a French drama from the late seventies that leans on social realism. Bringing together strong performers of the period such as… Read more →

• Romantic Comedy (Romantik Komedi)

  In Yeşilçam's romantic comedies, love blossomed in the warmth of the neighbourhood and the family; here instead we get advertising… Read more →

• Let's Meet at Dawn (Şafakta Buluşalım)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Gülşen Bubikoğlu on the same poster carries a warmth that recalls the cinemas of the seventies. While telling the… Read more →

• Signora Enrica (Sinyora Enrica ile İtalyan Olmak)

  Seeing Claudia Cardinale in a Turkish film, as a woman who kept her door closed to men for years, is a pleasure in itself. Signora Enrica… Read more →

• Black and White (Siyah Beyaz)

  People worn down by life but still loyal to their ideals, gathering in an Ankara bar: a story like this recalls the warmth of the good old… Read more →

• In July (Im Juli)

  A fairy-tale plot Yeşilçam loved turns up in a very different geography: a street vendor's prophecy, a heart pledged to the wrong person… Read more →

• Keep Your Word (Tut Sözünü)

  A story of two friends who could hardly be less alike is one of the favourite themes of our old films; here, the friendship carrying on… Read more →

• Inside (Yeraltı)

  For anyone who has read Dostoevsky, moving Notes from Underground to Ankara is an intriguing experiment. But an eye raised on the classics… Read more →

• Berdel

  Seeing Türkan Şoray and Tarık Akan in the same film is always a small celebration for anyone raised on Yeşilçam. But Berdel carries not the… Read more →

• Five Hot Women

  Casting Cüneyt Arkın as a journalist and Hülya Darcan as an Interpol agent in the same adventure, this 1968 picture is a curious keepsake… Read more →

• These Are Very Nice Moves (Çok Güzel Hareketler Bunlar)

  Seeing a comic tradition move from the stage to television is a pleasure for anyone fond of the old comedy troupes. Performers writing and… Read more →

• Who Breaks... Pays (Domatesler Silahlar)

  A curious example that recalls the mid-seventies, when foreign co-productions were drawing attention in Yeşilçam. Seeing Muzaffer Tema and… Read more →

• Going: My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek: My Marlon And Brando)

  Two lovers kept apart by borders is a story Yeşilçam loved too, but Gitmek tells it not with the tears of the old melodramas but in a… Read more →

• Mive-ye gonah (Hak Yolu)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as Ali, an honest engineer wrongly accused who clears his name, is like returning to Yeşilçam's familiar, much-loved… Read more →

• The Encounter (Karşılaşma)

  Knowing it is Ömer Kavur's farewell film lends Karşılaşma a particular sadness as you watch. The meeting of a father who has lost his son… Read more →

• Kefaret

  Said to be adapted from Zülfü Livaneli's novel Konstantiniyye Oteli, Kefaret makes a start that will appeal to anyone looking for a story… Read more →

• My Daughter (Kızım)

  A hardened man softening before a child's pure goodness is one of Yeşilçam's favourite stories, and Kızım retells that theme in today's… Read more →

• The Princess's Sleep (Prensesin Uykusu)

  A fairy tale born of a song: Çağan Irmak starts from Redd's song of the same name and opens up the life of Aziz, a quiet library clerk… Read more →

• Propaganda

  For those who know Kemal Sunal as the face that made them laugh for years, Propaganda holds a special place. It was his last film and the… Read more →

• Ratings Hamdi (Reyting Hamdi)

  Reyting Hamdi is a keepsake of television comedy from the nineties and early two-thousands. The types Hamdi Alkan played, such as Gazman… Read more →

• Memories of the Wind (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)

  A man in exile, waiting in a hut for the day he can cross the border, holding on to his past through what he writes and draws. It is a… Read more →

• Clumsy Shakir (Sakar Şakir)

  Kemal Sunal's naive but good-hearted heroes are among Yeşilçam's most endearing figures, and Sakar Şakir is an enjoyable link in that… Read more →

• Foster Siblings (Süt Kardeşler)

  Süt Kardeşler is one of the films that sum up the golden age of Yeşilçam comedy with Ertem Eğilmez's ensemble. Kemal Sunal's Şaban, Halit… Read more →

• Are We OK? (Tamam mıyız?)

  What I loved most about Yeşilçam were those simple stories of broken people holding on to one another. At heart, Are We OK? is that kind of… Read more →

• Sweet Talker (Tatlı Dillim)

  Tatlı Dillim is a heart-warming romantic comedy that gathers some of Yeşilçam's most beloved faces. As the stubborn sparring between Tarık… Read more →

• Two in the Wave (Deux de la Vague)

  To an eye raised on Yeşilçam's warm stories, the French New Wave often seems a little cool, a little too cerebral. Two in the Wave… Read more →

• Yozgat Blues

  Yozgat Blues tells of two people devoted to music, Yavuz and his student Neşe, who cannot find an audience in a new city, and it brings to… Read more →

• The Broken Landlord (Züğürt Ağa)

  Şener Şen's performance as the agha is remembered as the film's finest element, and rightly so. A proud man sliding into states that are… Read more →

• Ten to Eleven (11e 10 Kala)

  Mithat Bey, who has devoted his life to his collection and his newspaper archive, recalls the gentlemen of old Istanbul and is a character… Read more →

• A.R.O.G

  What pleases me most about A.R.O.G is its respectful nod to Sadri Alışık's Turist Ömer. Finding the trace of that endearing Yeşilçam hero… Read more →

• Anatolian Eagles (Anadolu Kartalları)

  Anadolu Kartalları is described as the second big Turkish film about aviation after the 1963 cult film Şafak Bekçileri, and the comparison… Read more →

• Beyond the Clouds (Al di là delle nuvole)

  Seeing Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau in the same cast is a gift in itself for anyone who loves the golden years of European… Read more →

• Yes Sir (Emret Komutanım)

  Memories of military service, longing for home, the brotherhood formed in the barracks: these themes have always touched Turkish audiences.… Read more →

• Heart Thief (Gönül Hırsızı)

  Gönül Hırsızı, which puts Ediz Hun and Feri Cansel in the same frame, is one of the sweet, light films of those years. The idea of a man… Read more →

• Hababam Class Failed the Class (Hababam Sınıfı Sınıfta Kaldı)

  Returning to the world Rıfat Ilgaz created feels like knocking on an old friend's door once more. Kemal Sunal, Tarık Akan, Halit Akçatepe… Read more →

• The Magician (Hokkabaz)

  At the heart of Hokkabaz lies the hurt between a father who can never bring himself to praise his son and a son who has never found his… Read more →

• Human Hunter (İnsan Avcısı)

  Anyone who knows Cüneyt Arkın will recognise his familiar bearing in İnsan Avcısı straight away: a man who will not bow to injustice and… Read more →

• Heart Wound (Kalp Yarası)

  Watching Kalp Yarası, one cannot help recalling Yeşilçam's great melodramas of family feuds and revenge. Jealousy, resentment, a young… Read more →

• L'Immortelle

  Seeing 1960s Istanbul in a black-and-white film is a feeling in itself for anyone raised on the classics, and finding Ulvi Uraz and Ayfer… Read more →

• Deadfoot (Ölürayak)

  Ölürayak, whose very title tugs at you, is about two people with no tomorrow rediscovering today. It takes the grand emotions our old… Read more →

• Antidote (Panzehir)

  What moved me most in Panzehir was seeing Cüneyt Arkın as Kara Cemal, a seventy-year-old crime boss. Watching the Yeşilçam hero on the dark… Read more →

• Pardon

  Seeing Zeki Alasya, Erol Günaydın and Bülent Kayabaş in the same cast as Ferhan Şensoy feels like a heartfelt salute to the masters of… Read more →

• Just You (Sadece Sen)

  A former boxer, a young woman who has lost her sight, and a man who must step into the ring again for love: the story brought back… Read more →

• Les Misérables

  For my generation, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is more than a novel; it is a lesson in conscience. Claude Lelouch's daring lies in moving… Read more →

• The Three Superboys Strike Again (Üç Kağıtçılar)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Gülşen Bubikoğlu in one film is always a joy for lovers of 1970s cinema. But Üç Kağıtçılar is not one of that era's… Read more →

• Vanilla and Chocolate (Vaniglia e cioccolato)

  A devoted, neglected wife leaving home to take refuge in her grandmother's quiet house: the premise brought back the familiar warmth of the… Read more →

• I Won't Mention His Name (Adını Anmayacağım)

  Seeing Hülya Koçyiğit and Cüneyt Arkın on the same screen is like opening a door onto Yeşilçam's golden years. Adını Anmayacağım carries… Read more →

• Oh, Where? (Ah Nerede)

  Named after Füsun Önal's song, Ah Nerede carries that sweet mix so typical of seventies Yeşilçam: a little romance, a little comedy and a… Read more →

• Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha (Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa)

  A black-and-white historical film, Cüneyt Gökçer as Barbarossa, Hulusi Kentmen as Turgut Reis... Just seeing these names together brings… Read more →

• My World (Benim Dünyam)

  Stories in which a teacher's patience walks a child from darkness into light carry one of cinema's oldest and purest feelings. Benim Dünyam… Read more →

• Byzantine Games (Bizans Oyunları)

  Yeşilçam comedies carried a heart even at their wildest; I looked for that heart in Bizans Oyunları and rarely found it. Mayans settling in… Read more →

• Cemo

  Seeing Türkân Şoray and Fikret Hakan in the same frame is like going back to Yeşilçam's brightest days. Working from Kemal Bilbaşar's… Read more →

• Dracula and Son (Dracula père et fils)

  Seeing Christopher Lee in the Count's cape one last time is reason enough for anyone who loves old horror films. He carries the chilling… Read more →

• The Trial (Duruşma)

  Duruşma summons the warmth of our old comedies with Melih Kibar's music, Umur Bugay's pen and a modest Istanbul neighbourhood. Meltem… Read more →

• Fantômas

  Watching Louis de Funès as Commissaire Juve is a joy that recalls laughter-filled evenings in the old picture houses. Masters who unite… Read more →

• Shirin va Farhad

  Ferhat ile Şirin pairs a love legend told for generations with Cüneyt Arkın's gallant bearing. Who could play Ferhat, the man who… Read more →

• Let's Hope So (Hadi İnşallah)

  To an eye raised on the classics, Hadi İnşallah looks like a present-day relative of our old romantic comedies. A broken-hearted girl, a… Read more →

• The Voice Inside Me (Içimdeki Ses)

  The rich girl and the poor man is one of the formulas Yeşilçam taught us to love most, and İçimdeki Ses knocks on that familiar door.… Read more →

• The Crimean (Kırımlı)

  A film inspired by a novel as painful as Cengiz Dağcı's Korkunç Yıllar is hard for any lover of literature to ignore. Kırımlı tries to tell… Read more →

• Envy (Kıskanmak)

  Simply seeing a novel by Nahid Sırrı Örik brought to the screen is a joy. For an eye raised on literature, Kıskanmak is a film where the… Read more →

• My Little Sweetheart (Küçük Sevgilim)

  Küçük Sevgilim, pairing Filiz Akın with Cüneyt Arkın, is a typical example of the Yeşilçam melodrama tradition. The love between Lale, a… Read more →

• So Be It (Öyle Olsun)

  Seeing Tarık Akan and Müjde Ar in the same frame brings back Yeşilçam's brightest years. Öyle Olsun tells that familiar, endearing story of… Read more →

• Pandora's Box (Pandora'nın Kutusu)

  Pandora'nın Kutusu speaks a very different language from the tearful family dramas of old Yeşilçam, yet at heart it tells of a familiar… Read more →

• Love, My Brother (Sev Kardeşim)

  Sev Kardeşim is a heartwarming film from Ertem Eğilmez that gathers some of Yeşilçam's best-loved faces. Hülya Koçyiğit and Tarık Akan as… Read more →

• Wildflower (Vahşi Çiçek)

  Lütfi Ömer Akad's name always brings careful storytelling to mind, and Vahşi Çiçek shows that mastery reaching into emotional drama. The… Read more →

• Yousof va Zolaykha

  The story of Joseph is one of the finest tales passed down through the generations, bringing jealousy, patience and loyalty together in one… Read more →

• Zubuk

  One of Kemal Sunal's best-known roles, and rightly so. He plays Zübük's cunning with such endearing innocence that you cannot help smiling… Read more →

• Love, Bitter (Acı Aşk)

  Mention a story about a literature teacher and you can't help expecting a film about refinement and conscience. Acı Aşk takes another road… Read more →

• The Nameless Knight (Adsız Cengaver)

  Adsız Cengaver comes from that colourful era when Yeşilçam boiled fairy tale and history in the same pot. A nameless hero standing up to… Read more →

• Love, Reason, Get Even (Aşk Mantık İntikam)

  In our old films love usually came before money; Aşk Mantık İntikam puts the calculation first. A woman who marries for sensible reasons… Read more →

• Love Resembles You (Aşk Sana Benzer)

  An Aegean fishing town, a young man struggling to keep the restaurant his family left him, a mysterious woman running from her past, and… Read more →

• Balalaika (Balalayka)

  Watching Balalayka brings a pang, because the role of Necati was first meant for Kemal Sunal, who died on the plane on his way to the… Read more →

• Cool School Camp (Çılgın Dersane Kampta)

  For an eye raised on the classics, it is a pleasant surprise to see a master like Cüneyt Arkın as a kindly school owner taking his students… Read more →

• Diamonds (Diamanti)

  Ferzan Özpetek's Diamonds, released here as Elmaslar, is a heart-warming community story of the old kind. A costume workshop in seventies… Read more →

• Breadwinner (Ekmek Teknesi)

  What I value most in Ekmek Teknesi is its language. Half-forgotten idioms, proverbs and carefully built Turkish sentences are a refinement… Read more →

• The Heart Thief (Gönül Hırsızı)

  With Hasan Kaçan both on the writing team and in the cast, Gönül Hırsızı comes close to the spirit of our old neighbourhood films thanks to… Read more →

• A Woman Is a Woman (Une femme est une femme)

  Michel Legrand's music and Anna Karina's radiant face do a heart good if it misses the colourful magic of old cinema. The story itself is… Read more →

• Kızılırmak

  Kızılırmak is a village tale from the early days of Turkish cinema, made by Muhsin Ertuğrul. That the screenplay is by Nâzım Hikmet is a… Read more →

• North Star First Love (Kuzey Yıldızı İlk Aşk)

  A village where everyone knows everyone, promises made, engagements forgotten and broken hearts: Kuzey Yıldızı İlk Aşk brings the familiar… Read more →

• Malkoçoğlu Cem Sultan

  When the names Remzi Jöntürk and Cüneyt Arkın appear side by side, anyone fond of Yeşilçam's wave of historical adventures still feels a… Read more →

• The Miracle (Mucize)

  In telling of a teacher sent to a remote village to meet children starved of school and books, Mucize recalls the idealistic-teacher… Read more →

• Jolly Life (Neşeli Hayat)

  An ordinary man who wishes no one harm and keeps out of trouble… Rıza Şenyurt is like a present-day relative of the pure-hearted heroes of… Read more →

• Peau d'Âne

  For anyone longing for a film with the flavour of a fairy tale, Donkey Skin is a sweet journey, like turning the pages of an old storybook.… Read more →

• Shabanoglu Shaban (Şabanoğlu Şaban)

  Kemal Sunal's Şaban is one of the most endearing figures in Turkish comedy, and here too his innocent good will warms the heart in spite of… Read more →

• To Each His Own Cinema (Chacun son cinéma)

  A love letter to the movie theatre: the idea alone warms a heart devoted to the big screen. Many of the shorts turn to childhood wonder, to… Read more →

• Tosun Pasha (Tosun Paşa)

  Tosun Paşa is one of those films where Arzu Film's golden company shines all at once: Kemal Sunal's innocent yet crafty Şaban, Şener Şen's… Read more →

• Man Number One Hundred (Yüz Numaralı Adam)

  Kemal Sunal's Şaban is that familiar man of the people whose innocence makes us laugh and aches a little at the same time. When this… Read more →

• Zagor

  A black-and-white Turkish Western: that alone warms an eye that loves old cinema. Nobody looked for deep drama in the home-grown cowboy… Read more →

• Hürmüz with Seven Husbands (7 Kocalı Hürmüz)

  Yedi Kocalı Hürmüz is one of the best-loved stories of the Turkish comic tradition, and taking on a role so closely tied to Ayten Gökçer on… Read more →

• Unforgiven (Affedilmeyen)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as a nightclub's favourite singer and Filiz Akın as a wealthy young woman asking for piano lessons is a sweet journey… Read more →

• The Epic of Battal Gazi (Battal Gazi Destanı)

  For anyone devoted to Cüneyt Arkın's historical films, Battal Gazi Destanı is one of the most endearing doors into that tradition. Working… Read more →

• King of Trouble (Belanın Kralı)

  Just remembering those big Yeşilçam casts, where Hulusi Kentmen, Sami Hazinses and Zeki Sezer turn up in the same film, warms the heart.… Read more →

• A Love Story (Lyubov moya, pechal moya)

  When Ferhat and Şirin passes through Nazım Hikmet's pen and meets Türkân Şoray's face, the result is a real treasure. Bir Aşk Masalı, which… Read more →

• Saturn in Opposition (Saturno contro)

  Bir Ömür Yetmez is a heart-warming film about how fragile friendship and love become in the face of separation. Ferzan Özpetek gathers a… Read more →

• Our Grand Despair (Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz)

  Our Grand Despair recalls what I love about the old films in a completely different language: friendship, loyalty, and standing by someone… Read more →

• Darling (Canikom)

  Canikom is one of those sunny, colourful Yeşilçam romantic comedies. A boat at Şile, two young people meeting by the sea, a fiancée who… Read more →

• Eagle of the Mountains (Dağların Kartalı)

  Seeing Ayhan Işık as a hard, embittered man like Kara Şehmuz is a special pleasure for anyone who loves Yeşilçam's great leading men. Built… Read more →

• Crazy Dumrul (Deli Dumrul)

  The Dede Korkut tales are among the richest treasures of Turkish folk literature, and Deli Dumrul's reckoning with the Angel of Death is a… Read more →

• Everybody Go Home (Tutti a casa)

  Tutti a casa shows the side of Italian cinema that resembles Yeşilçam at its best: a story that makes you laugh while catching at your… Read more →

• The Bride (Gelin)

  Ömer Lütfi Akad is one of the most respected masters of Turkish cinema, and Gelin is among the films that show his craft best. Hülya… Read more →

• Ghoul (Gulyabani)

  The name Gulyabani instantly calls up, for my generation, folk tales and the scary stories told at night. The film winks at the… Read more →

• Günce

  Stories of a father's devotion to his child have been one of the most heartfelt veins of our cinema ever since Yeşilçam's tearful family… Read more →

• Kara Murat: Fatih'in Fedaisi

  Kara Murat Fatih'in Fedaisi is the film in which Cüneyt Arkın first brought Kara Murat to the screen, the birthplace of one of an era's… Read more →

• Koroglu

  Köroğlu is a fine example of our early films that brought to the screen the folk hero who stands with the oppressed against a cruel lord.… Read more →

• La Scoumoune

  Seeing Jean-Paul Belmondo and Claudia Cardinale in the same cast is an invitation in itself for anyone who loves the cinema of that… Read more →

• Mahmut & Meryem (Mahmut ile Meryem)

  Two lovers from different worlds, a father who stands between them, a lover who takes to the road... Mahmut ile Meryem belongs to the… Read more →

• Mustang

  Mustang is one of the few recent films that portray the bond between sisters so sincerely. The naturalness of its five young actresses… Read more →

• Recep İvedik 2

  A grandmother's love for her grandson, her wish for him to have a job and a home, to love and be loved... The starting point of Recep… Read more →

• Fortune (Servet)

  At heart Servet rests on one of Yeşilçam's favourite themes: a girl thought to be alone in the world with a large family and great wealth… Read more →

• Water Also Burns (Su da Yanar)

  Seeing Tarık Akan here as a director turning inward while his world grows darker gives one pause; the gravity of his performance is the… Read more →

• The Goddess of Fortune (La dea fortuna)

  The Goddess of Fortune tells, in Rome, of a feeling our old films loved: the warmth of people who stand by each other without ties of… Read more →

• Poor (Yoksul)

  What I love most about Kemal Sunal is that even playing the naive, well-meaning man, he made audiences love him without begging for pity.… Read more →

• Pierrot le Fou

  To an eye used to Yeşilçam's tales of love and flight, Pierrot le Fou looks familiar at first: a lover from the past, an escape, a road… Read more →

• Davaro

  Being the last film Kemal Sunal and Şener Şen made together lends Davaro a particular poignancy. The screenplay by Yavuz Turgul, İhsan Yüce… Read more →

• Crazy Heart (Deli Gönül)

  A seaside town, a teacher everyone loves, a new music teacher at the school and a romance her father disapproves of: the set-up could have… Read more →

• The Man Who Saved the World (Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam)

  Cüneyt Arkın was the valiant hero Yeşilçam made larger than life for us, and in Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam he sets out to save the world with… Read more →

• Oh No, Oh Dear 3 (Eyyvah Eyvah 3)

  I warm at once to the story of a man who earns his bread playing the clarinet. Hüseyin playing the area's shabbiest venues at night to… Read more →

• The Remaining (Geriye Kalan)

  Yeşilçam loved a love triangle too, but in those films a glimmer of hope, a chance of forgiveness, always lingered even amid the pain.… Read more →

• Idiot Şaban (Gerzek Şaban)

  Gerzek Şaban, in which Kemal Sunal appears in a double role, is one of the endearing examples of his naive but pure-hearted little-man… Read more →

• Qeysar

  Turkish viewers will know Gheysar best through Alın Yazısı, the 1972 Turkish remake starring Cüneyt Arkın. Watching the original is like… Read more →

• Everything's Gonna Be Great (Her Şey Çok Güzel Olacak)

  Her Şey Çok Güzel Olacak is one of the rare films that manages to fit an old-fashioned story of brotherhood inside a new-generation comedy.… Read more →

• Tigers Don't Cry (Kaplanlar Ağlamaz)

  When the names Remzi Jöntürk and Cüneyt Arkın appear together, all the fervour of that era's popular cinema comes back to mind. Tigers… Read more →

• Kareteci Kiz (Karateci Kız)

  Seeing Filiz Akın in a revenge film, gun in hand, still surprises today. A father dreaming that his mute daughter will call out to him just… Read more →

• Simmer for 15 Minutes (Kısık Ateşte 15 Dakika)

  Seeing Metin Akpınar as a blind sculptor who creates works in sugar and ice is this film's most graceful surprise. It is a pleasure to… Read more →

• Kolpaçino: Bomba

  Kolpaçino: Bomba is a sequel directed by and starring Şafak Sezer, bringing back most of the first film's cast. Reaching more than 736,000… Read more →

• Cosmos (Kosmos)

  Kosmos has the familiar air of old folk tales: a stranger arrives weeping from afar, saves a boy from drowning in the river, and the town… Read more →

• The Cousins (Les Cousins)

  The naive young man arriving from the provinces is a figure our literature and Yeşilçam know well, and Les Cousins carries that familiar… Read more →

• The Masked Gang: Iraq (Maskeli Beşler: Irak)

  Yeşilçam's comedies always had a heart, a warmth of friendship beneath the clumsiness; in Maskeli Beşler: Irak I looked for that warmth and… Read more →

• Death Mission (Ölüm Görevi)

  That familiar late-seventies texture: Cüneyt Arkın, Perihan Savaş opposite him, and seasoned faces such as Eşref Kolçak, Turgut Özatay and… Read more →

• Safe and Sound (Sağ Salim)

  A battered pickup hauling goods from village to town, a naive but good-hearted villager, a headman's request that cannot be refused... Sağ… Read more →

• Half in Jest (Şaka ile Karışık)

  Sadri Alışık's Ofsayt Osman is one of Yeşilçam's most lovable drifters, and Şaka ile Karışık brings out his honesty and generosity of heart… Read more →

• Sugar Pastry (Şekerpare)

  Şekerpare brings together the golden generation of Turkish comedy: Atıf Yılmaz directing, a Yavuz Turgul script, Ertem Eğilmez producing… Read more →

• What's Left of You (Senden Bana Kalan)

  A young man who goes to a village for an inheritance and finds his childhood, his past and love instead... The story reminded me of those… Read more →

• The Genial Bandit (Sevimli Haydut)

  Seeing Ayhan Işık and Türkân Şoray in the same frame is like a door opening onto Yeşilçam's golden years. Osman, whom villagers call the… Read more →

• Ruby-Eyed Cat (Yakut Gözlü Kedi)

  Yakut Gözlü Kedi is a charming film with the flavour of the black-and-white Turkish crime picture. Adapted from Ümit Deniz's novel, it… Read more →

• Abuzer Kadayıf

  Watching Metin Akpınar as both a respected lecturer and a famous singer in the same film is a feast for anyone who admires his craft. At… Read more →

• My Bee, My Honey, My Honeycomb (Arım, Balım, Peteğim)

  Türkan Şoray, Cüneyt Arkın and Münir Özkul in one film: that trio alone is invitation enough for anyone who misses Yeşilçam's golden years.… Read more →

• The Three Superboys in the Snow (Babanın Evlatları)

  Seeing Tarık Akan and Öztürk Serengil in one film is a fond memory for anyone who loves Yeşilçam comedies of the seventies. Disguises… Read more →

• The Mystery of Beyoğlu (Beyoğlu Esrarı)

  İzzet Günay's honest cabbie Osman is one of the most endearing examples of Yeşilçam's good-hearted hero. As he tries to clear his name… Read more →

• A Bunch Of Violets (Bir Demet Menekşe)

  Selim İleri's pen, Zeki Ökten's direction and Hale Soygazi's fragile Nesrin: a rare meeting for anyone who loves Yeşilçam melodrama. The… Read more →

• Piano Girl (Deli Deli Olma)

  Knowing this is the last film Tarık Akan appeared in lends the viewing a sorrow all its own. To see Yeşilçam's handsome leading man as old… Read more →

• Elena and Her Men (Elena et les Hommes)

  Seeing Ingrid Bergman on screen is always a small celebration for lovers of old cinema. The glow is here too: in Belle Époque Paris, a… Read more →

• Manly (Erkekçe)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as Gırgır Ali, in a film that leans towards comedy and slapstick, is a curiosity in itself, and Ali Şen's Beybaba… Read more →

• Il disco volante

  To an eye raised on the classics, one actor bringing several characters to life in a single film is always a test of mastery. Here Alberto… Read more →

• First Kiss (İlk Öpücük)

  A girl who cannot hold on to new memories and a young man trying to make her fall for him again every day... How well that story would have… Read more →

• My Dark-Eyed One (Kara Gözlüm)

  As the first film to put Türkân Şoray and Kadir İnanır in the same frame, this one is a keepsake in itself for eyes raised on the classics.… Read more →

• Fearless Coward (Korkusuz Korkak)

  The film in which Kemal Sunal stepped out of the İnek Şaban mould is remembered as a turning point in his career, and with good reason.… Read more →

• Yumurcak Küçük Kovboy

  The film has that peculiar flavour of a seventies co-production: an Italian director, a dusty Wild West set, and our own Cüneyt Arkın in… Read more →

• The Blue Exile (Mavi Sürgün)

  For anyone who grew up reading the Fisherman of Halicarnassus, The Blue Exile is a sweet reunion. Shooting in Bodrum, the town so bound up… Read more →

• Nihavend Miracle (Nihavend Mucize)

  Seeing Türkân Şoray as a mother who returns to her son's life twenty-five years after her death is a heart-warming idea. Atıf Yılmaz… Read more →

• Murderous City (Öldüren Şehir)

  A film signed by Ömer Lütfi Akad that brings Ayhan Işık and Belgin Doruk together, it carries the air of the years when Turkish cinema was… Read more →

• There (Orada)

  Seeing a master like Erol Günaydın in a story of loss and reckoning moves anyone fond of him, and Füsun Erbulak's name adds a familiar… Read more →

• King of Hearts

  That its main song was re-recorded in Turkey by Emel Sayın says plenty about how far this film's feeling travelled. Fardin stands both… Read more →

• The Pursuit (Takip)

  Cüneyt Arkın, Fikret Hakan, Eşref Kolçak... A cast like this brings a whole era of Yeşilçam back before your eyes. Takip brings those… Read more →

• Testament of Orpheus (Le Testament d'Orphée)

  Seeing Jean Marais and Maria Casarès again brings a sweet melancholy to anyone who loves old French cinema. Cocteau is writer, director and… Read more →

• The Sleeping Car Murders (Compartiment tueurs)

  Seeing great names like Simone Signoret and Yves Montand in the same cast is a pleasure in itself for lovers of older cinema. An… Read more →

• The Lame Man (Topal)

  Topal belongs to Yeşilçam's line of outlaw films: Müslüm, known for his courage, runs away with his beloved Zühre rather than let another… Read more →

• Unforgettable (Unutulmayanlar)

  Remzi Jöntürk's film stands out for bringing Yeşilçam's well-known male stars together in one cast: Cüneyt Arkın, Fikret Hakan, Eşref… Read more →

• As Abdulhamid Falls (Abdülhamid Düşerken)

  Seeing Halil Ergün and Tarık Akan in the same period film is a special pleasure for anyone who knows how the old masters fill a scene. Its… Read more →

• The Vow (Adak)

  Seeing Tarık Akan and Necla Nazır in the same film is like opening a Yeşilçam album from the late seventies. Bearing Atıf Yılmaz's… Read more →

• Americans in the Black Sea 2 (Amerikalılar Karadeniz'de 2)

  With Kartal Tibet directing and Metin Akpınar, Müşfik Kenter and Müslüm Gürses in the cast, this is an invitation in itself for anyone who… Read more →

• The Lords' Wedding Is Something Else (Başka Olur Ağaların Düğünü)

  A television adaptation of a story from the pen of Kemal Bilbaşar feels like a keepsake from that fine era when TRT leaned on literature.… Read more →

• Five Rascals (Beş Hergele)

  Seeing Erol Taş, Behçet Nacar and Tamer Yiğit in one film is a pleasure in itself for anyone fond of Yeşilçam's crowded, colourful… Read more →

• Blood for a Silver Dollar (Un dollaro bucato)

  A fate that turns brother against brother is the most human thing about this film. It may be a hard, dusty western, but brotherhood and… Read more →

• Crazy Bediş (Çılgın Bediş)

  Çılgın Bediş grew out of the endearing character Özden Öğrük created for Gırgır magazine, and that origin alone makes it precious to a… Read more →

• Fear Over the City (Peur sur la ville)

  Belmondo was one of those old-school stars who filled the screen with sheer charisma. Fear Over the City is one of the films that shows… Read more →

• Beloved in the Skies (Göklerdeki Sevgili)

  Pairing Cüneyt Arkın and Selda Alkor as an air force lieutenant and a potter's daughter, Göklerdeki Sevgili has every ingredient of… Read more →

• The Chaos Class Is Fretting Over (Hababam Sınıfı Dokuz Doğuruyor)

  The fifth Hababam Sınıfı film carries a bittersweet air of farewell for anyone who loves the series. There is no İnek Şaban, no trio of… Read more →

• The Law of the Border (Hudutların Kanunu)

  Say Yeşilçam and most of us think of love stories first; Hudutların Kanunu shows another, much harsher face of those years. Where Akad's… Read more →

• Istanbul Nights (İstanbul Geceleri)

  Its poster promised a "Turkish film that will not make you cry", and it keeps that promise, leaving a gentle smile. The real treasure is… Read more →

• The Conquest of Constantinople (İstanbul'un Fethi)

  İstanbul'un Fethi still carries the excitement of a beginning. Made in 1951 for several times the usual budget of its day, it became the… Read more →

• Travelers of Destiny

  With Perihan Savaş as the singer Ruhan and Gönül Akkor's voice on the songs, Kader Yolcuları settles into true Yeşilçam emotional drama. A… Read more →

• Fearless Warrior (Korkusuz Cengaver)

  Korkusuz Cengaver is a Cüneyt Arkın historical adventure in which emotion weighs heavily. The meeting between Şahin Bey, hiding his… Read more →

• La Tour, prends garde !

  Jean Marais is the elegant hero of cape-and-sword films, and La Tour, prends garde! continues that image. During the Seven Years' War, a… Read more →

• Malkoçoğlu Against the Kings (Malkoçoğlu Krallara Karşı)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın on horseback, sword in hand, in black and white is still a particular pleasure for anyone who loves Yeşilçam's tales of… Read more →

• Malkoçoğlu

  Malkoçoğlu is the first link in the series in which Cüneyt Arkın girds on his sword as an akinci commander. The black-and-white frames… Read more →

• The Lord of the Seagull (Martıların Efendisi)

  A mysterious woman stepping into the world of a pure-hearted man: the setup recalls Yeşilçam's well-meaning heroes and the way life puts… Read more →

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris)

  This adaptation, careful to stay true to Victor Hugo's novel, is a fine example of the days when literature and cinema worked hand in hand.… Read more →

• The Seventh Juror (Le Septième Juré)

  A black-and-white French courtroom drama always has a literary flavour for a viewer raised on the classics, and The Seventh Juror is a… Read more →

• Time You Change (Zeiten ändern dich)

  Rap may sound distant to an ear raised on the classics, yet the story of someone finding their own way through music is something every… Read more →

• For the Sake of Duty (Vazife Uğruna)

  For eyes raised on Yeşilçam, watching Cüneyt Arkın in an eighties crime picture still carries a familiar warmth. Here he is a chief… Read more →

• New Life (Yeni Hayat)

  At the heart of Yeni Hayat is an impossible love, a theme Yeşilçam cherished too. Yet in our old films such loves were usually weighed on a… Read more →

• The 80th Step (80. Adım)

  Tomris Giritlioğlu's 80. Adım is one of those precious cases where the passage from literature to film is handled with care. Mehmet Eroğlu… Read more →

• Bitter Life (Acı Hayat)

  Acı Hayat may well be the most graceful of Turkish cinema's great tales of doomed passion. The love between Ayhan Işık's shipyard welder… Read more →

• Etiquette (Adab-ı Muaşeret)

  For an eye raised on the classics, a school comedy calls Hababam Sınıfı to mind first: that classroom atmosphere, the affectionate… Read more →

• Love and Grudge (Aşk ve Kin)

  Aşk ve Kin is one of those Yeşilçam dramas that load great emotion onto a simple story. A man disabled in an accident on his wedding night… Read more →

• Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre (Belphégor, le fantôme du Louvre)

  Arthur Bernède's 1927 novel had already been filmed as a television series, and watching this new adaptation one's mind inevitably drifts… Read more →

• Classe tous risques

  What I love most in old gangster pictures is that even an outlaw has a heart. Classe tous risques does exactly that, presenting a fugitive… Read more →

• Dear Caroline (Caroline chérie)

  A costume drama shot in widescreen and Eastmancolor: the words alone recall cinema's grand years. Dear Caroline is the second screen… Read more →

• Ms. Dila (Dila Hanım)

  Among the films Türkân Şoray and Kadir İnanır made together, Dila Hanım holds a special place. Adapted from a work by Necati Cumalı and… Read more →

• Le Pacha

  For anyone who loves old cinema, Jean Gabin is a reason in himself. In Le Pacha he plays a tired but stubborn inspector close to… Read more →

• Les Uns et les Autres

  Lives that touch across generations to the strains of Ravel's Boléro... This film is like a great symphony about how music and dance bind… Read more →

• Made in Italy

  Alberto Sordi, Anna Magnani, Virna Lisi, Peppino De Filippo... Seeing the great names of Italian cinema in one film is a real feast for… Read more →

• The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza)

  A film so often linked with Fellini's La dolce vita naturally intrigues an eye raised on the classics. In The Great Beauty, Jep, famous for… Read more →

• Nights Without Dawn (Sabahsız Geceler)

  Anyone who knows Peyami Safa's novel will find this adaptation both familiar and surprising. The film makes Salih a more forceful man than… Read more →

• Hair (Saç)

  For an eye raised on Yeşilçam's warm, hopeful stories, Hair is not an easy film. The story of a sick, lonely man whose whole world has… Read more →

• The Final Word Is Mine (Son Söz Benim)

  Son Söz Benim has every familiar shade of Yeşilçam's black-and-white crime films: a good-hearted cop, a former safecracker desperate to… Read more →

• Tehran Adventure (Tahran Macerası)

  A classic Yeşilçam melodrama starring Kartal Tibet, where friendship and betrayal are tightly woven together. A robbery for a sister's… Read more →

• The Big Restaurant (Le Grand Restaurant)

  Louis de Funès is one of those matchless comedians who make you laugh with their fury, and as Monsieur Septime he uses that gift to the… Read more →

• The Longest Hunt (Spara, Gringo, spara)

  What I look for in films of this kind is a hero with a moral stance and music that gets under your skin. In The Longest Hunt the title song… Read more →

• Three Angry Warriors (Üç Kızgın Cengaver)

  Üç Kızgın Cengaver is a fairy tale from Yeşilçam's swashbuckling tradition, one where good and evil are plainly drawn. Three brave young… Read more →

• Haul (Vurgun)

  Vurgun is Yeşilçam through and through, a blend of heartfelt drama and adventure. Cüneyt Arkın plays a man fresh out of prison, caught… Read more →

• Yunus Emre: The Voice of Love (Yunus Emre: Aşkın Sesi)

  For a heart raised on Yunus Emre's verses, this film warms you with its intentions. The idea that what you seek lies within you captures… Read more →

• Particle (Zerre)

  Yeşilçam gave us many stories of lone women struggling to earn their bread, and however great the hardship, there was always a song or a… Read more →

• Destiny (Alın Yazısı)

  Alın Yazısı is one of those great tales of sorrow that Yeşilçam built on honour and vengeance. Seeing Cüneyt Arkın, Erol Taş and İstemi… Read more →

• Animal (L'Animal)

  In seventies European cinema Belmondo was one of those stars who always played heroism with a wink, and L'Animal makes the most of that… Read more →

• Austerlitz

  If there is such a thing as sighing over a cast list, Austerlitz is that film: Orson Welles, Vittorio De Sica, Claudia Cardinale, Jean… Read more →

• Separate Worlds (Ayrı Dünyalar)

  Ayrı Dünyalar draws on the Yeşilçam vein I love most: a good-hearted tough guy, a young girl covering her father's absence with lies, and a… Read more →

• A Handful of Paradise

  Seeing Tarık Akan and Hale Soygazi as a couple clinging to each other against poverty touches the heart. In the story of this family who… Read more →

• The Great Oath

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as both the father, Ahmet, and the son, Ali, recalls the generous star cinema of Yeşilçam. The Great Oath sets its… Read more →

• Cartouche

  Seeing Jean-Paul Belmondo and Claudia Cardinale in the same film is like opening a door onto the bright years of sixties European cinema.… Read more →

• The Woman Who Drives You Crazy (Çıldırtan Kadın)

  For those who knew Yeşilçam in the late seventies, this film carries a familiar sadness. A happy marriage wrecked by a mother-in-law's… Read more →

• Grbavica

  Though it comes from a distant land, Esma's Secret carries a feeling our old films knew well: a painful secret a mother has kept inside for… Read more →

• Hibernatus

  For lovers of Louis de Funès's inexhaustible energy, Hibernatus is a small treasure. As a prosperous industrialist whose orderly life is… Read more →

• Street Vendor Girl

  Just seeing Filiz Akın and Kartal Tibet in the same frame is enough to take you back to the bright Yeşilçam of the early seventies.… Read more →

• The Comedy Shop (Komedi Dükkanı)

  Improvisation is a legacy of our theatre's deep-rooted traditions, ortaoyunu and tuluat, which is why Komedi Dükkanı bringing that vein to… Read more →

• The Letter (Mektup)

  Watching Tarık Akan as a man who returns after many years to look for his father feels like a touching addendum to his own journey through… Read more →

• There Is Democracy in the Country (Memlekette Demokrasi Var)

  Seeing Müjdat Gezen in the lead is a comfort for anyone who misses the warmth of the old comedy masters. Baradan, whom everyone calls mad… Read more →

• The Great Vagabond (Muhteşem Serseri)

  Seeing Ayhan Işık and Fatma Girik in the same frame is one of Yeşilçam's sweetest habits, and The Great Vagabond indulges it without… Read more →

• Papy fait de la résistance

  It is hard to watch this film without thinking of Louis de Funès; it is, after all, dedicated to his memory. Michel Galabru, who took the… Read more →

• I Never Like Sundays (Pazarları Hiç Sevmem)

  An ailing father's last wish, a love never returned, a woman who has given up on life... This material sits very close to the heart of our… Read more →

• Shabaniye (Şabaniye)

  Just seeing Kemal Sunal and Adile Naşit as mother and son warms the heart. Şabaniye is a classic comedy of confusion born from a man… Read more →

• Les Misérables

  For anyone raised on literature, seeing Victor Hugo's immortal novel on screen again is always a thrill. Pitting Depardieu against… Read more →

• Şefer Sözü (Şeref Sözü)

  Şeref Sözü comes from Yeşilçam's best-loved vein: poverty, sacrifice and brotherhood. In Safa Önal's hands, the ordinary troubles of… Read more →

• Two Men in Town (Deux hommes dans la ville)

  Seeing Jean Gabin and Alain Delon in one film, one in the farewell period of his career and the other in his brilliant years, is a… Read more →

• Violette Nozière

  Isabelle Huppert's Cannes-winning performance truly feels like a master class in acting. Fine players such as Stéphane Audran and Jean… Read more →

• Weekend at Dunkirk (Week-end à Zuydcoote)

  For an eye raised on the classics, seeing Jean-Paul Belmondo on a hopeless shore in the summer of 1940 has a flavour all its own. Working… Read more →

• Goodbye (Allaha Ismarladık)

  This 1951 black-and-white film is one of the early and heartfelt Kuvay-ı Milliye pictures about the years of the War of Independence.… Read more →

• Any Number Can Win (Mélodie en sous-sol)

  Seeing Jean Gabin and Alain Delon in the same film is a feast in itself for anyone who loves older cinema. Two great actors from two… Read more →

• Tears of Love (Aşkın Gözyaşları)

  Aşkın Gözyaşları carries every vein of late-fifties Yeşilçam melodrama: an orphaned boy, an affection that blossoms in a mansion, jealousy… Read more →

• Stuck Apart (Azizler)

  The hero who tells one lie and then has to keep it going was a situation Yeşilçam comedies loved too; there, things were usually tied up… Read more →

• Beaumarchais (Beaumarchais, l'insolent)

  For anyone who loves literature, a film about the creator of the Figaro plays is not to be missed. Beaumarchais's wit and audacity sit at… Read more →

• The Helpless (Çaresizler)

  Bringing together Natuk Baytan and Cüneyt Arkın, Çaresizler carries the much-loved air of the seventies underworld dramas. Ahmet Mekin's… Read more →

• Cherchez l'idole

  A small, cheerful window onto the French pop world of the sixties. Charles Aznavour's Et pourtant, Sylvie Vartan's million-selling La Plus… Read more →

• King of the Garbage Collectors (Çöpçüler Kralı)

  Çöpçüler Kralı brings Kemal Sunal and Şener Şen together in one neighbourhood and is among the most endearing Yeşilçam comedies. Apti's… Read more →

• Face (Visage)

  Jeanne Moreau, Fanny Ardant, Nathalie Baye and Jean-Pierre Léaud: seeing those names in one film quickens the heart of anyone who loves the… Read more →

• Phosphorescent Cevriye (Fosforlu Cevriyem)

  A film in which Türkân Şoray plays the character who gives it its title, and one remembered among Yeşilçam's best-loved films. Being Bülent… Read more →

• Goodbye Emmanuelle

  For an eye raised on the classics, Goodbye Emmanuelle is a distant world. It is the third link in a series that kept producing sequels for… Read more →

• Two-Headed Giant (İki Başlı Dev)

  After hearing Cüneyt Arkın through other people's voices in film after film, hearing him in his own voice for the first time is an event in… Read more →

• Lawless Street (Kanunsuz Sokak)

  Kanunsuz Sokak is one of the street action pictures Yeşilçam turned out in quantity in the early seventies. Written and directed by Melih… Read more →

• Mold (Küf)

  A father waiting for his child is one of the oldest and deepest themes in our cinema; Yeşilçam usually told that pain loudly, through… Read more →

• Holy Water Bottle: Dracoola (Kutsal Damacana: Dracoola)

  Yeşilçam's comedy masters drew laughter from character and warmth. Kutsal Damacana: Dracoola instead mixes the vampire legend with crude… Read more →

• Lemonade (Limonata)

  Limonata begins with a dying father's wish to ask forgiveness of the son he abandoned years ago, the kind of story Yeşilçam loved, resting… Read more →

• Nelly and Mr. Arnaud (Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud)

  For anyone who loves literature, a story built around writing a memoir is appealing in itself. An old, wealthy man asking a young woman to… Read more →

• Consent (Rıza)

  Watching Rıza, you think of Yeşilçam's poor but dignified heroes: a lonely man clinging to the one thing he has. Unlike them, though, this… Read more →

• Last Raid (Son Akın)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as a raider chief is a sweet memory for anyone fond of the cinemas of the early eighties. Turgut Özakman's screenplay… Read more →

• The Lonely Ones' Quay (Yalnızlar Rıhtımı)

  Yalnızlar Rıhtımı feels like one of the moments when Yeşilçam came closest to poetry. Attilâ İlhan's pen is in the script and Ömer Lütfi… Read more →

• Side by Side (Yan Yana)

  Seeing Haluk Bilginer and Feyyaz Yiğit side by side is a pleasure in itself; the meeting of a seasoned master and youthful energy brings… Read more →

• Crab Basket (Yengeç Sepeti)

  Watching it in the knowledge that it was Sadri Alışık's last feature, every look he gives as the grandfather goes straight to the heart.… Read more →

• Day for Night (La Nuit américaine)

  This film is like a love letter written to everyone who loves cinema. Its dedication to Lillian Gish and her sister Dorothy makes the… Read more →

• Once Upon a Time in the West

  Some films leave their music playing in your ears long after they end, and Once Upon a Time in the West is one of them. Ennio Morricone's… Read more →

• Berlin in Berlin

  Finding Eşref Kolçak and Aliye Rona in this cast is a sweet surprise for an eye raised on Yeşilçam, and the role that won Hülya Avşar an… Read more →

• A Sip of Love (Bir Yudum Sevgi)

  Hale Soygazi's Aygül, with her weariness and quiet resolve, goes straight to the heart; her Best Actress award at Antalya comes as no… Read more →

• Rogue Brothers (Bitirim Kardeşler)

  Just seeing Kadir İnanır and Kartal Tibet together as two brothers who can't get along is a treat. The feud between Ali the carriage driver… Read more →

• Delusions of Grandeur (La Folie des grandeurs)

  Seeing Louis de Funès and Yves Montand in the same frame is a special joy for generations who grew up watching it again and again on… Read more →

• Female Enemy (Dişi Düşman)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın, Hülya Koçyiğit and Ajda Pekkan in one film is a small window onto the Yeşilçam of the sixties. Just hearing Pekkan… Read more →

• Shadow (Gölge)

  Seeing Peyami Safa's Selma ve Gölgesi on the big screen is a thrill in itself for anyone raised on literature. Mehmet Güreli's effort to… Read more →

• Hababam Class Three and a Half (Hababam Sınıfı Üç Buçuk)

  The name Hababam Sınıfı holds a special place in the heart, thanks to Rıfat Ilgaz's stories and the films of the 1970s. What made those… Read more →

• Woman (Hanım)

  Yıldız Kenter's performance alone is reason enough to watch this film. When the loneliness of Olcay Hanım, granddaughter of an Ottoman… Read more →

• Wound of Heartbreak (Hicran Yarası)

  Hicran Yarası is one of those films we have heard of but can never see; every print was lost in a fire. Sadri Alışık's Ali, earning his… Read more →

• When Fate Connects (Kader Bağlayınca)

  Seeing Tarık Akan and Gülşen Bubikoğlu share the frame is reason enough for anyone who misses Yeşilçam's sweet, squabbling romances. The… Read more →

• The Mine (Maden)

  Cüneyt Arkın, Tarık Akan, Hale Soygazi, Halil Ergün... Looking at this cast, I see the beloved faces of the era joined in a single cause.… Read more →

• Malkoçoğlu Black Pirate (Malkoçoğlu Kara Korsan)

  The Malkoçoğlu series holds a special place among Yeşilçam's heroic adventures. When Cüneyt Arkın's dignified bearing meets Nebahat Çehre's… Read more →

• Mississippi Mermaid (La Sirène du Mississipi)

  Seeing Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo in the same film is like touching the glow of 1960s European cinema again. A fiancée known… Read more →

• My Best Enemy (Mein bester Feind)

  Stories in which friendship is tested by war and persecution always hold a special place, and this one follows two boyhood friends whose… Read more →

• On Guard (Le Bossu)

  Paul Féval's 1857 serial novel has reached the screen many times, including an earlier version with Jean Marais. For a reader raised on… Read more →

• Private Lesson (Özel Ders)

  The secret of our old romantic comedies was that even the simplest story could reach the characters' hearts. The idea behind Özel Ders is… Read more →

• Piano Piano Kid (Piano Piano Bacaksız)

  An old wooden mansion, a different family in every room and an eight-year-old boy watching it all... The setup recalls the spirit of our… Read more →

• Hot Hours (Sıcak Saatler)

  Television series of the late 1990s had a warmth all their own, and Sıcak Saatler is one of that era's productions built on a strong cast.… Read more →

• Sultan

  Sultan is one of the films that best captures the heart of Yeşilçam. Türkân Şoray plays a widow who cleans other people's homes to raise… Read more →

• The Source (La Source des femmes)

  A village on a mountainside, women carrying water on their backs every day, and their patience... The picture recalls the hard-working… Read more →

• The Under-Gifted (Les Sous-doués)

  For an eye raised on the classics, Les Sous-doués is a typical French comedy of the early eighties: prank after prank, a headmistress… Read more →

• The Wing or the Thigh (L'Aile ou la Cuisse)

  Louis de Funès holds a special place in the hearts of classic-comedy lovers, and his return to the screen with this film after three years… Read more →

• Poison Detective (Zehir Hafiye)

  Another of Kemal Sunal's lovable dreamers: Cemal, who lives on detective novels and even in his sleep believes he is the world's most… Read more →

• Almanya – Welcome to Germany (Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland)

  Life far from home is one of Turkish cinema's most moving themes, and Almanya turns it into a warm family story. Hüseyin Yılmaz's journey… Read more →

• I'm Looking for My Mother (Annemi Arıyorum)

  A black-and-white family melodrama has a warmth all its own, and Annemi Arıyorum walks that line. Faruk Kenç turns a daughter's search for… Read more →

• Baarìa

  Films about a family living out its life in the same town over generations bring our own old family dramas to mind: loyalty to the same… Read more →

• Be Sick... It's Free (Il medico della mutua)

  Alberto Sordi's name on the credits brings a smile; he is one of the great masters of commedia all'italiana. Luigi Zampa's film uses the… Read more →

• Troublemakers (Belalılar)

  Watching Cüneyt Arkın as a master con man for once is a treat of its own. Belalılar may be a local adaptation of The Sting, but in Bülent… Read more →

• A Sack of Money (Bir Çuval Para)

  In the early seventies homegrown westerns had their moment, and Bir Çuval Para is one of that generation's 16 mm black-and-white examples.… Read more →

• Chrysalis (Camdaki Kız)

  Adapted from Gülseren Budayıcıoğlu's novel, Camdaki Kız carries the familiar vein of our old family melodramas into today's television: a… Read more →

• Cibali Police Station (Cibali Karakolu)

  Seeing Muammer Karaca on screen is like bringing the warmth of the theatre stage home. Cibali Karakolu is a black-and-white comedy of about… Read more →

• September Storm (Eylül Fırtınası)

  Seeing Tarık Akan as a grandfather carries a sweet sadness for a viewer who has grown older alongside him. Hüseyin Efe is like the film's… Read more →

• Wounded Hearts (Gönülden Yaralılar)

  When Cüneyt Arkın and Fatma Girik share the screen, you feel that full-hearted seventies emotion at once. Gönülden Yaralılar tells the… Read more →

• Happy Easter (Joyeuses Pâques)

  Seeing Belmondo and Sophie Marceau in the same frame is a pleasant reunion for lovers of eighties European cinema. The structure inherited… Read more →

• Mr. Kılıç (Kılıç Bey)

  Mention Cüneyt Arkın and the hero who never bows to injustice and always stands by the downtrodden comes straight to mind; Kılıç Bey… Read more →

• Le Gang

  Watching Alain Delon is always a pleasure; few actors have shown that cool elegance on screen. In Le Gang, as Robert the Crazy, he carries… Read more →

• Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis)

  Some films grow more precious with age, and Les Enfants du Paradis is one of them. Written by the poet Jacques Prévert, this love story is… Read more →

• Man Called Invincible (Lo chiamavano Tresette... giocava sempre col morto)

  To an eye that knows the Italian westerns of the seventies, this film is a familiar face, only a smiling one. Giuliano Carnimeo sets the… Read more →

• Mayerling

  Some love stories you watch even when you know how they end, and Mayerling is one of them. Omar Sharif's sorrowful Rudolf and Catherine… Read more →

• Confidentially Yours (Vivement dimanche !)

  A black-and-white mystery, a sharp-witted secretary and a boss who may be wrongly accused: the set-up brings back the flavour of the good… Read more →

• The Powder Puff Gang (Trop jolies pour être honnêtes)

  This light comedy from the early seventies, set on the French Riviera, brings back the colourful, carefree mood of those years. Four women… Read more →

• Time Regained (Le Temps retrouvé)

  For a reader who loves In Search of Lost Time, this film is like turning the pages of a cherished book once more. Proust on his deathbed… Read more →

• Fire! (Yangın Var)

  I have always loved road stories; films in which people get to know one another on the road and come out changed were a pattern old… Read more →

• Yusuf and Kenan (Yusuf ile Kenan)

  Ömer Kavur's Yusuf ile Kenan stands far from the tear-soaked orphan stories of Yeşilçam; it tells of pain plainly, without exaggeration.… Read more →

• 40 Square Meters of Germany (40 qm Deutschland)

  For anyone who knows Yeşilçam's stories of life far from home, this film feels both very familiar and entirely different. There is no… Read more →

• Mother's Home (Ana Ocağı)

  Seeing Fatma Girik as a widowed mother who shoulders her late husband's transport business to raise her children alone touches one of… Read more →

• Atomized (Elementarteilchen)

  For an eye raised on the classics, Atomised is not easy to digest. Houellebecq's cynical world may at first feel distant to a viewer… Read more →

• The Dam (Baraj)

  A Yeşilçam drama from the pen of Safa Önal, pairing Türkân Şoray with Tarık Akan; it has a familiarity that warms the heart. Letters that… Read more →

• Comedy of Power (L’Ivresse du pouvoir)

  With Isabelle Huppert as a determined magistrate, this film holds interest for anyone who values fine acting. Its subject matters too: a… Read more →

• Cyrano de Bergerac

  Edmond Rostand's play is a bedside favourite for lovers of literature, and Rappeneau has made a film worthy of it. Gérard Depardieu's… Read more →

• Uncle (Dayı)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as a teacher for once gives Dayı an endearing place among his films. Murat, who rose from the slums to become a… Read more →

• The Problem Is with Me (Dert Bende)

  Kerime Nadir adaptations are the graceful love stories Yeşilçam audiences watched through their tears, and Dert Bende is a fine example of… Read more →

• The Shadow Play (Gölge Oyunu)

  Watching Şener Şen and Şevket Altuğ as two luckless friends living on the edge of the nightclub world makes you laugh and aches at the same… Read more →

• Hazal

  Türkân Şoray's gazelle eyes are almost a language of their own here. In Hazal's silence, her submission and her courage to follow her heart… Read more →

• Jo

  Louis de Funès's boundless energy, his flustered bustle and his expressions are the soul of this film too. A successful comic playwright… Read more →

• Just Before Nightfall (Juste avant la nuit)

  For an eye raised on the classics, Just Before Nightfall recalls the old-fashioned moral tales that seek punishment not in a courtroom but… Read more →

• The Sulky Flower (Küskün Çiçek)

  Seeing Türkân Şoray and Cüneyt Arkın in the same frame is a celebration in itself. Safa Önal's story casts the shadow of death over the… Read more →

• La Femme et le Pantin

  For those who love the heavy, velvety air of old European cinema, Duvivier's name alone is a guarantee. Bardot's Eva is a proud, alluring… Read more →

• Les Mystères de Paris

  Watching Jean Marais as a noble, principled hero brings back the heart-warming feeling of the old adventure films. After a death he holds… Read more →

• Monsieur Klein

  Seeing Alain Delon and Jeanne Moreau in the same film is a feast in itself for lovers of older cinema. But Monsieur Klein is not a warm… Read more →

• Shattered (Paramparça)

  Directed by Halit Refiğ, written by Erdoğan Tünaş and produced by Türker İnanoğlu, this is on paper a meeting of Turkish cinema's master… Read more →

• Selahattin Eyyubi

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as Saladin is a familiar joy for a generation raised on historical heroes. Arkın's dignified bearing is enough to carry… Read more →

• It Was Cold and Drizzling (Soğuktu ve Yağmur Çiseliyordu)

  Watching Türkân Şoray as a singer of Turkish classical music, carried by Melih Kibar's compositions, is a gift in itself for anyone raised… Read more →

• The Fire Within (Le Feu follet)

  This is a quiet film that gets under your skin. A man who wants to end his life looks for a reason to live in Paris... The subject is very… Read more →

• The Umbrella Coup (Le Coup du parapluie)

  Comedy born of mistaken identity is a well Yeşilçam drew from often, and this film is a French and rather elegant example of the tradition.… Read more →

• Fire (Yangın)

  Being Ayhan Işık's last film gives Yangın a particular poignancy. As Selçuk, the prosecutor who will not bend his principles, he shows once… Read more →

• Island (Ada)

  Watching Türkân Şoray in her mature years, in such an inward role, is a feeling of its own. Adapted from Peride Celal's story, Ada tells of… Read more →

• The Stranger in the Mirror (Aynadaki Yabancı)

  Heroes who hide who they are and return to their loved ones as someone else are among the oldest and best-loved veins of Yeşilçam… Read more →

• Backfire (Échappement libre)

  Seeing Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg together again is a sweet reunion for anyone who loves the cinema of those years. A co-production… Read more →

• Bob le flambeur

  A black-and-white Paris night, an ageing ex-gangster and one last hope: Bob le flambeur has the dignified grace of the old films. Bob… Read more →

• Gang (Çete)

  Seeing a novel by a master like Refik Halit Karay on screen is a special pleasure for anyone who loves literature. In a story reaching back… Read more →

• Desert Eagle (Çöl Kartalı)

  Halit Refiğ's touch, Cüneyt Arkın's charisma and a tale of love and adventure in the deserts of Yemen: a fine example of Yeşilçam's… Read more →

• Dark Eyes (Oci ciornie)

  A film named after that famous Russian song promises a wistful melody, and Dark Eyes keeps the promise. Distilled from Chekhov's stories… Read more →

• Earthquake (Deprem)

  Seeing Türkân Şoray and Kadir İnanır in the same film was an invitation in itself for audiences of those years. In this village story from… Read more →

• The Bread Seller Woman (Ekmekçi Kadın)

  Montépin's novel reached Turkish screens more than once, and the 1965 version stays with you for the weight Türkân Şoray carries on her… Read more →

• Fatoş's Babies (Fatoş'un Bebekleri)

  This early Yeşilçam comedy, written by Bülent Oran, puts Sadri Alışık and Fatma Girik under one roof and carries the innocent, gentle… Read more →

• I nuovi mostri

  Finding Gassman, Tognazzi, Sordi and Ornella Muti in a single film is a feast for anyone who loves the great age of Italian comedy. Three… Read more →

• İbo and Güllüşah (İbo ile Güllüşah)

  A seventies comedy from Atıf Yılmaz, in which Kemal Sunal shines with that innocent warmth of his. When İbo's poverty meets Güllüşah's… Read more →

• Revenge Is Mine (İntikam Benim)

  For anyone raised on Yeşilçam, the name Cüneyt Arkın is an association in itself. In İntikam Benim he plays a man shattered by grief for… Read more →

• İstanbul'un Kızları

  Just seeing Cüneyt Arkın, Sevda Ferdağ, Selma Güneri and Memduh Ün in one film takes you back to those black-and-white years, and Halit… Read more →

• Boatman (Kayıkçı)

  A man chasing a voice he will never hear: such a poetic idea is rare. Kayıkçı recalls the silent, helpless lovers of our old films, and… Read more →

• A Tale of Three Sisters (Kız Kardeşler)

  Yeşilçam had its share of stories about girls sent to live under strangers' roofs, but those films always carried hope behind the tears.… Read more →

• The Paranoid Family (Kuruntu Ailesi)

  Kuruntu Ailesi is counted among the pioneers of the sitcom in Türkiye, but for me its real worth lies in carrying the warmth of the stage… Read more →

• L'emmerdeur

  Lino Ventura's grave toughness and Jacques Brel's fragile cheer: just seeing these two names together warms the heart. That this was Brel's… Read more →

• Love Me Strangely (Un beau monstre)

  Just seeing Virna Lisi, Helmut Berger and Charles Aznavour on the same poster carries you back to the European cinema of those years. For… Read more →

• Wind (Rüzgâr)

  Emel Sayın's voice, Selami Şahin's music and İbrahim Tatlıses appearing as himself: for a generation that loves nightclub songs, this film… Read more →

• Morning Star (Sabah Yıldızı)

  Seeing Filiz Akın and Ediz Hun in the same frame is a warmth of its own for anyone raised on Yeşilçam. Sabah Yıldızı carries the familiar… Read more →

• Diabolique (Les Diaboliques)

  Shown in Turkey in 1957 as Şeytan Ruhlu İnsanlar, this adaptation of the Boileau and Narcejac novel marries the patience of literature with… Read more →

• Excitement in the Ranks (Sıralardaki Heyecan)

  Being Bülent Ersoy's first film already gives Sıralardaki Heyecan a special place. A friendless high-school student who sings at weddings… Read more →

• The Scalawag Bunch (L'arciere di Sherwood)

  The Robin Hood legend has been told on screen many times, and Giorgio Ferroni's 1971 film is one more link in that long chain. It's… Read more →

• The Master (Usta)

  Anyone who misses the neighbourhood warmth of our old films will find something familiar in Usta. Moving between a dream that reaches for… Read more →

• Wondrous Boccaccio (Maraviglioso Boccaccio)

  A graceful doorway for anyone who heard of The Decameron at school but never got round to reading it. The tales told in turn by ten young… Read more →

• A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later (Un homme et une femme : Vingt ans déjà)

  Seeing Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant side by side again twenty years on is like reopening an old love letter. Claude Lelouch… Read more →

• Come on, Shaban! (Atla Gel Şaban)

  Perhaps nothing captures Kemal Sunal's bond with his audience better than this film's title: there is no character called Şaban, Sunal… Read more →

• Separation (Ayrılık)

  Seeing Filiz Akın as a nightclub's star singer and Ediz Hun as a quick-handed gambler brings back the flavour of seventies colour-era… Read more →

• Borsalino

  The film that put Delon and Belmondo on the same poster for the first time shows the star power of early-seventies European cinema in all… Read more →

• Le gendarme se marie

  Louis de Funès's Cruchot is the most endearing face of those Saint-Tropez films that settled into memory under their Turkish titles. In… Read more →

• The Sorcerer Father (Efsuncu Baba)

  Adapted from a novel by Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar, Efsuncu Baba is a black-and-white treasure from the early years of Turkish cinema.… Read more →

• Top Scorer (Gol Kralı)

  A story from Aziz Nesin's novel, Kemal Sunal's matchless innocence and Kartal Tibet's direction... Gol Kralı is one of the most endearing… Read more →

• Revenge of the Flame (İntikam Alevi)

  Ayhan Işık's truck driver Ekrem is one of the purest examples of Yeşilçam's wronged honest-man hero. Osman F. Seden both wrote and directed… Read more →

• La Boum 2

  Among the youth films of the eighties, La Boum 2 holds a place of its own. Sophie Marceau's freshness lights up the screen, and it is no… Read more →

• Marie Antoinette Queen of France (Marie-Antoinette reine de France)

  Michèle Morgan's noble, sorrowful bearing suits this role beautifully. The tragedy of an ill-fated queen is told with the dignified air of… Read more →

• Marvelous Angelique (Merveilleuse Angélique)

  The second instalment of the five-film series drawn from Anne and Serge Golon's novels carries that old magic of romantic costume… Read more →

• Monsieur Gangster (Les Tontons flingueurs)

  Some films grow in value with time, and Monsieur Gangster is one of those lucky ones: coolly received by critics in 1963, loved by… Read more →

• Murmur of the Heart (Le Souffle au cœur)

  For an eye raised on the classics, this Louis Malle film shows the bold yet graceful face of European cinema. Set in 1950s Dijon, the story… Read more →

• Hatred (Nefret)

  Watching Fatma Girik in the helplessness of a mother's heart renews one's admiration for the great actresses of Yeşilçam. Osman F. Seden… Read more →

• Our Story (Notre histoire)

  For an eye that knew Alain Delon from very different parts, seeing him as a man torn between drink and love is both surprising and… Read more →

• Teacher Kemal (Öğretmen Kemal)

  Watching Cüneyt Arkın in the heroic roles of those years was always a pleasure of its own, and in Öğretmen Kemal he is an idealistic… Read more →

• Pleins feux sur Stanislas

  For admirers of Jean Marais, Pleins feux sur Stanislas is an elegant piece of sixties entertainment. A retired agent sitting down to write… Read more →

• Recep İvedik 3

  Looked at by an eye that remembers Yeşilçam's masters of comedy, this film does little to warm the heart. The Recep İvedik character turns… Read more →

• Satyricon (Fellini Satyricon)

  Say Fellini and one first thinks of that poetic, humane world; Satyricon shows a completely different face. Nino Rota's music reaches out… Read more →

• The Black Angel (Siyah Melek)

  The Black Horseman on his white horse, face hidden by a scarf, and notes wrapped around stones... This film is a lovely example of how well… Read more →

• Solas

  Like the fine old films of our own cinema, Solas touches the heart without grand speeches. Rosa's patient, tender way slowly brings her… Read more →

• The Last Kiss (L'ultimo bacio)

  Muccino's film is energetic and well acted, that much must be granted. Stefania Sandrelli's Anna, unhappy after thirty years of marriage… Read more →

• Teheran 43

  Alain Delon, Claude Jade, Curd Jürgens and two strong leads of Soviet cinema in one film... that meeting alone warms the heart. Yet to my… Read more →

• Those Happy Days (Nos jours heureux)

  Set in the summer of 1992, this camp story recalls the long, hectic, unforgettable summer days of childhood. Vincent taking on… Read more →

• Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite (Uçurtmayı Vurmasınlar)

  Some films leave an ache in the heart for days afterwards, and Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite is one of them. Looking up at the sky through… Read more →

• Fallow Deer (Ala Geyik)

  Drawing on Yaşar Kemal's Üç Anadolu Efsanesi, Ala Geyik is one of those films that bring the epic flavour of Anatolian storytelling to the… Read more →

• Love No More (Aşka Tövbe)

  A film that carries the delicacy of the years when Kerime Nadir's novels were brought to the screen. Filiz Akın's Şehbal, who learns that… Read more →

• Once Upon a Time (Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş)

  Following a song to find the person who wrote it... the idea recalls the pure romanticism of our old love films. Mert Fırat singing Müslüm… Read more →

• The Neverending Song (Bitmeyen Şarkı)

  Bitmeyen Şarkı comes from that familiar Yeşilçam world we never quite manage to give up: a young woman raised by her neighbourhood, looking… Read more →

• Caroline Chérie

  Caroline Chérie has the flavour of the star vehicles of black-and-white European cinema. Jean Anouilh's screenplay carries the elegance of… Read more →

• Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ

  Seeing two masters of comedy like Coluche and Michel Serrault in the same film warms the heart; Serrault's Caesar alone is enough to make… Read more →

• Return (Dönüş)

  Dönüş, Türkân Şoray's first time behind the camera, shows that she was not only a great actress but also a sensitive storyteller. She plays… Read more →

• The Most Beautiful Woman in the World (Dünyanın En Güzel Kadını)

  Türkân Şoray playing a character named Türkan Moray feels like a sweet wink at the audience, and it makes you smile. A young woman set on… Read more →

• Football (Futboliye)

  Futboliye is one of those hectic, crowded comedies of the eighties. Its humour centres on drunkenness and mistaken identity, a long way… Read more →

• Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen (Signore e signori, buonanotte)

  Seeing the great masters of Italian cinema together, from Mastroianni to Gassman, from Tognazzi to Manfredi, is a feast in itself. Yet for… Read more →

• Migrant Birds (Gurbet Kuşları)

  A family stepping off the train at Haydarpaşa Station makes one of Yeşilçam's most heartfelt openings. In Halit Refiğ's hands, Orhan… Read more →

• He Who Falls on His Own Doesn't Cry (Kendi Düşen Ağlamaz)

  A spoiled girl whose stubborn scheme backfires on her is a pattern we know from Yeşilçam's beloved romantic comedies. Kendi Düşen Ağlamaz… Read more →

• Kerem and Asli (Kerem İle Aslı)

  Seeing a folk tale that has passed from tongue to tongue for centuries, like Kerem and Aslı, brought to the screen with Fatma Girik and… Read more →

• Luxury Life (Lüküs Hayat)

  Cemal Reşit Rey's music and Ekrem Reşit Rey's words: whatever this pair won on stage, Akad managed to carry onto the screen. Lüküs Hayat is… Read more →

• Death Sentence

  Ölüm Fermanı comes from those colourful days when Turkish cinema was winking at the Wild West. Seeing Murat Soydan in cowboy gear and Figen… Read more →

• Vagabond Lover (Serseri Aşık)

  One of the films that shows Sadri Alışık at his warmest. The puppeteer known as the "Doctor", penniless but rich of heart, is played with… Read more →

• Let's Part with Love (Severek Ayrılalım)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Hülya Koçyiğit in the same frame is an invitation in itself for anyone who loves Yeşilçam. Severek Ayrılalım tells… Read more →

• The Visitors II: The Corridors of Time (Les Couloirs du temps : Les Visiteurs 2)

  With a sequel to a good story, you go looking for the warmth of the first film. Godefroy and Jacquouille are still an endearing pair; the… Read more →

• Yumurcak, the Kid from Under the Bridge (Yumurcak Köprüaltı Çocuğu)

  Yumurcak is a fine example of Yeşilçam's old recipe of serving tears and laughter at the same table. Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Filiz Akın as… Read more →

• Zweiohrküken

  For eyes raised on Yeşilçam's romantic comedies, Zweiohrküken has a familiar flavour: a charming couple, a crowded circle around them and a… Read more →

• A Man and His Dog (Un homme et son chien)

  Seeing Jean-Paul Belmondo on screen one last time is a bittersweet moment for every film lover who grew up with him. His return after seven… Read more →

• Bitter Rice (Acı Pirinç)

  Seeing Erol Taş's name brings back that unforgettable villain's face of Yeşilçam, here in the role of Ömer Ağa, whose very title suggests a… Read more →

• Ablaze (Alev Alev)

  Tarık Akan, Gülşen Bubikoğlu and Cüneyt Arkın in one film, directed by Halit Refiğ from an Erdoğan Tünaş script. A cast that brings… Read more →

• Ayşecik and the Magical Dwarves in the Land of Dreams (Ayşecik ve Sihirli Cüceler Rüyalar Ülkesinde)

  Zeynep Değirmencioğlu's Ayşecik is one of the warmest bonds Yeşilçam ever formed with children; becoming identified with the character… Read more →

• Fatherly (Babacan)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Müjde Ar in the same film is like opening a window onto Yeşilçam's colour years. What sets Babacan apart from an… Read more →

• On the Fertile Lands (Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde)

  For an eye raised on Orhan Kemal, this adaptation is a precious labour that carries the sweat and hope of his pages onto the screen. That… Read more →

• A Handful of Soil (Bir Avuç Toprak)

  Osman F. Seden's black-and-white Anatolian drama is one of the early signs of Yeşilçam's love for village stories. The landowner, the… Read more →

• Faccia a faccia (Cara a cara)

  For an eye raised on the classics, Westerns are a somewhat distant world, but Ennio Morricone's music closes that distance quickly. More… Read more →

• The Innocent (Günahsızlar)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as an architect tormented by his conscience is a fine opportunity for those who love his dramatic side. Selim İleri's… Read more →

• Homoti

  Seeing Müjdat Gezen, Perran Kutman, Altan Erbulak and Demet Akbağ in one film is a sweet reunion for anyone who misses the comic generation… Read more →

• Il bell'Antonio

  Seeing Mastroianni and Cardinale in the same frame is a treat in itself for an eye raised on the classics. The film's provincial world is… Read more →

• If a Woman Loves (Kadın Severse)

  This colour melodrama led by Türkân Şoray carries a sadness worthy of Esat Mahmut Karakurt's novel. Opening in a blizzard on Uludağ, the… Read more →

• La Cité de l'indicible peur

  Seeing names like Bourvil, Francis Blanche and Jean-Louis Barrault on the same poster is an invitation in itself for anyone who loves the… Read more →

• La Cité de la peur

  To an eye that looks for the grace of the old comedies, this film is a little too loud. Poking fun at a festival, at the film world's… Read more →

• Le Bossu

  Adapted from Paul Féval's novel, this cloak-and-sword adventure is a tale of heroism, loyalty and a promise kept. Jean Marais's Lagardère… Read more →

• Murat and Nazlı (Murat İle Nazlı)

  A love that blossoms in the shadow of a blood feud is one of Yeşilçam's favourite themes, and Memduh Ün handles it with real warmth. It is… Read more →

• Ten Women (On Kadın)

  Türkân Şoray bringing to life women who each come from a different world makes the film a portrait gallery of her range. Finding her… Read more →

• Salih Without Fingers (Parmaksız Salih)

  Adapted from Necip Fazıl Kısakürek's stage play, this black-and-white drama is a precious trace from the early years of Turkish cinema. It… Read more →

• Shahmaran (Şahmaran)

  Directed and scored by Zülfü Livaneli, this film is a charming fairy tale that carries the Shahmaran legend to the shores of the Golden… Read more →

• Loose Cannons (Mine vaganti)

  Ferzan Özpetek sets a warm table here: a large family, several generations, tradition and love. The story of the Cantones, who run a pasta… Read more →

• Alone (Tek Başına)

  What moves me most in Tek Başına is that it is the story of an ordinary person who chooses what is right in spite of fear. Kemal knows what… Read more →

• The Great Spy Chase (Les Barbouzes)

  Bringing together Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier, Francis Blanche and Mireille Darc, Les Barbouzes recalls the elegant, mischievous face of… Read more →

• Wild Bride (Vahşi Gelin)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın, for once, as a rude but handsome writer living alone, set inside a comedy, is one of Yeşilçam's pleasant surprises.… Read more →

• Wanted

  Coming from the heyday of the spaghetti western, Wanted is a tidy example that captures the flavour of its time. Giuliano Gemma, one of the… Read more →

• Germany, the Bitter Homeland (Almanya Acı Vatan)

  Hülya Koçyiğit has always played women carrying the weight of life far from home with a quiet dignity, and Güldane is one of the bitterest… Read more →

• The Lovers (Les Amants)

  Jeanne Moreau's melancholy, thoughtful face is among the loveliest memories of black-and-white cinema. In The Lovers, Henri Decaë's images… Read more →

• Trouble Maker (Baş Belası)

  Atıf Yılmaz behind the camera, Sadri Alışık and Gülşen Bubikoğlu together: an adventure comedy from one of Yeşilçam's sweeter periods. A… Read more →

• Abbas in Flower (Çiçek Abbas)

  Yavuz Turgul's writing, Sinan Çetin's direction, Şener Şen and İlyas Salman going head to head... Çiçek Abbas is a typical example of that… Read more →

• Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (Don Juan ou Si Don Juan était une femme...)

  Being one of Bardot's last films before she retired from acting lends this production an unavoidable air of farewell. Michel Magne's score… Read more →

• Sultan of My Heart (Sultan moyego serdtsa)

  For an eye fond of the palace tales and fairy-tale romances of our old cinema, Kalbimin Sultanı promised that flavour on paper. A love… Read more →

• Hook (Kanca)

  Cüneyt Arkın's eighties adventures always promised a tale of valour; Kanca adds a wounded heart to that mould. Two men back from captivity… Read more →

• Door (Kapı)

  Seeing Kadir İnanır on screen again after a seven-year break is genuinely moving for a viewer who grew up with his films, and this was his… Read more →

• Dancer in the Dark

  A mother losing her sight, putting aside every cent she earns for her son's operation... This story carries a heart very close to… Read more →

• The Lion Man (Kılıç Aslan)

  Kılıç Aslan, produced by Memduh Ün and directed by Natuk Baytan, is a typical example of that historical-adventure tradition. Seeing Cüneyt… Read more →

• Le Divorce

  The names Merchant and Ivory always draw those who love careful literary adaptations. In Le Divorce, too, Paris is used with finesse, from… Read more →

• Madame Bovary

  For a lover of Flaubert, Chabrol's Madame Bovary is a respectful, meticulous adaptation. Isabelle Huppert carries Emma's longing for a… Read more →

• Manderlay

  Seeing Lauren Bacall and Danny Glover in the same cast warms the heart of anyone who loves classic cinema. Yet Manderlay does not tell a… Read more →

• Now Where Did the 7th Company Get to? (Mais où est donc passée la septième compagnie ?)

  One of the popular European comedies of the seventies, it chooses to tell the war not as a heroic epic but as the adventure of bewildered… Read more →

• Sabit Kanca

  For an eye raised on classic Turkish comedy, the idea of a learned man shaped by neighbourhood culture is actually a warm starting point… Read more →

• Delicatessen

  To an eye raised on the classics, Delicatessen is at first a foreign and even rather chilly world. Its black humour and strangeness are far… Read more →

• Sevkat Yerimdar 2: Bizde Sakat Çok

  An eye fond of classic Turkish comedy recognises a familiar template in Şevkat Yerimdar 2: an unruly hero who can never stay out of… Read more →

• To Kill a Cop (Pour la peau d'un flic)

  For my generation, Alain Delon is the very name of elegance and quiet charisma on screen. Seeing him as the private detective Choucas, in a… Read more →

• Three Colours: Red (Trois couleurs: Rouge)

  A lonely old judge and a kind-hearted young woman forming a friendship... Red feels like a new form of those healing encounters from the… Read more →

• The Hopeless Ones (Umutsuzlar)

  Seeing Yılmaz Güney and Filiz Akın on the same poster is a gift in itself for anyone who loves Yeşilçam, all the more so since the two… Read more →

• The Book to Be Burned (Yakılacak Kitap)

  Seeing Nazan Şoray at fourteen, in one of her very first films, is moving in itself. That young face in black and white makes everything… Read more →

• Wounded Wolf (Yaralı Kurt)

  Seeing Lütfi Ömer Akad and Cüneyt Arkın in the same credits opens a door onto one of Yeşilçam's most solid periods. The story, adapted from… Read more →

• Yavuz Sultan Selim Is Crying (Yavuz Sultan Selim Ağlıyor)

  A black-and-white historical film from 1952; being adapted from Feridun Fazıl Tülbentçi's novel is invitation enough for lovers of old… Read more →

• Farewell Song (Ayrılık Şarkısı)

  For anyone fond of sixties melodrama, Ayrılık Şarkısı carries a familiar warmth. The life of a composer who comes from Cyprus to Istanbul… Read more →

• Battal Gazi's Son (Battal Gazi'nin Oğlu)

  The last entry in the Battal Gazi series gathers all the best-loved ingredients of the Yeşilçam historical: a father who falls a martyr, a… Read more →

• Bodrum Judge (Bodrum Hakimi)

  With Türkân Şoray both in front of and behind the camera, The Judge of Bodrum has that familiar warmth of Yeşilçam's great love stories.… Read more →

• C'est la vie (La Baule-les-Pins)

  Films about the last summers of childhood always hold a special place in a heart raised on the classics. Because C'est la vie is told… Read more →

• The Crazy Ones (Çılgınlar)

  Seeing Türkân Şoray and Ekrem Bora in the same film is an invitation in itself for anyone devoted to Yeşilçam's golden years. Çılgınlar… Read more →

• Don't Touch My Şaban! (Dokunmayın Şabanıma)

  Kemal Sunal's Şaban is one of Turkish cinema's best-loved comic types, and this film brings that warmth back to life. Swapped-identity… Read more →

• Fantozzi against everyone (Fantozzi contro tutti)

  Paolo Villaggio's hapless accountant Ugo Fantozzi, who turns every ordinary trouble into a personal catastrophe, recalls the downtrodden… Read more →

• Emperor (İmparator)

  Watching Kadir İnanır in one of these tough eighties stories brings back the feel of cinema in those years. Kadir from Mardin is a man who… Read more →

• The Law Is the Law (Kanun Kanundur)

  Watching Cüneyt Arkın in a story about a policeman close to retirement who is called back to duty brings a familiar warmth to anyone fond… Read more →

• A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles)

  A young woman searching for her missing fiancé without ever losing hope… This is one of my favourite themes from the old melodramas, and… Read more →

• Le Doulos

  To an eye raised on the classics, Le Doulos carries the dignified elegance of the old black-and-white crime films. Even its title, meaning… Read more →

• Les Creatures

  Seeing Catherine Deneuve this young is always a pleasure, especially as a woman who can only express herself in writing. But for a viewer… Read more →

• Malkoçoğlu Kurt Bey

  Say Malkoçoğlu and Cüneyt Arkın is the face that comes to mind; this film is the one entry in the series made with another actor in his… Read more →

• Malkoçoğlu Death Squads (Malkoçoğlu Ölüm Fedaileri)

  For an eye raised on the classics, the name Malkoçoğlu calls up the heroic tales of childhood. These films, with Cüneyt Arkın standing… Read more →

• Manuale d'amore

  A pleasant surprise for anyone who loves the old Italian comedies and their stories full of human warmth. The film openly tips its hat to… Read more →

• Paris, je t'aime

  A film about Paris, about love and the place cities hold in people's lives; watching it is like leafing through an old book of poems. Each… Read more →

• Le Concert

  For a heart raised on classical music, this film is a small gift. The longing of a conductor once considered the Bolshoi's master to gather… Read more →

• Sold Man (Satılmış Adam)

  The second part of Remzi Jöntürk's Adam Trilogy, Satılmış Adam sits between Yarınsız Adam and Yıkılmayan Adam. A hired killer who ends up… Read more →

• Tatar Ramazan in Exile (Tatar Ramazan Sürgünde)

  Kadir İnanır's Tatar Ramazan is one of the memorable examples of the tough, principled hero who will not bow to injustice. Ramazan, exiled… Read more →

• The Saint Lies in Wait (Le Saint prend l'affût)

  For lovers of sixties European spy comedies, seeing Jean Marais as Simon Templar is a pleasant surprise. The con man father playing both… Read more →

• We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam)

  At first glance it is a world far removed from Yeşilçam, yet at its core lies a familiar feeling: a person afraid of the responsibility… Read more →

• Leyla Everlasting (9 Kere Leyla)

  Seeing two masters like Demet Akbağ and Haluk Bilginer side by side is a consolation for anyone who misses the strong casts of our old… Read more →

• A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof (...e per tetto un cielo di stelle)

  Any film scored by Ennio Morricone deserves a careful listen, and in this western comedy his signature is an attraction in itself. Giuliano… Read more →

• Beyoğlu Beauty (Beyoğlu Güzeli)

  Beyoğlu Güzeli is one of Yeşilçam's grand romantic melodramas: a medical student from a wealthy family and a young woman singing kanto in a… Read more →

• For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più)

  The moment Ennio Morricone's music starts, you step inside an era. For a Few Dollars More may be the most balanced link in Sergio Leone's… Read more →

• Poppy (Gelincik)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Fatma Girik in the same film is an invitation in itself for anyone who loves Yeşilçam. Gelincik tells the story of… Read more →

• Gulsah Little Mother (Gülşah Küçük Anne)

  You could never watch the little-hero films of the seventies without shedding a tear, and Gülşah Küçük Anne is a heartfelt example of that… Read more →

• Hallelujah for Django (La più grande rapina del West)

  My generation knows Italian westerns from noisy neighbourhood cinemas; those dusty towns and hard faces were a fixture of their era. I like… Read more →

• Everyone's Sweetheart (Herkesin Sevgilisi)

  A love story in which Türkân Şoray poses as a shepherd girl, with the piano, sheet music and songs at its heart... All the ingredients of… Read more →

• Honig im Kopf

  I have always had a soft spot for films that put sorrow and a smile in the same frame, and Honig im Kopf reaches for that vein. Describing… Read more →

• I Knew Her Well (Io la conoscevo bene)

  Stefania Sandrelli's young face and a cast full of the great Italian actors of the day draw you in at first. Yet for an eye seeking the… Read more →

• Suffering (Istırap)

  Istırap is one of those familiar Yeşilçam orphan stories that still manage to reach you. Ali, raised among the horses in a stable, finding… Read more →

• The Killer (Katil)

  Watching the films from the years when Ayhan Işık's star was rising is like returning to the childhood of Turkish cinema. In Katil an… Read more →

• Kızım Ve Ben

  Halit Refiğ directing, Safa Önal and Erdoğan Tünaş writing, Türker İnanoğlu producing: with names like these you expect a strong Yeşilçam… Read more →

• Kommissar X – Drei grüne Hunde

  The colourful, slightly naive world of 1960s European spy films is here too. What interests me most is that it was shot in Turkey… Read more →

• The Son's Room (La stanza del figlio)

  The Son's Room recalls something the finest old dramas knew: great sorrow is best told in silence. Moretti never forces the tears; he shows… Read more →

• Oh, That's Fine! (Oh Olsun)

  Oh Olsun is a fine example of Ertem Eğilmez's warm family comedies. Hulusi Kentmen's father, who puts his lying sons to work in his own… Read more →

• Driver Nebahat and Her Daughter (Şoför Nebahat ve Kızı)

  Sezer Sezin's Nebahat is one of Yeşilçam's most endearing heroines: an honourable mother who took the wheel when she lost her father young… Read more →

• The Band's Visit

  This film recalls the old-fashioned stories that knew how to touch the heart without grand speeches. A small police orchestra from Egypt… Read more →

• The Return of Martin Guerre (Le Retour de Martin Guerre)

  Who is a person: a name, a face, or the belief of those who love them? That old, deep question appears in all its simplicity in Martin… Read more →

• The Virtuous Bigamist (Sous le ciel de Provence)

  Fernandel's unique face, carrying sadness and cheer at once, is a symbol of an era for my generation. This film is the first remake of… Read more →

• Yellow Hair and the Pecos Kid

  The familiar landscapes of the Almería desert always carry a memory for someone devoted to European westerns. This film, too, chases a pure… Read more →

• 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1990: i guerrieri del Bronx)

  For an eye raised on the classics, this film stands for cinema's noise rather than its warmth. Gangs that have seized the streets, a… Read more →

• Ankara Express (Ankara Ekspresi)

  A black-and-white spy film from 1952, it is today a precious keepsake from Yeşilçam's early years. Being adapted from Esat Mahmut… Read more →

• Love Story (Aşk Hikâyesi)

  A loose Turkish adaptation of Love Story, this film is a fine example of how a borrowed story could be rebuilt around Yeşilçam's familiar… Read more →

• The Vagabond (Avare)

  Avare is a black-and-white drama shot in one of Sadri Alışık's busiest years in Yeşilçam. Stories that move between love and crime always… Read more →

• Flirtatious Girl (Cilveli Kız)

  This colour Türker İnanoğlu film pairing Filiz Akın and Kartal Tibet leans on one of Yeşilçam's best-loved patterns: a poor but proud girl… Read more →

• The Decameron (Il Decameron)

  For someone who has read Boccaccio, Pasolini's take is an interesting experiment, and Ennio Morricone's music is a strong candidate for the… Read more →

• Crazy Crazy Earrings (Deli Deli Küpeli)

  Bringing Kemal Sunal's comedy together with a text by a master playwright like Cevat Fehmi Başkut is a good idea from the start. The… Read more →

• Sucker (Enayi)

  Starring Kadir İnanır and Meral Zeren, Enayi retells one of the fables closest to Yeşilçam's heart: the love of a poor painter and a rich… Read more →

• Old Gun (Eski Silah)

  Even the film's title carries a certain sadness: an old gun, meaning ageing tough guys and a friendship left in the past. Cüneyt Arkın… Read more →

• Il Marchese del Grillo

  For anyone who misses the wise, mischievous warmth of the old Italian comedies, this is a good place to look. Set in the Rome of Pope Pius… Read more →

• Break the Chains of Your Heart (Kır Gönlünün Zincirini)

  The music-driven melodramas Orhan Gencebay brought to the screen in the early 1980s capture the emotional world of an era, and this film… Read more →

• Les Misérables

  This is an old-school adaptation that approaches Victor Hugo's great novel seriously and without haste. Spread over two parts, it gives its… Read more →

• Love and Anger (Amore e rabbia)

  Seeing the names of Pasolini, Bertolucci and Godard on one film is an invitation in itself. But for a viewer who looks to the classics for… Read more →

• Marco Polo

  A fine example of the long historical productions that used to be major television events. Simply seeing established screen names such as… Read more →

• Marquise

  A woman born into poverty, a travelling theatre company, the dust of the stage and the shadow of Molière: there is a familiar warmth here… Read more →

• The Lovers of Montparnasse (Montparnasse 19)

  With Gérard Philipe bringing Modigliani to life alongside Anouk Aimée, Lilli Palmer and Lino Ventura, this cast is a reminder of how rich… Read more →

• Place Vendôme

  Catherine Deneuve is one of the most elegant stars of classic cinema, and seeing her as a fragile woman fighting alcohol is all the more… Read more →

• Il Postino: The Postman

  Built on the friendship between a poet and a postman, this is one of those rare films that carry the patience of the old masters. In… Read more →

• Section spéciale

  A valuable film for anyone looking for the serious, dignified tone of 1970s political cinema. Rather than showy style, it draws its… Read more →

• There's a Celebration / Honey Girl (Şenlik Var / Bal Kız)

  Seeing Türkân Şoray play two separate characters in the same film, Zeliş and Leyla Taner, is reason enough for any Yeşilçam lover. Erdoğan… Read more →

• The Fascist (Il federale)

  Being the first feature scored by Ennio Morricone is reason enough even for music lovers; hearing Morricone before the famous Western… Read more →

• The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire)

  Pierre Richard's naive, bumbling violinist is one of the most endearing examples of an old comedy tradition that raises a smile without… Read more →

• They Call Me Trinity (Lo chiamavano Trinità…)

  This is a film that turns the grim duels we associate with the Western into laughter. Showing that a farming community's rights can be… Read more →

• Unfinished Happiness (Yarım Kalan Saadet)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Filiz Akın in the same melodrama is an invitation in itself for Yeşilçam lovers. This Bülent Oran story gathers all… Read more →

• The Man Without a Tomorrow (Yarınsız Adam)

  This first instalment of Remzi Jöntürk's trilogy is one of the films that put Cüneyt Arkın's conscience ahead of his heroics. A man raised… Read more →

• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie)

  For a viewer who prizes classical storytelling, warmth and a bond with the characters, this film is not an easy companion. The characters… Read more →

• Captain Fracasse (Le Capitaine Fracasse)

  Adapted from Théophile Gautier's novel, this film belongs to that fine old tradition in which literature and cinema walked hand in hand. A… Read more →

• Conversation Piece (Gruppo di famiglia in un interno)

  This is the film of a master in his later years, dealing with approaching death, existential crisis and the gulf between generations; for a… Read more →

• Dobermann

  For eyes raised on the classics, Dobermann is a tough film. Its hero is a gang leader who robs for the thrill as much as the money, and the… Read more →

• Emma Hamilton (Lady Hamilton - Zwischen Schmach und Liebe)

  The costume romances of the sixties have a charm of their own, and Emma Hamilton belongs to that tradition. Riz Ortolani's music, a woman… Read more →

• Flic Story

  A film that pits two great faces of French cinema, Alain Delon and Jean-Louis Trintignant, against each other; that pairing alone is enough… Read more →

• I as in Icarus (I... comme Icare)

  The political thrillers of the seventies leaned on ideas and acting rather than spectacle, and Verneuil's film is a fine example of that… Read more →

• Joseph

  This is old-fashioned, dignified storytelling: plain scenes instead of grand speeches, the story itself instead of spectacle. The tale of… Read more →

• Le Diable et les Dix Commandements

  This film is like a family album of sixties French cinema: from Michel Simon to Fernandel, from Danielle Darrieux to Alain Delon, from… Read more →

• Lili Marleen

  Two lovers parted by war and a song on everyone's lips: on paper, a melodrama setup Yeşilçam loved as well. With Hans Leip's words and… Read more →

• March or Die

  To my mind the heart of March or Die beats in its music: Plaisir d'amour, a song of lost love and regret, keeps returning and lends the… Read more →

• Last Tango in Paris (Ultimo tango a Parigi)

  Its place in film history as the picture that revived Brando's fading star is understandable; but for an eye that looks to the classics for… Read more →

• Quo Vadis?

  Sienkiewicz's novel is one of those fine old stories about a coarse man softened by love. This miniseries traces the arrogant legionary's… Read more →

• Sex Quartet (Le fate)

  Bringing together Monica Vitti, Claudia Cardinale, Raquel Welch and Capucine, Sex Quartet is like a postcard from 1960s Italian comedy.… Read more →

• Shirli-Myrli

  Coming from the director of Love and Pigeons, this film stands somewhere quite different from that warm, tender comedy. Here Menshov… Read more →

• The Seven Deadly Sins (Les Sept Péchés capitaux)

  Gathering the stars of 1950s French and Italian cinema in a single film, this anthology is like a window onto a golden generation. Having… Read more →

• Train of Life (Train de vie)

  That the village fool is the one who comes up with the escape plan recalls a lovely reversal from the old tales: the one whose wits are… Read more →

• Trop c'est trop

  The cast alone is an invitation for lovers of older French cinema: familiar faces such as Daniel Gélin, Jean Carmet and Marcel Dalio in one… Read more →

• We Are All Murderers (Nous sommes tous des assassins)

  The great strength of old French cinema was its ability to ask a large moral question through a plain human story, and this film belongs to… Read more →

• 8½ (Otto e mezzo)

  The moment Nino Rota's music comes in, you know you are in Fellini's world; those cheerful tunes with sadness running through them are, to… Read more →

• The Mother and the Whore (La Maman et la Putain)

  A film so preoccupied with literature, conversation and love is hard for a literary eye to ignore. For someone used to the warmth of the… Read more →

• Europa

  To an eye raised on the classics, Europa is captivating at first and then increasingly wearing. It is visually ambitious and its style is… Read more →

• The Night of the Generals (La Nuit des généraux)

  One look at this cast brings back the years when great stars filled the screen: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay and Philippe… Read more →

• The Quick and the Dead

  Every generation that loved Westerns knows the pattern: a stranger rides into town, a cruel boss runs the place, and a reckoning is coming.… Read more →

• Le Samouraï

  Measured against the classics, this film shows the subtle art of saying much with few words. To an eye used to Yeşilçam's talkative… Read more →

• L'homme orchestre

  A boss running a women's ballet troupe with iron discipline, and that rigid order slowly being shaken: a set-up classic comedy knows well… Read more →

• Let Joy Reign Supreme (Que la fête commence)

  Seeing Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort and Jean-Pierre Marielle in the same film is a gift in itself for anyone who loves the richness of… Read more →

• The Charterhouse of Parma (La Chartreuse de Parme)

  Gérard Philipe's name alone is enough to call up the romantic heroes of old cinema. This black-and-white adaptation, bringing the work of a… Read more →

• The Loner (Le Solitaire)

  Films in which a star closes an era always carry a touch of sadness. The Loner is the last of the action pictures that carried Belmondo to… Read more →

• The Marseille Contract

  Seeing Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason in one film was a dazzling meeting even for audiences of the time. Three big names… Read more →

• The Return of Monte Cristo (Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo)

  Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo is a novel read across generations for the fine line it draws between revenge and justice. Hunebelle's… Read more →

• The Thief of Paris (Le Voleur)

  With Belmondo's name on the poster you expect a lively adventure, but this film draws on Georges Darien's 1897 novel and has Jean-Claude… Read more →

• The Three Brothers (Les Trois Frères)

  Brothers brought together by the hope of an inheritance and landing themselves in trouble is a set-up Yeşilçam loved too. What sets this… Read more →

• Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train)

  People setting off for a funeral and settling old scores is a situation our old family melodramas loved too: death brings the grudges among… Read more →

• War and Peace

  Audrey Hepburn's Natasha, Nino Rota's score and Jack Cardiff's colour photography: this film is a treasure from the golden age of the big… Read more →

• Women Are Like That (Comment qu'elle est ?)

  Lemmy Caution is the kind of hero audiences of those years went to the cinema for: tough, easy-going, sure of himself. That this was Eddie… Read more →

• Afife Jale

  Afife Jale's story is that of a woman who paid dearly for the courage to step onto a stage, and simply taking on such a subject is worth… Read more →

• Stupid Champion (Aptal Şampiyon)

  One of Yeşilçam's sweetest answers to the martial-arts craze that swept cinema in the 1970s. A story built on a lazy but likeable… Read more →

• Superior to Love (Aşktan da Üstün)

  Duty clashing with love in a story set during the National Struggle is a theme that suits Yeşilçam perfectly, and this film puts it right… Read more →

• Bombshell Girl (Bomba Gibi Kız)

  Bringing Türkan Şoray, İzzet Günay and Sadri Alışık together in one film was one of 1960s Yeşilçam's favourite moves. Bomba Gibi Kız… Read more →

• Let the Instruments Play, Let the Girls Dance (Çalsın Sazlar, Oynasın Kızlar)

  In Akad's career this is, by his own account, a stopgap "made to make money", and lovers of the classics should sit down knowing that. His… Read more →

• The Wound of the Tongue (Dil Yarası)

  The blood feud is one of the oldest wounds Yeşilçam kept returning to, and Dil Yarası touches it once more. In my view the film's heart… Read more →

• The Truth (Gerçek)

  Selma, played by Perihan Savaş, stands slightly apart from the many Yeşilçam women who simply wait and weep: she sets out herself to learn… Read more →

• Gırgır Ali

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as a joker of a hero called Gırgır Ali is, at first, a charming surprise. A man who turns down an inheritance and… Read more →

• Four Women in the Harem (Haremde Dört Kadın)

  I would gladly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see how close the Turkish cinema of the sixties could come to literature. Kemal… Read more →

• The Broken Disk (Kırık Plak)

  Having Zeki Müren, whose voice enchanted a generation, play a singer who loses his voice is a touching idea in itself. He also wrote the… Read more →

• Marziye

  A late-1990s series that brings a world Yeşilçam knew well to the small screen: a farm, an ağa, old debts and a love that grows in their… Read more →

• Tricycle (Üç Tekerlekli Bisiklet)

  A story drawn from Orhan Kemal's world and written by Vedat Türkali: one of Yeşilçam's soundest veins runs through it. A wounded fugitive… Read more →

• The Wild One (Yaban)

  Yakup Kadri's novel holds a special place for lovers of literature, and bringing such a book to the screen takes both courage and… Read more →

• My Lying Sweetheart (Yalancı Yarim)

  Tarık Akan, Metin Akpınar, Münir Özkul, Zeki Alasya, Halit Akçatepe, Hulusi Kentmen, Kemal Sunal... Seeing this cast together recalls the… Read more →

• Family Woman (Aile Kadını)

  Written by Yavuz Turgul and shaped by Kartal Tibet, this story shows that a people-centred approach was still alive in Turkish cinema of… Read more →

• Love of the Giants (Devlerin Aşkı)

  For audiences of the time, seeing Türkân Şoray and Kadir İnanır in the same frame was an invitation in itself, and Love of the Giants is… Read more →

• Japanese Work (Japon İşi)

  Seeing Kemal Sunal and Fatma Girik in the same film is like watching two faces of Yeşilçam meet: the people's innocent, lovable hero on one… Read more →

• King of Doormen (Kapıcılar Kralı)

  Kapıcılar Kralı is a fine answer to anyone who does not take comic actors seriously: Kemal Sunal became the first actor to win Best Actor… Read more →

• Billionaire (Milyarder)

  A film with Ertem Eğilmez's name on it tells the old audience what to expect: sadness beneath the laughter and a large, much-loved cast.… Read more →

• Dry Summer (Susuz Yaz)

  Knowing it was Hülya Koçyiğit's first film, it is striking how well that innocent face is set within this hard world. But it should be said… Read more →

• Upside-Down World (Tersine Dünya)

  Orhan Kemal is a master of Turkish literature who wrote about people with affection and about poverty with humour, and that warmth is what… Read more →

• Family Honor (Aile Şerefi)

  With the Arzu Film name and Ertem Eğilmez among the producers, you expect a crowded, poor but proud household and the solidarity that grows… Read more →

• Dervish Bey (Derviş Bey)

  One of the loveliest details in its credits recalls a Yeşilçam tradition that is fading from memory: Kadir İnanır is voiced by Cüneyt Türel… Read more →

• Playing House (Evcilik Oyunu)

  A betrothal arranged in the cradle, two young people who have never met and a sham marriage: all the endearing ingredients of 1970s… Read more →

• Two Acrobats (İki Cambaz)

  For anyone raised on the familiar voices of Yeşilçam, the first thing to catch the ear here is the dubbing: Esen Günay voices Cüneyt Arkın… Read more →

• Murtaza

  Orhan Kemal's world, steeped in love for people, reached Yeşilçam for the first time with this film, and that alone earns Murtaza a special… Read more →

• Chauffeur (Şoför)

  Bringing Orhan Gencebay and Hülya Koçyiğit together in one film is an invitation in itself for anyone who loves the cinema of those years.… Read more →

• Oh Beautiful Istanbul (Ah Güzel İstanbul)

  With Atıf Yılmaz behind the camera, Safa Önal and Ayşe Şasa writing, and Sadri Alışık and Ayla Algan in the leads, the result is one of… Read more →

• I Miss You Too (Ben de Özledim)

  Ferdi Tayfur's arabesk films are a memory of a time when song and story walked hand in hand, and this one, as the most-watched Turkish film… Read more →

• For a Few Beautiful Days (Birkaç Güzel Gün İçin)

  Everything you would expect from a Bülent Oran script is here: a knot tied by a will, a sacrifice tested under the shadow of the gallows… Read more →

• Anxiety (Endişe)

  Written by Yılmaz Güney, Endişe is far from Yeşilçam's smiling face: it is a cinema of soil and sweat. A father caught in the cotton fields… Read more →

• The Wedding Night (Zifaf)

  Zifaf is a typical example of how much Yeşilçam melodrama was still loved in the early eighties: a famous model, the fiancé she loves and a… Read more →

• Trees Die Standing (Ağaçlar Ayakta Ölür)

  Ağaçlar Ayakta Ölür shows Yeşilçam at its most graceful. The kindly lie built to keep a grandmother attached to life is a game born of love… Read more →

• Prisoner of Love (Aşk Mahkumu)

  Written by Safa Önal and pairing Kartal Tibet with Hale Soygazi, this is a typical colour melodrama of the seventies. A woman fallen silent… Read more →

• The Sister-in-Law (Baldız)

  A young man caught between the voice of his heart and the word his elders have given is one of Yeşilçam's favourite stories, and Baldız… Read more →

• Coup (Darbe)

  Seeing Cüneyt Arkın and Fikret Hakan in one story, as two old army friends, is an invitation in itself for anyone who loves Yeşilçam.… Read more →

• The Sob (Hıçkırık)

  Kerime Nadir's novel is a book of sorrow through and through, and Atıf Yılmaz's first adaptation meets that sorrow with the simplicity of… Read more →

• Save Me (Kurtar Beni)

  Bearing the signature of a master like Halit Refiğ, Kurtar Beni carries the tearful tradition of the old melodramas towards a more sober… Read more →

• Article 438 (Madde 438)

  For those who know Gülşen Bubikoğlu from the Yeşilçam years, Madde 438 shows an entirely different face: at its centre is a woman… Read more →

• First and Foremost, the Homeland (Önce Vatan)

  Bringing Cüneyt Arkın and Fatma Girik together in one story, Önce Vatan carries a formula Yeşilçam loved onto the battlefield: a love that… Read more →

• Street Girl (Sokak Kızı)

  A rich man's son slipping into a poor neighbourhood and finding true values there is one of Yeşilçam's favourite fairy tales, and Sokak… Read more →

• Tarkan Versus the Vikings (Tarkan: Viking Kanı)

  Born from Sezgin Burak's comic strip, Tarkan holds a place of his own in Yeşilçam adventure cinema, and Viking Kanı is a typical link in… Read more →

• Hope (Umut)

  For an eye used to Yeşilçam's tearful melodramas, Umut is a jolting exception. There is no promise of a happy ending and no comfort to… Read more →

• Oh, Beautiful Istanbul! (Ah Güzel İstanbul)

  Bringing a story from Füruzan's pen together with Ömer Kavur's cinema, this film offers a portrait of poverty quite unlike Yeşilçam's… Read more →

• The Back Side of Beyoğlu (Beyoğlu'nun Arka Yakası)

  It is interesting to see Tarık Akan here not as a shining hero but as an ordinary civil servant who storms out after a quarrel with his… Read more →

• We Cannot Come Together (Bir Araya Gelemeyiz)

  In Orhan Gencebay films the songs are not decoration but the heart of the story, and here that becomes the plot itself: compositions sent… Read more →

• I Would Give My Life for You (Canım Sana Feda)

  Bearing the names of Halit Refiğ and Safa Önal, this film draws on the most precious vein of Yeşilçam melodrama: an elder sister who… Read more →

• My Cevriye (Cevriyem)

  Seeing Türkan Şoray and Kadir İnanır in the same film is a return to those fine years when two great Yeşilçam stars shared the screen. Safa… Read more →

• The Greatest Shaban (En Büyük Şaban)

  It takes some nerve to borrow from Charlie Chaplin's City Lights and move the story onto the streets of Istanbul; Kartal Tibet and Kemal… Read more →

• The Night, Angel and Our Children (Gece, Melek ve Bizim Çocuklar)

  Atıf Yılmaz is among the first names that come up when the masters of Turkish cinema are counted, so finding his signature among nightclubs… Read more →

• When Will the Sun Rise? (Güneş Ne Zaman Doğacak)

  For those who remember Cüneyt Arkın only for sword fights and fistfights, this film shows another side of him: a man jailed for reciting… Read more →

• I Would Give My Life for You (Hayatım Sana Feda)

  The early-seventies melodramas that put Türkân Şoray and Cüneyt Arkın on the same poster are loved for wearing their feelings openly, and… Read more →

• Cow Shaban (İnek Şaban)

  Kemal Sunal's naive Şaban is one of the best-loved figures of Yeşilçam comedy, and seeing him here in a double role, side by side with a… Read more →

• British Kemal vs. Lawrence (İngiliz Kemal Lawrense Karşı)

  Simply seeing Ayhan Işık playing an intelligence agent in occupied Istanbul, gives this film value. This black-and-white adventure from… Read more →

• Mıstık

  A child setting out to find a cure for a sick mother is one of Yeşilçam's favourite moral centres, and Mıstık dresses that simple, warm… Read more →

• Mr. Muhsin (Muhsin Bey)

  Muhsin Bey is one of those rare films that show how the generation after Yeşilçam could still hold a conversation with the classics. The… Read more →

• Tourist Ömer the Bullfighter (Turist Ömer Boğa Güreşçisi)

  Turist Ömer is Yeşilçam's most lovable vagabond, and this film shows well why the character was loved: a man who makes it his business to… Read more →

• Gravitational Loves (Yer Çekimli Aşklar)

  Seeing masters like Atıf Yılmaz and Memduh Ün in the same credits as younger directors is a pleasure in itself. Yer Çekimli Aşklar brings… Read more →

• Amateur Flirt (Acemi Çapkın)

  Acemi Çapkın (The Novice Philanderer) comes from Yeşilçam's busy 1960s, when a great many films were made each year, and it sets comedy… Read more →

• A Woman's Enemy (Bir Kadın Düşmanı)

  For lovers of Reşat Nuri Güntekin's novels, this adaptation is a meeting worth having in itself. The title is harsh, but at the heart of… Read more →

• The Ninth Surgical Ward (Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu)

  A film bearing Peyami Safa's name is a fond reminder of the years when literature and cinema walked hand in hand. Pairing Kartal Tibet and… Read more →

• Game Over (Oyun Bitti)

  Bringing Filiz Akın and Cüneyt Arkın together in a colour romantic comedy, Oyun Bitti (Game Over) leans on one of Yeşilçam's best-loved… Read more →

• Repair Part (Tamirci Parçası)

  Seeing Ayhan Işık and Filiz Akın in the same frame is an invitation in itself for anyone who loves Yeşilçam's golden years. The story… Read more →

• Tele Girls (Tele Kızlar)

  Seeing Tarık Akan as a police inspector alongside Hülya Avşar is a picture typical of 1980s Turkish cinema. The film comes from a time when… Read more →

• Ömer the Tourist in Star Trek (Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda)

  Sadri Alışık's Ömer the Tourist is one of Yeşilçam's most lovable characters, and seeing him in the corridors of the Enterprise is as sweet… Read more →

• My Prostitute Love (Vesikalı Yarim)

  Among the many Yeşilçam love stories that lean on tears, what sets Vesikalı Yarim apart is its restraint. Akad tells the impossible love of… Read more →

• Heart Wound (Yürek Yarası)

  When Memduh Ün's writing meets Cahit Berkay's music, you recognise at once the sincere world of Yeşilçam's village melodramas: unrequited… Read more →

• Block C (C Blok)

  For an eye used to the warm, hopeful homes of Yeşilçam, C Blok is a cold wind. There is no world here where evil is defeated and hearts are… Read more →

• A Matter of Life and Death (Can Pazarı)

  Having the music in the hands of Barış Manço and Erol Evgin makes this film worth remembering for that alone; it promises a familiar warmth… Read more →

• Reyhan (Dağlar Kızı Reyhan)

  Metin Erksan's name promises more than an ordinary tale of love and revenge. Poverty parting sweethearts, money and fame leading people… Read more →

• Sister Fatma (Fatma Bacı)

  A film in which Yıldız Kenter shoulders a mother's burden is an invitation in itself for an eye raised on the classics. Halit Refiğ treats… Read more →

• Whomever the Heart Loves (Gönül Kimi Severse)

  The story is the kind Yeşilçam told often in those years: a husband swept into a forbidden love and a wife who makes sacrifices to bring… Read more →

• Beautiful Driver

  A Yeşilçam melodrama from Safa Önal's pen, carried on Filiz Akın's shoulders: the orphaned young woman, the uncle who seizes her… Read more →

• Mistress (Metres)

  A film that pairs Türkân Şoray with Can Gürzap, written by a craftsman like Safa Önal: that alone is enough to arouse curiosity. Yet the… Read more →

• Nasreddin Hodja and Timur (Nasreddin Hoca ve Timurlenk)

  Bringing Nasreddin Hodja to the screen means giving flesh to a wisdom people have passed down for centuries, and this film had the nerve to… Read more →

• Road of Death (Ölüm Yolu)

  Though this Halit Refiğ film follows the crime-adventure mould of the eighties, at heart it keeps a feeling old Yeşilçam loved: the… Read more →

• Time to Love (Sevmek Zamanı)

  Sevmek Zamanı stands far from the Yeşilçam love films built on tears and reunions. Metin Erksan tells of loving an image, of longing for… Read more →

• Ya Ya Ya Sha Sha Sha (Ya Ya Ya Şa Şa Şa)

  Made in the mid-eighties, this film takes a story Yeşilçam always loved, the neighbourhood boy tested by money and fame on his way up, and… Read more →

• Child of Sorrows (Acıların Çocuğu)

  Every vein of the 1980s arabesk melodrama runs through this film: a family wrecked by gambling, poverty, a child torn from his mother, and… Read more →

• Her Name Is Vasfiye (Adı Vasfiye)

  Necati Cumalı's stories reach the screen with a very different flavour in the hands of a master like Atıf Yılmaz. Müjde Ar's Vasfiye, a… Read more →

• Relentless Road (Amansız Yol)

  Kadir İnanır's truck driver, Zuhal Olcay's Sabahat and an old love standing between them: a love story from eighties Turkish cinema that is… Read more →

• Goddess of Love (Aşk Mabudesi)

  Aşk Mabudesi gathers all the beloved ingredients of Yeşilçam melodrama: an orphaned but dignified young woman, a love that deepens with… Read more →

• The Shirt of Flame (Ateşten Gömlek)

  For an eye raised on Halide Edib's novel, this film carries a value of its own simply because a beloved novel reached the screen barely a… Read more →

• The Cowboy Who Loved His Horse (Atını Seven Kovboy)

  The mid-seventies were a time when genre comedy kept sliding into sex comedies. What gives Atını Seven Kovboy its value is that it resisted… Read more →

• Crazy Falcon (Deli Şahin)

  For those who remember Cüneyt Arkın only from sword-and-horse epics, Deli Şahin is a pleasant surprise: his first film behind the camera… Read more →

• Ninety-Nine Mustafa (Doksan Dokuz Mustafa)

  Doksan Dokuz Mustafa carries one of the most heartfelt veins of fifties Yeşilçam: a child trying to save his family. Hardworking Mustafa… Read more →

• Rush to Interest Rates (Faize Hücum)

  This film by Zeki Ökten belongs to the vein of Turkish cinema that knows how to make you think while you laugh. Aiming its humour at human… Read more →

• Two Women (İki Kadın)

  In Yeşilçam, the 'fallen woman' was usually drawn as a figure to be pitied or punished. The worth of İki Kadın lies in seating that woman… Read more →

• Rebel (İsyan)

  İsyan is a familiar but heartfelt example of the Yeşilçam tale of the village youth who rises against a tyrannical agha. Erol Taş as the… Read more →

• The Small Town (Kasaba)

  For an eye used to Yeşilçam's provincial tales told with songs and big emotions, Kasaba speaks an entirely different language. There is no… Read more →

• The Mule Drivers (Katırcılar)

  Kadir İnanır, Halil Ergün, Ayşegül Aldinç: faces that carried the weight of serious drama in eighties Turkish cinema meet on the same… Read more →

• Rampage (Korkusuz)

  To an eye raised on Yeşilçam's warm family stories, Korkusuz comes from another world entirely. There is no emotional depth here, no bond… Read more →

• Little Lady in Europe (Küçük Hanım Avrupa'da)

  Ayhan Işık, Belgin Doruk, Sadri Alışık, Suna Pekuysal and Hulusi Kentmen in one film: some of the most endearing faces of early-sixties… Read more →

• Birdman (Kuşçu)

  For an eye raised on Cüneyt Arkın's seventies films, the real value of Kuşçu lies in the father-and-son resentment placed beneath its… Read more →

• Lola und Bilidikid

  For an eye used to Yeşilçam's stories of life abroad, Germany was usually a place of longing and broken families. Lola + Bilidikid takes… Read more →

• Cinderella (Sinderella Kül Kedisi)

  Yeşilçam's fairy-tale adaptations for children are a strand of Turkish film that few remember today, yet they have a warmth all their own… Read more →

• Our Crime Is Being Human (Suçumuz İnsan Olmak)

  Before it reached the screen, Oktay Akbal's novel had found listeners through TRT radio's "Arkası Yarın" serial; for an ear devoted to that… Read more →

• Murat of Tophane (Tophaneli Murat)

  Seeing Kadir İnanır as the hero who gives the film its name, in an early-seventies Yeşilçam adventure shot in colour, is a draw in itself… Read more →

• A Long, Narrow Road (Uzun İnce Bir Yol)

  The title summons that familiar line likening a lifetime to a long, narrow road, and the film tries to carry the melancholy of it. This… Read more →

• The Visit (Ziyaret)

  Safa Önal's pen and Cahit Berkay's music are a reminder that even at the end of the eighties, Yeşilçam's master craftsmen were still at… Read more →

• Pain Cannot Be Shared (Acılar Paylaşılmaz)

  Yeşilçam's father-and-son stories were usually built on a longing for forgiveness and reunion; Acılar Paylaşılmaz opens that same emotional… Read more →

• The American (Amerikalı)

  For those who love Şener Şen from his warm popular comedies, Amerikalı is a somewhat different stop. Şeref returning home in a cowboy hat… Read more →

• A Little Cloud (Bir Küçük Bulut)

  Seeing Tarık Akan not as the handsome leading man but as a muhallebi-shop worker trying to hold on in Istanbul is another reminder of how… Read more →

• The Innocent (Günahsızlar)

  Made before Yeşilçam's studio system had taken shape, this modest film now stands as a document of beginnings. An orphaned girl being… Read more →

• Hababam Battalion (Hababam Taburu)

  Seeing the Hababam name on the poster and Rıfat Ilgaz in the credits inevitably raises expectations, but this film sits closer to the rowdy… Read more →

• A Season in Hakkari (Hakkâri'de Bir Mevsim)

  The teacher who goes to a village is one of the most deep-rooted figures in our literature and cinema, and A Season in Hakkari portrays him… Read more →

• The Captain (Kaptan)

  In the early eighties, seeing Orhan Gencebay on screen was an event in itself for audiences, and Kaptan leans on that star power. Having… Read more →

• Those Who Awaken in the Dark (Karanlıkta Uyananlar)

  For an eye used to Yeşilçam's love stories and family melodramas, Karanlıkta Uyananlar is a brave film from a different vein. Vedat… Read more →

• Wrestler (Pehlivan)

  When Zeki Ökten's people-centred cinema meets Tarık Akan's understated acting, the result is an unshowy film with a real heart. Akan's… Read more →

• What Wouldn't a Lover Do? (Seven Ne Yapmaz)

  Pairing Hülya Koçyiğit and Kartal Tibet in a Kerime Nadir adaptation means capturing the very heart of Yeşilçam's romantic vein. Separated… Read more →

• Child of Taurus (Toros Çocuğu)

  The young man who studies in Europe and comes home to be of use to his country is an idealistic hero type we meet often in the stories of… Read more →

• The Penitent (Tövbekar)

  The repentant tough is one of Yeşilçam's favourite stories, and in our cinema the idea that the past never lets a man go has always come… Read more →

• Captain Tahsin (Yüzbaşı Tahsin)

  Bringing together the heroism of the War of Independence and the romantic dilemma of a captain who has lost his memory, this film is a… Read more →

• Mixed with Bitterness (Acı İle Karışık)

  Acı İle Karışık is one of Yeşilçam's warm neighbourhood films: people with empty pockets and full hearts, a violin, a darbuka and a… Read more →

• God Is Generous (Allah Kerim)

  Allah Kerim is a precious keepsake from the early years of Turkish cinema. Being adapted from Aka Gündüz's novel and scored by Sadettin… Read more →

• Hunting Time (Av Zamanı)

  Hunting Time is a long way from the warm melodramas of Yeşilçam; it speaks from inside a dark period. Ferit Edgü's screenplay, drawn from… Read more →

• My Father Is in the Military (Babam Askerde)

  In Yeşilçam, stories told through a child's eyes were usually built on floods of tears and grand emotions. Babam Askerde chooses to tell… Read more →

• Troublemaker (Baş Belası)

  Seeing Zeki Alasya and Metin Akpınar together on screen again is a joy in itself. The duo's chemistry was one of the most dependable… Read more →

• The Mad Woman (Çıldıran Kadın)

  For most of us, Turkish cinema of the forties is little more than a handful of titles today, which makes Çıldıran Kadın a precious… Read more →

• Çöl

  Çöl recalls the reckless side of Yeşilçam that dared to shoot anything with whatever means were at hand. That Çetin İnanç and Cüneyt Arkın… Read more →

• Come Back (Geri Dön)

  Geri Dön is a melodrama that frames the forbidden-love theme Yeşilçam kept returning to in the eighties as a moral test. To my mind its… Read more →

• Hacı Murat Is Coming (Hacı Murat Geliyor)

  In Yeşilçam's golden age we knew what an adventure film should offer: a gallant hero, a cunning enemy who tries to take his place, and a… Read more →

• The Little Lady's Driver (Küçük Hanımın Şoförü)

  Küçük Hanımın Şoförü carries one of Yeşilçam's best-loved patterns: a rich, spoiled young woman, a young man who grows close to her while… Read more →

• Malkoçoğlu Raiders Are Coming! (Malkoçoğlu Akıncılar Geliyor)

  The Malkoçoğlu films belong to a Yeşilçam world where good and evil are clearly divided and the hero is loved as much for keeping his word… Read more →

• Clouds of May (Mayıs Sıkıntısı)

  A film dedicated to Chekhov wins a literature lover's heart from the start. Townspeople living with their small troubles, a father who has… Read more →

• Son (Oğul)

  Oğul draws on the heaviest vein of Yeşilçam melodramas built around the loss of a child. The love between a father and his little son forms… Read more →

• Nightingale of the East (Şark Bülbülü)

  Kemal Sunal's Şaban is, in Kartal Tibet's hands, once again a hero of that familiar innocence and stubbornness, this time a folk singer who… Read more →

• Homeland and Namık Kemal (Vatan ve Namık Kemal)

  Drawing on the work of Namık Kemal, this film feels like the patriotic poems once recited in school brought to the screen. Its most… Read more →

• My Babies (Yavrularım)

  Eighties Turkish cinema knew how to fit tears and love into the same frame in its stories of motherhood and sacrifice, and Yavrularım is a… Read more →

• The Passenger (Yolcu)

  Born of a Nazım Hikmet play, this film chooses to tell the years of the War of Independence not from the battlefield but from a small… Read more →

• Letter from the Dungeon (Zindandan Gelen Mektup)

  For anyone raised on Yeşilçam, Ayhan Işık's name is still a mark of trust, and this film comes from the mature years of his long career. In… Read more →

• 3 Giant Men (3 Dev Adam)

  It is an interesting film for seeing how daring Yeşilçam could be, but for an eye raised on the classics it is hard to claim it carries… Read more →

• Painful Memories (Acı Hatıralar)

  Emel Sayın's voice and Sadri Alışık's presence are an invitation in themselves for anyone fond of the musical melodramas of the seventies.… Read more →

• Oh, This Youth!

  That a film made only a year earlier was remade so soon, this time as a co-production with Iran, shows how quickly stories changed hands in… Read more →

• Scorpion Mustafa (Akrep Mustafa)

  Seeing Erol Taş, one of Yeşilçam's memorable bad men, not on the sidelines but in the title role is a particular treat for lovers of old… Read more →

• Father of Fathers (Babaların Babası)

  This takes Yeşilçam's favourite ingredient, a love that defies the years, and seats it at the same table as adventure and comedy. A story… Read more →

• His Father's Son (Babasının Oğlu)

  With Cüneyt Arkın both behind and in front of the camera, this film feels like a mid-eighties attempt to hold on to Yeşilçam's old formulas… Read more →

• A Dagger Fell into the Sea (Denize Hançer Düştü)

  Denize Hançer Düştü is not an easy film for an eye used to the warm, direct storytelling of Yeşilçam. It builds an experimental structure… Read more →

• Peak (Doruk)

  Bringing together Orhan Gencebay and Cüneyt Arkın, two great stars of music and of action, in one film is one of the most tempting promises… Read more →

• Bandit Halil (Eşkiya Halil (Haydut))

  A tale of an agha and a bandit that pits Cüneyt Arkın against Erol Taş is one of Yeşilçam's best-loved moulds. A brave village lad, a cruel… Read more →

• Esztergom Castle (Estergon Kalesi)

  Estergon Kalesi is a precious keepsake from the early years of Turkish cinema. What keeps it alive today, in my view, is its Rumelian folk… Read more →

• Fatih's Loyal Follower: Kara Murat (Fatih'in Fedaisi: Kara Murat)

  For a viewer raised on Yeşilçam, the name Kara Murat summons the on-screen valour of Cüneyt Arkın and Kartal Tibet. The strength of those… Read more →

• Storm (Fırtına)

  Unlike Yeşilçam's mansion and neighbourhood stories, Fırtına is set on the open sea and a deserted island, which gives it an unusual sense… Read more →

• Journalist (Gazeteci)

  Gazeteci is an old-fashioned tough-guy-and-nightclub film that places Kadir İnanır in the underworld. To my mind, though, its most… Read more →

• There's a Letter from Halime (Halime'den Mektup Var)

  A promise made in the War of Independence being kept years later is one of the subjects that express Yeşilçam's sense of loyalty in its… Read more →

• The Struggle for Life (Hayat Kavgası)

  A Bülent Oran script, Türker İnanoğlu producing, Cüneyt Arkın and Mine Mutlu in the leads: a familiar recipe from Yeşilçam's golden years.… Read more →

• I Was Always Oppressed (Hep Ezildim)

  The arabesque dramas of the late eighties carried the legacy of Yeşilçam melodrama into a sadder key, and Hep Ezildim draws from that same… Read more →

• Between Two Bayonets (İki Süngü Arasında)

  Coming from Yeşilçam's early years, this film tells of a woman who has spent years in prison finding her way back to life, and it believes… Read more →

• Blood and Bullets (Kan ve Kurşun)

  A gambling table, a lost fortune, a brave man settling the score for a murdered friend: every familiar ingredient of an early-seventies… Read more →

• Kara Murat, Master of the Seas (Kara Murat Denizler Hakimi)

  Kara Murat is one of the familiar faces of Yeşilçam's heroic tradition, and this film carries all the colours of that tradition: a hero who… Read more →

• Kezban

  Adapted from Muazzez Tahsin Berkand's novel, Kezban tells one of Yeşilçam's favourite stories: a young girl from Anatolia tested in high… Read more →

• The Law of the Wolf (Kurt Kanunu)

  For an eye shaped by literature, seeing a Kemal Tahir novel brought to the screen is valuable in itself; every meeting of our literature… Read more →

• Melodrama

  This drama from Hülya Avşar's late-eighties film years opens onto a darker world, far from Yeşilçam's warmer periods. A painter struggling… Read more →

• Debt of Honor (Namus Borcu)

  Black-and-white Yeşilçam of the sixties loved nothing more than a hero caught between betrayal and love, and Namus Borcu is a faithful… Read more →

• Defense (Savunma)

  By the mid-eighties, the familiar melodrama vein of Yeşilçam meets the crime film. A lawyer caught between head and heart is one of the… Read more →

• Devil (Şeytan)

  In a remake one looks for an interpretation of its own, and because Şeytan repeats The Exorcist almost scene for scene, it hardly meets… Read more →

• Lying Emine (Yatık Emine)

  For an eye raised on the classics, Yatık Emine is a film in which the usual warmth is not easy to find. The story of an exiled woman in a… Read more →