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Love, Bitter (Acı Aşk)

Love, Bitter (Acı Aşk)

Movie · 2009 · 5 people

A. Taner Elhan directed and co-produced Acı Aşk (Love, Bitter), a Turkish drama from 2009 with a screenplay by Onur Ünlü. It opened nationwide on December 18, 2009, and was screened in competition at the 29th International Istanbul Film Festival; roughly 140,000 people saw it. One critic described Ünlü's script as an example of black comedy full of absurdities.

The story begins when Orhan, who teaches literature at a university in Eskişehir, abruptly leaves his fiancée Ayşe and settles in Istanbul. There he meets and marries Oya, a photographer. Just as he is enjoying perhaps the happiest days of his life, bad events in the first days of the marriage leave him in the middle of a dangerous love quadrangle. His newly met student Seda draws him down a path that is hard to leave. The leads are Halit Ergenç, Cansu Dere, Songül Öden and Ezgi Asaroğlu.

The film builds on one question: can a man who loses his heart to several women at once manage to deceive all of them? Orhan, confused as he is, can never be predicted, yet he finally has to decide.

DirectorTaner Elhan
Love, Bitter (Acı Aşk)

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Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Onur Ünlü's script is, as one critic put it, a black comedy full of absurdities, while A. Taner Elhan seems to have shaped the film more as a romantic drama. The real problem is that it never settles between those two tones: the dangerous love quadrangle Orhan lands in sometimes plays as serious tragedy and sometimes as a game laughing at itself. Halit Ergenç works to make an unpredictable, confused man believable, while the female characters at times seem reduced to devices that move Orhan's dilemma along. Its short running time keeps it compact. Its place in competition at the Istanbul Film Festival shows real ambition, but the result falls short of its idea.

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

Mention a story about a literature teacher and you can't help expecting a film about refinement and conscience. Acı Aşk takes another road: Orhan abruptly leaves his fiancée Ayşe, and even after marrying Oya his heart wanders elsewhere. The idea of a man losing his heart to several women at once is a world away from the moral universe of the old films, which honored fidelity. Halit Ergenç's performance is interesting, but the character's endless indecision makes it hard to connect with him. Those looking for a heartfelt love story should knock on other doors.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

With a story that stretches from a university in Eskişehir to Istanbul, Acı Aşk puts the big city's promise of a fresh start at its center. Orhan leaving his fiancée to build a new life reflects a kind of masculinity in which commitment steadily gives way to indecision. By asking whether a man who loses his heart to several women at once can deceive them all, the film also opens marriage and fidelity up for debate. The relationship between a teacher and his student Seda raises questions about the balance of power, and the film leaves viewers somewhat on their own as to how far it questions that.

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