Kanunsuz Sokak

Lawless Street (Kanunsuz Sokak) (translated)

Movie · 1971 · 4 people

Melih Gülgen wrote and directed Kanunsuz Sokak (Lawless Street), a 1971 Turkish action film. Yaşar Tunalı produced it for Topkapı Film; it was shot on 35 mm in black and white and runs 80 minutes. E.D.E.K.A. Işık Servisi supplied the lighting, and Yıldız Film handled film preparation and dubbing.

Cihangir Gaffari plays Ali, Feri Cansel is Suna, Melek Görgün is Sevim and Behçet Nacar is Debreli Ejder Hasan. The cast also lists Doğan Tamer, İhsan Gedik, Haydar Karaer, Kadir Kök, Ahmet Şenses, İhsan Bayraktar, Erdoğan Seren, Zeki Sezer and Ahmet Karaca. As was usual then, many players were dubbed: Esen Günay voices Cihangir Gaffari, Nevin Akkaya voices Feri Cansel, Alev Koral voices Melek Görgün and Agah Hün voices Behçet Nacar.

Sertaç Karan was director of photography. Özdemir Akın served as production manager and Halit Aysan as chief lighting technician, with Fikret Temizer, Selahattin Hiçdurmaz and Serdar Servidal as camera assistants. Marko Buduris recorded sound, Süleyman Karakaya handled sync sound and editing, Mahmut Eskici cut the negative and Cemil Orhon headed the laboratory.

DirectorMelih Gülgen
Production companyTopkapı Film
Lawless Street (Kanunsuz Sokak)

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Through different eyes

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

Kanunsuz Sokak is one of the street action pictures Yeşilçam turned out in quantity in the early seventies. Written and directed by Melih Gülgen, shot in black and white and running eighty minutes, it brings together familiar faces of the era such as Cihangir Gaffari, Feri Cansel, Melek Görgün and Behçet Nacar. Hearing most of the cast speak through other voices may feel odd to today's audience, yet for an ear raised on the classics the voices of Agah Hün and Nevin Akkaya are a memory in themselves. Not a masterpiece, but a fine way to breathe the air of those years.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

Eighty minutes, black and white, a 1971 action film: on paper that is short and quick. Seen with today's eyes, though, the dubbed dialogue and scenes shot with the means of the time may look dated. A character name like Behçet Nacar's Debreli Ejder Hasan is enough to make you curious. Anyone expecting modern pacing should go in knowing that; if you are curious about old-school Turkish action, it is a short stop worth trying.

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

Kanunsuz Sokak reads as a typical product of Yeşilçam's fast production system: Melih Gülgen handled both script and direction, the film was shot on 35 mm black and white and wraps up in eighty minutes. Süleyman Karakaya taking on both sync sound and editing points to a production where jobs were concentrated in a few hands. Because the voices were added later through dubbing, part of each performance is cut off from the actor, which makes the acting hard to judge. What we know says little about the depth of the story; the film is more interesting as a document of the conditions under which action cinema was made at the time. Sertaç Karan's black-and-white photography offers another angle for anyone curious about what visual language could be built within those limits.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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