Love, Surreal and Odd (Tatlım Tatlım)

Yılmaz Erdoğan directed Tatlım Tatlım, a 2017 Turkish romantic comedy. It adapts Haybeden Gerçeküstü Aşk, the stage play Erdoğan wrote and performed to sold-out houses for years with Demet Akbağ. The same text first appeared as a book called Hijyenik Aşklar in 2003, reached the stage in 2004 and became a film in 2017. Released on 17 March 2017 and known abroad as Love, Surreal and Odd, it sold roughly 727,000 tickets and grossed over 8.7 million lira.

The story follows four couples who meet at the same party and traces the phases of a relationship, from beginning to end, in a comic tone. On stage a single couple, Akbağ and Erdoğan, played the evolution of the relationship; here the same text is split among eight actors. Gupse Özay, Büşra Pekin, Aylin Kontente, Şebnem Bozoklu, Bülent Emrah Parlak, Çağlar Çorumlu, Serkan Keskin and Fatih Artman take the leads.

Erdoğan also wrote the script. Necati Akpınar produced for BKM Film, and Mars Entertainment Group distributed. Gökhan Tiryaki was the cinematographer, Ömer Özgür the composer and Bora Gökşingöl the editor. One critic reads the decision to show, through four couples, that almost nothing has changed in urban relationships over a decade as a risky dramaturgical choice.