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Identify this Famous Turk... Click for enlargement! Turkish Movies at IdeeFixe at Tulumba Adam & Eve Movies Streaming video DVD/Video Movie Club To Jim and Peri's Commercial-free CD for Turkish Learning -- now with triple ebook bonus! Also available in Downloadable Broadband Edition Essential Suffixes Printed Book

The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies/Films Short Subjects, Documentaries, TV and Radio for English Speakers -- 'D' -- Also: The Top Ten Turkish Movies of All Time 'Turkish Movies, etc. Catalog' Index of pages Turkish Personal Names - Male Turkish Personal Names - Female Turkish Personal Names - in general To 'Sekreter'... and 'erotik' movie clips of young Hülya Avşar For English-speakers who've always wanted to know more about Turkish Movies/Films, Short Subjects, Documentaries, TV and Radio -- but didn't know where to look. Movie/Film names and TV Program names (in both English and Turkish), stars of the Turkish cinema and TV (past and present), movie directors, producers, cameramen, screen writers, musicians, singers, dancers, et al -- not to mention plot summaries, movie trivia, and memorable on-screen dialogue all translated into English, of course... With full multimedia features including illustrations, voice recordings and video clips... If you don't find the names, terms, or phrases you need here... click to let us know and we'll add them. Site visitors may navigate the Turkish Movie catalog using the 'Turkish Movies, etc. Catalog' Index Page. Abbreviations: LMA - Lead Male Actor/Player, LFA - Lead Female Actor/Player, MA - Male Actor/Player, FA - Female Actor/Player, MD - Main Director, P - Producer(s), C - Cinematographer, W - Screenplay Writer, Dan - Dancer, M- Music by, AD - Art Director, PC - Production Company Name of Person, Place, Thing Details About Descriptions, examples, supplements, and explanations D     Dağınık Yatak (Untidy Bed) Drama movie/film, made in 1984. Movie Length/Duration: Original Version - 90 minutes, DigiTurk Censored Version -- 80 minutes Note: DigiTurk (in its July 2007 magazine and programs-guide) posts a warning-symbol next to the movie listing for Dağınık Yatak -- because of its 'extremely erotic scenes'. 'Dağınık Yatak' (1984) Click for enlargement! But the magazine's movie censor must be referring to the un-cut original film version (which is 90 minutes in length), not the excessively censored DigiTurk TV version (which is only 80 minutes) shown on DigiTurk's TürkMax Channel. The TürkMax censorship is so heavy-handed in this movie that, at crucial times, the film's storyline is hard to follow. This intrusive censorship also adversely affects TürkMax's presentation of Dul Bir Kadın (A Widow Woman) -- cutting the life out of crucial plot transitions, making them stupefying to ordinary viewers, sucking the power out of the movie's message, and nearly ruining Müjde Ar's award-winning performance. By contrast, 'foreign' film presentations on all other DigiTurk channels are un-cut commercially-available versions. (Foreign film producers/directors won't allow censored versions of their works to be shown on DigiTurk, no doubt.) Why TürkMax exercises such heavy-handed censorship on Turkish-made movies and why Turkish movie-makers have acquiesced to the mutilation of these classic films is a mystery to us. Unless... it's another intrusion into Turkish life by the religious-right AKP government -- which retains censorship power over The Turkish TV and Films Industry via its pit-bull watchdog and censorship group, RTÜK LFA - Müjde Ar (as Benli Meryem), LMA - Ümit Belen (as İsmail), FA - Tuluğ Çizgen (as Sabahat), FA - Lale Belkis, MD - Atıf Yılmaz (Batıbeki) W - Murathan Mungan (from his novel of the same name), C - Salih Dikisçi, M - Yalçın Tura, PC - Mine Film As 'Benli Meryem' Müjde Ar confronts a rich patron's wife in 'Dağınık Yatak' (1984) Click for enlargement! Plot summary: Known in society circles as Benli Meryem (Meryem who has a beauty-spot), a young woman provides 'mistress services' on-the-side for old and wealthy male patrons -- at least one of whom commits suicide for her love. The story explores Benli Merymen's life as a high-class prostitute (who easily dominates older men) until one day the tables are turned and she falls in love with a young busboy. But, such a hopeless romantic entanglement can only result in disaster -- and the total collapse of the life she has so carefully constructed for herself... Click following for a 1.9MB Windows Media Video .WMV movie film-clip in which Benli Meryem (Müjde Ar) has a heated confrontation with the wife of one of her wealthy male 'patrons' -- as both women see that they are wearing identical diamond necklaces at a high-society cocktail party... Dandik Türk Filmleri Note: Some Turkish movie commentators don't like the connotation suggested by the abovementioned term, thinking it too harsh...They prefer instead to use the more 'forgiving' term ... Salaş Türk Filmleri. Türist Ömer Uzay Yolunda 'The Space Journey of Homer the Tourist' aka 'Turkish Star Trek' - 1977 starring Sadri Alışık Click for enlargement! Thanks to sinematik.blogspot.com Süpermenler (Supermen) - 1979 starring Cüneyt Arkın Click for enlargement! Turkish-made Sci Fi, Horror, and 'Fantastik' movies of the 1960's, 70's and 80's -- that were slapped together with great enthusiasm by young movie-loving directors, on very low budgets, in extremely short time frames. These movies, now subtitled in English by a Greek consortium, have suddenly caught the imaginations of a growing Western audience (especially in America) -- and are selling over the Internet (at websites like 5mtl, ebay and, its Turkish subsidiary, gittigidiyor) like hotcakes. The directors of these movies ignored copyright issues and blatantly pilfered basic story-lines from popular western movies of the day, which they then 'flavored with a Turkish sauce'. They even stole parts of copyrighted movie musical scores and whole movie scenes from the western movie originals whenever it suited their needs. So, for example, when Director Çetin İnanç wasn't able to replicate a space-battle scene from the Hollywood original Star Wars movie (due to time or money constraints -- or because he didn't know how)... he just pirated the material he needed, inserted it into his Dünyayı Kutaran Adam (The Man Who Saves The World aka Turkish Star Wars), and went on his merry way. (See further below on this page, for details of The Man Who Saves The World) What were the results of such slapdash movie making? Well, the reality is...if you watch one of these movies with an open mind and fail to get a kick out of it, then the fault is yours! Because these movies are fun to watch, plain and simple... Definitions for dandik and salaş: You won't find the Turkish slang word dandik in an ordinary Turkish-English dictionary. You won't even find dandik in the 'Official' Türk Dil Kurumu (TDK) Dictionary. And while salaş does appear in the TDK Dictionary -- and in some Turkish-English ones too -- its most common definition is always left out... You can find a definition for dandik in Ali Püsküllüoğlu's invaluable Türçenin Argo Sözlüğü (Slang Dictionary of Turkish)112 -- which (when translated into English) means 1) very low quality (in relation to illegal drugs) 2) low quality, bad, fake, faked, false, forged (in relation to any product you care to mention). In fact, dandik also conveys the meaning of 'garbage'. As for salaş, as mentioned above, when you can find it listed in a dictionary, its meaning is usually given as "(wooden) booth, market stall, temporary shack/shed" -- which is studiously correct. But that's not its most common meaning in everyday Turkish usage -- in which salaş carries a softer pejorative meaning than dandik. Yes, salaş does convey a sense of something that is 'low quality', but it's a 'quality' that still possesses charm, provides enjoyment, is useful, has value. Whereas dandik conveys a sense of something that is utterly without redeeming value. Which explains why some Turkish movie commentators prefer to use the term Salaş Türk Filmleri (Trashy-but-nice Turkish Movies) -- when they discuss these Sci Fi, Horror, and 'Fantastik' movies of the 60's thru 80's. Example of a Turkish 'Dandik' Movie -- Süpermen Dönüyor ('The Return of Superman' or 'Superman Returns' aka 'Turkish Superman') 1979 Süpermen Dönüyor ('The Return of Superman' aka 'Turkish Superman') 1979 starring Tayfun Demir (as 'Clark') and Güngör Bayrak (as 'Lois') Click for enlargement! Thanks to www.cshtr.com Scintillating facts about the cast and plot of Süpermen Dönüyor -- on the Movies, S-letter page. Film Clips How to represent 'outer space' in a low-budget Turkish movie: Hang some Christmas-tree ornaments in front of a piece of black felt, and shine a dim light on them -- as director Kunt Tulgar did for the opening to Süpermen Dönüyor (Superman Returns) -- a 700KB Windows Media Video (.WMV) file. Walking arm-in-arm unabashedly with Naci (the Jimmy Olsun character), Tayfun Demir (in the Clark Kent role) discovers he's got X-ray vision -- a 272KB Windows Media Video (.WMV) file. (Movie/Film clips thanks to DigiTürk and TürkMax) . OnarFilms, one of the companies in the loose Greek Consortium that buys international rights for movies like Süpermen Dönüyor, offers this particular film for sale via its www.superheroeslives.com website. One of the first things you notice when you arrive there is the impressive (and clever) way that OnarFilms have 'repackaged' the original product... They've added English and Greek sub-titles to the old film, converted it to DVD format, and placed the end result in a colorful high quality all-English DVD container-case. It's really quite spiffy! (See left.) And we really like the marketing blurb that goes along with it...which embraces the cult status of the movie, calling Süpermen Dönüyor, "The most talked-about cult film of all times comes from Turkey! Defying criticism, ignoring 'obstacles' and aiming at the heart... it will disarm you willy-nilly! The only remaining print found, was far from perfect of course but you should be getting used to it already!" Tayfun Demir is empowered as Turkish Superman, by his tooth-challenged real-father Jor-El, in a Cappadocian cave -- in Süpermen Dönüyor Click for enlargement! More Film Clips Superman storms the bad guys hideout to save Professor Çetinel. He does a pretty good job of it too -- until 'The Last Son of Krypton' gets a powerful electric shock that knocks him for a loop. And, he falls unconscious on a moving conveyor belt that leads to a guillotine -- a 1.5MB Windows Media Video (.WMV) file. Superman is on the way to save the day again, but evil Ekrem (now in possession of the Kryptonite) has been trying out his photo-slide-projector cum Kryptonite-ray-gun on inanimate objects (which the ray gun turns to gold) and animate objects (which go up in flames). And when Ekrem turns the 'gun' on Superman, 'The Man of Steel' appears down for the count for the second time in the movie -- a 2.5MB Windows Media Video (.WMV) file. (Movie/Film clips thanks to DigiTürk and TürkMax) . For English-speakers, the title of this film, Süpermen Dönüyor (Superman Returns) raises two questions right off the bat... 1) Why use Süpermen in the title? Why not Superman? and 2) Since the movie is the last of three 'official' Superman movies that the Turks made (chronologically speaking)... then why is this film singled out and 'honored' with the nickname, The Turkish Superman Movie -- as if it were the first of the three films? Why not give that 'honor' to either of its predecessors -- the 1976 Süpermen Fantoma'ya Karşı (Superman vs. The Phantom) or the 1972 Süpermen Geliyor (Superman Is Coming). Let's dispense with the questions as briefly as possible... Answer 1: It's a Turkish pronunciation issue. Turks pronounce 'man' as mahn -- with a broad a-letter. And they pronounce 'men' as man. So, Süpermen, coming from a Turk's mouth, sounds almost exactly like Superman coming from an English-speaker's mouth. And, if Turks want to express the plural (ie.Supermen), they add their -ler suffix -- as seen further above left, on the poster for the copycat 'imitation' Turkish Superman movie, Süpermenler (Supermen). As for Answer #2, frankly, we're not sure -- but we have two theories. Our Theory A arises from the movie's plot, whereby Turkish Superman gets 'knocked for six' twice and left for dead -- once by a powerful electric shock (that Hollywood Superman would have scoffed at) and once again when he is the target of the evil Ekrem Bey's lethal Kryptonite Ray Gun (which on close inspection looks more like a photo-slides projector... See the entry at Süperman Dönüyor for movie clips of both events). And both times, Turkish Superman returns (get it?) to save the day. So the word 'Returns' in the title is simply a reference to those two near-death experiences -- and should be ignored insofar as Turkish Superman's origination is concerned. Because, despite the 'Returns' of the title, it's quite clear from the story-line that Süpermen Dönüyor is the origination-tale of Turkish Superman -- which is all that's really needed to legitimize its claim to the honorific nickname, The Turkish Superman Movie... Our Theory B is more esoteric -- and melancholy too. For Theory B arises from the realization that those two (above-mentioned) predecessor Turkish Superman movies are no longer found anywhere (as far as we can learn). Not anywhere. So that leaves the playing field clear for the extant film of the three to claim the title of The One-and-Only Turkish Superman Movie, by default. Which is kinda sad, dont'cha think? DigiTurk DigiTurk (aka DIGITURK, Digiturk) is the dominant Satellite and Cable television provider in Turkey. Founded in 1999, it began broadcasting in mid-2000. Services include both national cable TV channels and Digiturk-owned channels (eg. TürkMAX) -- national radio, as well as national and international music streams of great variety. In 2007, DigiTurk offered more than 150 channel-feeds in all. Digiturk got started when and because it secured the broadcast rights to Turkish soccer league. Avid Turkish football fans subscribed to DigiTurk in droves after that -- securing DigiTurk's customer base. Services have slowly expanded, with special channels for movies and TV series, news, history, entertainment, etc. Also, DigiTurk now owns broadcast rights to Turkish Premier Super League. DigiTurk offers service in Turkey of course, but also throughout Europe (mainly for Turkish guest-workers living in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium) -- and the rest of the world. The encrypted (Cryptoworks) Digiturk service is provided via Eutelsat W3A, about 35 degrees west of Türksat. DigiTurk seems to have modelled itself after the HBO, which it now closely resembles -- and it claims more than a million subscribers worldwide. Turkey's dominate cable channel operator-provider DigiTurk's National Audience Distribution Jube 2003 Click for enlargement! DigiTurk Broadcasts in Turkish, of course, but also in original language too -- English, French, Spanish...in that order of frequency. Dul Bir Kadın (Widow Woman) Drama movie/film, made in 1985. Note: DigiTurk (in its July 2007 magazine and programs-guide) posts a warning-symbol next to the movie listing for Dul Bir Kadın -- because of its 'extremely erotic scenes'. But the magazine's movie censor must be referring to the original film version (which is 85 minutes in length), not the significantly censored TV version (only 81 minutes in length) shown on DigiTük's TürkMax Channel. The TürkMax censorship is heavy-handed enough that, at crucial times, the film's storyline isn't clear. This intrusive censorship also adversely affects TürkMax's presentation of Dağınık Yatak (Untidy Bed) -- 'Dağınık Yatak' (1984) Click for enlargement! cutting the life out of crucial plot transitions, making them stupefying to ordinary viewers, sucking the power out of the movie's message, and nearly ruining Müjde Ar's fine performance. By contrast, 'foreign' film presentations on all other DigiTurk channels are un-cut commercially-available versions. (Foreign film producers/directors won't allow censored versions of their works to be shown on DigiTurk, no doubt.) Why TürkMax exercises such significant censorship on Turkish-made movies and why Turkish movie-makers have acquiesced to the mutilation of these classic films is a mystery to us. Unless, as we've mentioned elsewhere... it's another intrusion into Turkish life by the religious-right AKP government -- which retains censorship power over The Turkish TV and Films Industry via its pit-bull watchdog and censorship group, RTÜK LFA - Müjde Ar (as Suna), FA - Nur Sürer (as Ayla), LMA - Yılmaz Zafer (as Engin), MD and W - Atıf Yılmaz (Batıbeki), P - Kadri Yurdatap, C - Orhan Oğuz, AD - Şahin Kaygun, PC - Mine Film Awards: 1985 -- 22nd Antalya Film Festival (22. Antalya Film Şenliği), Best Film 1985 -- 22nd Antalya Film Festival (22. Antalya Film Şenliği) Orhan Oğuz: Best Cinematography Suna's ready for love. Müjde Ar in 'Dul Bir Kadın' (1985) Click for enlargement! Suna's friend... or foe? Nur Sürer in 'Dul Bir Kadın' (1985) Click for enlargement! He's got a mean streak. Yılmaz Zafer in 'Dul Bir Kadın' (1985) Click for enlargement! Plot summary: Based on a story by Necati Cumalı, Dul Bir Kadın (Widow Woman) makes a statement of protest against sexual exploitation of women -- demonstrating that, while men have a certain physical usefulness, women can do without men for most 'important' needs... Plot Highlights: Suna (Müjde Ar), who lost her husband some years ago, now lives with her daughter, İnci. When Suna and her best friend Ayla (Nur Sürer) take a vacation in Bodrum, Suna falls for beach-boy photographer Engin (Yılmaz Zafer). But Engin has a mean streak -- is selfish and sadistic. And when he also seduces Ayla, right under best-friend Suna's nose, Suna's world comes tumbling down. Click following for a 3.83MB Windows Media Video (.WMV) movie film-clip (including an onscreen DigiTurk/TürkMAX film-brief) in which skinny dipping leads to 'coupling' between Suna and Engin. And even though the TürkMAX clip has been censored unmercifully (nearly 1 full minute has been cut from the original skinny dipping scene, alone), it still gets the point of the storyline across... thank the lord. Men. Who needs 'em? Müjde Ar and Nur Sürer in 'Dul Bir Kadın' (1985) Click for enlargement! Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (The Man Who Saves the World) Low-budget SciFi comedy film, made in 1982 -- now a cult classic. AKA 'Turkish Star Wars'. Movie Length/Duration: Original Version - 91 minutes. Also see Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam'ın Oğlu at the next entry. Click for enlargement! Thanks to annecocuk.com LMA - Cüneyt Arkın (as Murat), MA - Aytekin Akkaya (as Ali), LFA - Füsun Uçar (as Bilgin's daughter), MA - Hüseyin Peyda (as Bilgin), FA - Necla Fide (as the Queen), MA - Mehmet Uğur (as Creature #1), MA - Kadir Kök (as Creature #2), MA - Aydin Haberdar (as Creature #3), MA - Yadigar Ejder (as Creature #4), MA - Hikmet Taşdemir (as the Magician), MD - Çetin Inanç, W - Cüneyt Arkın 'Man' was originally planned as a 'serious' Science Fiction flic -- but because of low budget realities, the original plan was scrapped and the film was turned into a comedy. In the process a cult classic was born. Movie footage from Star Wars (1977) was 'borrowed' and inserted into the low-budgeted 'Man Who Saves the World' -- but because of incompatible projection-formats between the two films, 'Man' has an obviously quirky visual appearance. And, besides the borrowed Star Wars (1977) film-footage, movie soundtracks were also pilfered for use in 'Man' -- from classic Adventure and SciFi films of the then-current and not so current Hollywood movie database. Copyrighted soundtracks were freely lifted and used out of films like: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Flash Gordon (1980), Moonraker (1979), The Black Hole (1979), and Planet of the Apes (1968). Click the link that follows to see how Cüneyt Arkın gets himself in shape 'to save the world' -- in this comedic movie film-clip (complete with pilfered 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' soundtrack) from the 1982 cult-classic, 'The Man Who Saves The World'. The film-clip is a 1.9MB Windows Media Video (.WMV) file... Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam'ın Oğlu (Son of the Man Who Saves the World) AKA 'Turkish Star Wars 2'. Movie Length/Duration: Original Version - 110 minutes. Big-budget spoof of the original 1982 cult classic movie/film -- this one made in 2006. Also see Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam in the previous entry. Click for enlargement! Thanks to DigiTurk Magazine LMA - Cüneyt Arkın (as Murat), LMA - Mehmet Ali Erbil (as Zaldabar, son of the man who saves the world), FA - Deniz Seki (as Gonca), MD - Kartal Tibet, W - Murat Boyacioğlu Movie Trivia: Fans of the 1982 original 'Man' did not like the choice of Kartal Tibet to direct the sequel. Thought he was too much a lightweight -- given his romantic acting past (opposite the likes of Turkan Şoray and others) and given his 'soppy' directorial efforts to date. And the critics have pretty much sided with the fans, who have given 'Son' a third-worst rating at the The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website. Which probably means that it's destined for 'cult classic status' like its prequel -- as soon as some mandatory unspecified-time-period expires, any minute now... In the film clip (a 1.9MB .WMV file) from 'Son of Man who Saves the World', Mehmet Ali Erbil tries to resist Deniz Seki's advances, but things keep going magically her way... Thanks to Digiturk/TurkMax - May 2007 Also: The Top Ten Turkish Movies of All Time 'Turkish Movies, etc. Catalog' Index of pages Turkish Personal Names - Male Turkish Personal Names - Female Turkish Personal Names - in general Öyle Bir Kadın Ki -- The Plot, Illustrated To 'Arzu'... and 'seksi' movie clips of young Banu Alkan & Songül Gündüz Related: Still The Best Little Game Show In Turkey TV Bloopers -- Mehmet Ali Erbil Two Turkish Guys who rack up the TV Ratings Alev Altın -- The Turkish Traci Lords? The Short Unhappy Life of Mine Mutlu 'Öyle Bir Kadın Ki' -- What led up to it? The Rise of Turkey's Erotic Films Industry The Birth and Growth of the Turkish Films Industry Language-learning pages: Translating Turkish, the basics Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish NewsReaders' Dictionary, Index Unrelated fun: Frequently asked questions about Turkey and the Turkish language My First Time Habibullah and the Great Cannon Caper A simple Turkish 'thing'... Turkish Belly Dancers Turkish Terms Of Endearment Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Off-Color Turkish Gossipy Turkish Who's Who Turkish Kinsey Report #1 - Turkey opens up about its seks Turkish Kinsey Report #2 - Did they hear it through the grapevine? Turkish Kinsey Report #3 - Was it good for you? Turkish Kinsey Report #4 - The first time, by age group... Turkish Kinsey Report #5 - Who's gotta have it? He? Or she? Hülya Avşar (and friends) give frikik Translating Danielle Steele We are extremely grateful to the following people for their Turkish-language source material on which much in the cinema sections of the 'Turkish Movies, etc. Catalog' is based: Cihan Demirci, Metin Demirhan, Giovanni Scognamillo, and Ağah Özgüç. We also extend special thanks to the content providers and webmasters at the following Turkish websites: Sinematurk.com, Telifhaklari.gov.tr, Turksinemasi.net, FotoAjans.com, Superresim.com, and Kimkimdir.gen.tr

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