Vizontele originally comes from the word Television, which Turkish people call
Televizyon. In this story it is introduced as Vizontele because of its sudden arrival to the lives of innocent people without proper information. At first it sounded like
a cheesy gimmick to humiliate the village people and their ignorance in Türkiye, but after seeing it, I still cannot find a better title for this      human-spirit-celebrating story.

Y?lmaz Erdo?an is a successful performing and writing artist from Türkiye who has written several books, poems, theater plays, children books and finally this great screenplay Vizontele. He is also the co-director of, and the actor: as Deli Emin in Vizontele which has an incredibly well-planned storyline and full of highly rich characters.

A small town in southeastern Türkiye. 1970s. Leftists, Fascists, Fundamentalists, an army that collects soldiers and another non-functioning government. Türkiye had it all then, and like every citizen who was paying a very high price for this continuing chaos, the people of this little town are getting ready to pay in their own terms. Deli Emin (Y?lmaz Erdo?an) is
known as a crazy genius of the town who fixes radios and lives with his pigeons that he often talks to. The mayor of the town, Nazif (Altan Erkekli), as the honest and the sharp leader of its people, has 3 grown up sons and the youngest one is getting ready to do his military service. At the same time, Latif (Cezmi Bask?n), the owner of the only movie theater in town has been recycling his films to make profit more by his monopoly.

Actors' performances are another the biggest highlight of this film after the story. Especially Demet Akba? with her hardcore eastern mother motif is giving her best in front of the camera so far. In addition to that Cem Y?lmaz's unique characterization of the cliche corrupted businessman as Fikri is shamelessly hilarious.

In Vizontele, there are more than 15 characters with their own small on-going stories and none of them feel unnecessary or disconnected a bit. Instead every character is so richly written as real humans and connecting to each other robustly that one wouldn't mind seeing a film about each one separately. Though Y?lmaz Erdo?an does something better than this idea and blend them successfully into one main idea-Vizontele. Finally each character's flavor comes together and embody the human values in eastern cultures.

2 tiny examples from these sub stories:

The day the boy meets the girl, he falls playing soccer and cuts his knee. Later he decides to keep the dead skin from his scar. Now it is time for him to go away for his military service so as a souvenir to his lover he gives his dead skin in a Muska.*

The grandchildren of the mayor steal a watermelon from the middleman that they usually buy from. While they are eating the stolen watermelon with their uncles and grandmother, the middleman brings them a watermelon as a gift, since they surprisingly did not buy one for that night. When he sees that they are eating one, instead of accusing them by stealing, he claims that they might have bought it from his store when he wasn't there.

Unlike a usual Turkish film production, the co-director and the cinematographer-Ömer Faruk Sorak meaningfully frames Vizontele with his progressive camera travels. However, some crane and flying cam shots especially over Emin's bicycle ride are little bit overused.

The arch makes a perfect angle for the comedic mood of the film, and the montage carries the joy of each subtext of the scenario together. Vizontele's dramatic climax comes gradually at the end and sits in your throat like a tennis ball as you leave the theater.

Without any progressive directing style or provoking statements about the cultural, and political issues in Türkiye, Erdo?an simply tells how things affect the people of Türkiye, who had to deal with challenging situations while they don't have the necessary knowledge but sometimes only guts.

Another interesting choice is the film does not wait for the "television" to really start its drama when The Turkish government decides to send them as the necessity of being westernized! Yet, the film does not really end when with its last scene arrives either.

Soon nothing will be the same there for anyone with this visual device that brings and takes away unexpected things.



*A piece of clothe which Muslims usually put a prayer inside.