I have my qualms with this film and want to share them, but I can see the passion that went into it and I have good things to say as well.
The portrayal of Turkish culture felt very rich and authentic. It seemed to come from a place of great love and sadness. My family is from the area, and I could smile at all the little things I recognised from my own life. I'm glad that Turkey was treated with respect, because I feel like it's easy to vilify the restrictive culture in these kinds of stories.
Now for the downsides, I felt the pacing wasn't very good. This film is only an hour and a half. It definitely should've been at least two hours.
In the beginning, everything happened really quickly, and I felt like I didn't have time to react or process it. It took a bit to feel like I knew the characters, and so I was confused. I think the prioritising could've been better about what was important information to establish, and what didn't need to be mentioned. For example, the money issues of the family didn't really come into play, and Beyto's job and studies were kind of afterthoughts. I think Seher should've been introduced at the start of the film too, because we don't know anything about her until after the wedding, and her character arc had to be crammed in at the end.
The falling-in-love story also needed more time. It was like snap-snap-snap, they meet, they feel attraction, now they're together. I wasn't quite sure when it turned from a fling to a committed relationship.
Maybe the film could've started out during a family trip to Turkey. Then, you could show the family's beliefs/values, the friendship between Beyto and Seher, establish Beyto as a perfect son, and maybe have the family badger him about getting married, then hinting that Beyto is gay by his reaction. Then, after returning home, introduce his secret boyfriend. I think he could've already been dating Mike, since him falling in love onscreen doesn't add much to the plot. He doesn't struggle to accept his feelings before acting on them, or have any start-of-dating struggles. For the sake of clarity and time, the plot needed to be cut down.
I also think the way his parents found out just felt too convenient. If it was a slow thing, where they have suspicions and start investigating/questioning while Beyto struggles to cover the relationship up, it would've added more tension. As is, it feels like no sooner do they start dating than Beyto is outed.
The pacing issue affects the topic the film is trying to explore. A clash between cultural and romantic identity is something that's very very complex and nuanced, and I feel like that nuance didn't show itself in the film. The stakes of the complication could've been established better, and made to feel more dire, and the characters could've been given more complexity. It felt like there was a lot of telling instead of showing, as almost all of the stakes were just explained to us by a character, so they didn't feel very real.
To keep talking about the characters, I'm a bit on the fence. As I said, I think they lack complexity. Beyto seemed too selfish at times, like when he almost ran away from Seher even knowing it'd ruin her life. She's his best friend, but he hardly showed her any empathy for a situation she's a victim of too. There needed to be compassion and love between them for the ending to feel like a happy one. I think the parents realising the consequences of their choice could've had WAY more exploration, and we should've seen how they felt about their son moving away. And finally, I couldn't like Mike. I wanted to. I tried. But he spent so much of the film being angry and not even hearing Beyto out, and acting like he should just throw away his whole family and life over such a new relationship. That, plus his violence, made him seem like an abusive partner. I didn't really want Beyto to be with him because it could easily become (or, probably, already is) a toxic relationship. I think Seher said it well when she told him he should learn about Turkey.
To end this review, I agree with the other person that said the acting was not very good. It's harder to tell through the language barrier, but the emotional scenes could be flat (blank faces while their voice is angry/sad) and there was a lot of sudden shouting swear words which was hard to take seriously. I think the performances felt a bit unmotivated.
The portrayal of Turkish culture felt very rich and authentic. It seemed to come from a place of great love and sadness. My family is from the area, and I could smile at all the little things I recognised from my own life. I'm glad that Turkey was treated with respect, because I feel like it's easy to vilify the restrictive culture in these kinds of stories.
Now for the downsides, I felt the pacing wasn't very good. This film is only an hour and a half. It definitely should've been at least two hours.
In the beginning, everything happened really quickly, and I felt like I didn't have time to react or process it. It took a bit to feel like I knew the characters, and so I was confused. I think the prioritising could've been better about what was important information to establish, and what didn't need to be mentioned. For example, the money issues of the family didn't really come into play, and Beyto's job and studies were kind of afterthoughts. I think Seher should've been introduced at the start of the film too, because we don't know anything about her until after the wedding, and her character arc had to be crammed in at the end.
The falling-in-love story also needed more time. It was like snap-snap-snap, they meet, they feel attraction, now they're together. I wasn't quite sure when it turned from a fling to a committed relationship.
Maybe the film could've started out during a family trip to Turkey. Then, you could show the family's beliefs/values, the friendship between Beyto and Seher, establish Beyto as a perfect son, and maybe have the family badger him about getting married, then hinting that Beyto is gay by his reaction. Then, after returning home, introduce his secret boyfriend. I think he could've already been dating Mike, since him falling in love onscreen doesn't add much to the plot. He doesn't struggle to accept his feelings before acting on them, or have any start-of-dating struggles. For the sake of clarity and time, the plot needed to be cut down.
I also think the way his parents found out just felt too convenient. If it was a slow thing, where they have suspicions and start investigating/questioning while Beyto struggles to cover the relationship up, it would've added more tension. As is, it feels like no sooner do they start dating than Beyto is outed.
The pacing issue affects the topic the film is trying to explore. A clash between cultural and romantic identity is something that's very very complex and nuanced, and I feel like that nuance didn't show itself in the film. The stakes of the complication could've been established better, and made to feel more dire, and the characters could've been given more complexity. It felt like there was a lot of telling instead of showing, as almost all of the stakes were just explained to us by a character, so they didn't feel very real.
To keep talking about the characters, I'm a bit on the fence. As I said, I think they lack complexity. Beyto seemed too selfish at times, like when he almost ran away from Seher even knowing it'd ruin her life. She's his best friend, but he hardly showed her any empathy for a situation she's a victim of too. There needed to be compassion and love between them for the ending to feel like a happy one. I think the parents realising the consequences of their choice could've had WAY more exploration, and we should've seen how they felt about their son moving away. And finally, I couldn't like Mike. I wanted to. I tried. But he spent so much of the film being angry and not even hearing Beyto out, and acting like he should just throw away his whole family and life over such a new relationship. That, plus his violence, made him seem like an abusive partner. I didn't really want Beyto to be with him because it could easily become (or, probably, already is) a toxic relationship. I think Seher said it well when she told him he should learn about Turkey.
To end this review, I agree with the other person that said the acting was not very good. It's harder to tell through the language barrier, but the emotional scenes could be flat (blank faces while their voice is angry/sad) and there was a lot of sudden shouting swear words which was hard to take seriously. I think the performances felt a bit unmotivated.