It is said that the movie is based on a true story. It was actually a mixture of several stories. Director Sinan Cetin stated that the film brought some sections from (his father) Mehdi Cetin's life to the big screen. Mehdi Cetin worked as a customs guard for 35 years at Soviet Union, Iranian and Syrian borders of Turkey. The character of "Mehdi" is played by Kemal Sunal, who was the most-beloved Turkish comedian.
But those true-stories are modified, highly exaggerated and became a real cartoon in the hands of Sinan Cetin, who never managed to make a good movie after Cicek Abbas (1982).
Like most of Turkish liberals, Sinan Cetin's political attitude is just criticising everything done in 1923-1950, when Turkey was under a single-party administration. Those criticisers do not know the difference between "bureaucracy" and "fascism". For them, every ban is directly fascism. If a few bans really meant fascism, then we would have 200 fascist countries on the world. Those criticisers do not know that fascism needs a special economical base, some colonies to grow up. Turkey had never such base like Germany, Italy and Japan.
In the characters of Mehdi and mostly Mahmut (his assistant), we see a poor caricature of bureaucratic strictness. Mahmut is played by Kemal Sunal's son Ali Sunal.
Ankara says "The borderline will pass through the village". Actually, solution in such a case is so simple. Before the border was set up, "possible outsiders" could easily move "inside", to a house of their relatives and then maybe build up a new house. The school or the teacher also would be transferred inside easily. But Sinan Cetin claims it was impossible and he always says "Oh my God, those were terrible times"... Also, no state on this world could do such a thing. Because the other side of that border belonged to another independent state, Syria, in 1948. So if you divide such a village into two, you also have to make a diplomacy with the Syrian government at that time. Will Syria accept them as Syrian citizens or not? They just can't be left there like wild animals. The movie does not deal with it. It is a cartoon already.
At first, we see Mehdi returning to his village to do his job. It is a ridiculous scene like the next ones. Sinan Cetin probably thinks every village in Anatolia had a band to welcome state officers in 1940s. Although they are shown with "modern bands", villagers are shown as complete ignorants who love idle talk.
In the scene at 7th minute, we see four villagers shown as talking in a language other than Turkish, probably Kurdish, maybe Arabic. But it is definitely not Kurdish or Arabic, because they don't really speak, they just make noises, they growl. It is a really humiliating scene for Kurdish-speaking and Arabic-speaking people. When they see Manager Mehdi coming, they immediately begin to sing an anthem about Ankara, Turkish capital. Don't ask how they learnt that anthem. After Mehdi passed, they go back to growling.
The border post is also ridiculous. Border posts are established a few miles inside the border, for the security - Not just exactly on the border, not on "the ground zero" like in this movie.
Some scenes are very short, about 10-20 seconds followed with a black fade out, and does not anything valuable to the story. They look like "deleted scenes" inserted into a movie. Amateurish editing.
Opening of the customs/border post is another ridiculous scene. There is a banner with "Yasasin sinir!" (Long live the border!) written on it. What a ridiculous slogan. No officer would write or allow such a banner. Then a child speaks to the villagers, reads a poetry. Why? It is not a festival of the children, it is not April 23rd, it is about customs, border. No officer would allow such a thing. The poetry is actually two mixed poetries, mixed in the script. These are all Sinan Cetin's comedy fantasies and it is not clever. It is just cartoonish.
At 40th minute, director Sinan Cetin makes a cameo as a shepherd. He also doesn't really speak, he just make noises. That's the second growling scene which we were supposed to laugh at. Then shepherd starts to speak English. Don't ask how he learnt it. He insults and he says that national customs are all very unnecessary. And that's the political message of the movie. Sinan Cetin wants a world without customs, he claims that people can live without customs. Well, that sounds like a communist ideal, but no. What Sinan Cetin wants is a huge formation with all countries under the same flag, no customs, open-door, free trade. Just as European Union itself. The movie called "Propaganda" is actually a propaganda of European Union. Of course, you can criticise politics. But it is very cartoonish to claim that "East/Turkey/one place is %100 hell, West/Europe/the other place is %100 heaven".
Manager Mehdi chases sheeps which pass the border... Mahmut cannot write a simple permit in a few minutes (because he tries to write a long epic tale)... Yasar, the only villager who has a passport, continually goes forward and back at the customs... An officer from the ministry brings an award to Mehdi with a band playing anthems... Cemil, who is deeply in love with his step-sister Filiz, suddenly make peace with Adem, Filiz's lover... Too much non-sense.
At the end, Mehdi resigns, gives up his "heavy-bureaucracy" work. He and his best friend, their families, altogether come back to "their country" with breaking borders. Such a thing could not happen. As I wrote before, there won't be such a division, because the possible outsiders would move inside before the customs is opened. It seems clear that Sinan Cetin used his father's memories, modified them, exaggerated them, just to insult Ismet Inonu era, not to criticise it objectively. If his father was really against Inonu administration, he would not have worked at the customs for 35 years.
But those true-stories are modified, highly exaggerated and became a real cartoon in the hands of Sinan Cetin, who never managed to make a good movie after Cicek Abbas (1982).
Like most of Turkish liberals, Sinan Cetin's political attitude is just criticising everything done in 1923-1950, when Turkey was under a single-party administration. Those criticisers do not know the difference between "bureaucracy" and "fascism". For them, every ban is directly fascism. If a few bans really meant fascism, then we would have 200 fascist countries on the world. Those criticisers do not know that fascism needs a special economical base, some colonies to grow up. Turkey had never such base like Germany, Italy and Japan.
In the characters of Mehdi and mostly Mahmut (his assistant), we see a poor caricature of bureaucratic strictness. Mahmut is played by Kemal Sunal's son Ali Sunal.
Ankara says "The borderline will pass through the village". Actually, solution in such a case is so simple. Before the border was set up, "possible outsiders" could easily move "inside", to a house of their relatives and then maybe build up a new house. The school or the teacher also would be transferred inside easily. But Sinan Cetin claims it was impossible and he always says "Oh my God, those were terrible times"... Also, no state on this world could do such a thing. Because the other side of that border belonged to another independent state, Syria, in 1948. So if you divide such a village into two, you also have to make a diplomacy with the Syrian government at that time. Will Syria accept them as Syrian citizens or not? They just can't be left there like wild animals. The movie does not deal with it. It is a cartoon already.
At first, we see Mehdi returning to his village to do his job. It is a ridiculous scene like the next ones. Sinan Cetin probably thinks every village in Anatolia had a band to welcome state officers in 1940s. Although they are shown with "modern bands", villagers are shown as complete ignorants who love idle talk.
In the scene at 7th minute, we see four villagers shown as talking in a language other than Turkish, probably Kurdish, maybe Arabic. But it is definitely not Kurdish or Arabic, because they don't really speak, they just make noises, they growl. It is a really humiliating scene for Kurdish-speaking and Arabic-speaking people. When they see Manager Mehdi coming, they immediately begin to sing an anthem about Ankara, Turkish capital. Don't ask how they learnt that anthem. After Mehdi passed, they go back to growling.
The border post is also ridiculous. Border posts are established a few miles inside the border, for the security - Not just exactly on the border, not on "the ground zero" like in this movie.
Some scenes are very short, about 10-20 seconds followed with a black fade out, and does not anything valuable to the story. They look like "deleted scenes" inserted into a movie. Amateurish editing.
Opening of the customs/border post is another ridiculous scene. There is a banner with "Yasasin sinir!" (Long live the border!) written on it. What a ridiculous slogan. No officer would write or allow such a banner. Then a child speaks to the villagers, reads a poetry. Why? It is not a festival of the children, it is not April 23rd, it is about customs, border. No officer would allow such a thing. The poetry is actually two mixed poetries, mixed in the script. These are all Sinan Cetin's comedy fantasies and it is not clever. It is just cartoonish.
At 40th minute, director Sinan Cetin makes a cameo as a shepherd. He also doesn't really speak, he just make noises. That's the second growling scene which we were supposed to laugh at. Then shepherd starts to speak English. Don't ask how he learnt it. He insults and he says that national customs are all very unnecessary. And that's the political message of the movie. Sinan Cetin wants a world without customs, he claims that people can live without customs. Well, that sounds like a communist ideal, but no. What Sinan Cetin wants is a huge formation with all countries under the same flag, no customs, open-door, free trade. Just as European Union itself. The movie called "Propaganda" is actually a propaganda of European Union. Of course, you can criticise politics. But it is very cartoonish to claim that "East/Turkey/one place is %100 hell, West/Europe/the other place is %100 heaven".
Manager Mehdi chases sheeps which pass the border... Mahmut cannot write a simple permit in a few minutes (because he tries to write a long epic tale)... Yasar, the only villager who has a passport, continually goes forward and back at the customs... An officer from the ministry brings an award to Mehdi with a band playing anthems... Cemil, who is deeply in love with his step-sister Filiz, suddenly make peace with Adem, Filiz's lover... Too much non-sense.
At the end, Mehdi resigns, gives up his "heavy-bureaucracy" work. He and his best friend, their families, altogether come back to "their country" with breaking borders. Such a thing could not happen. As I wrote before, there won't be such a division, because the possible outsiders would move inside before the customs is opened. It seems clear that Sinan Cetin used his father's memories, modified them, exaggerated them, just to insult Ismet Inonu era, not to criticise it objectively. If his father was really against Inonu administration, he would not have worked at the customs for 35 years.