Propaganda (1999)

I liked this movie in general. It is funny and it mocked of bureaucracy in particular. Anyhow some things were not really realistic. I can't imagine that in a such rural society in west Asia a pregnant girl before marriage would have been so tolerated as in this movie! It shows also some interesting aspects like the arid nature of this region and the nature of its people. I spent a nice time in this movie. I encourage that more movies from that relatively unknown region of the world (middle east- west Asia) should be made

Fmovies: I am amazed at the number of things this director must have thought he could get away with. The events in the movie just cannot take place the way they are portrayed, and there are too many of them. The basic plot is an impossible one: I can understand a town being divided geographically by the new border, but not the story that some of its people would be left on the other side (and by force). The love story in the movie smells Hollywood, it just does not belong in a Southeastern Anatolian town. The ending is totally ridiculous. There are several "inside" jokes in the movie that for example a foreign spectator would not get, and their presence makes you think the director was not serious at all. The ambitious and job-conscious civil servant character is drawn in a heavy handed manner and disturbs as to the motivation of the director. Propaganda made me think that its director is a half-intellectual opportunist who has no respect for his own work. This movie is a total waste of time.

I watched the movie on Cd last night and cannot believe again the poor handling of the topic by the most-pretentious director of Turkey who just happens to be hosting a sopa-opera-style TV show where separated couples are brought together (tears to my eyes...). The director has the notorious background of imitating Hollywood style and making films which do not have the depth a work of cinema should have in order to be considered as a work of art. My criticism for "Eskiya" applies to this movies also: The movie is more a critic of the Turkish bureaucracy rather that a commment on the Southeastern life. The film is quite unrealistic and it seems as if the degree of such an unrealism is the director's struggle to add some comic relief, a funny dimension to the movie. However what happens is a bad mixture of failed surrealism (yes.. remember the barren landscape and Colorado-runaway-plot and pregnant-but-acceptable-girl) with far-fetched social commentary. The film ends with the most ridiculous eway it could do. You cannot help but ask what will happen when they break the border. You do not leave the theatre relieved but rather with a more troubled and worried mind. What's more I guess the performance problems of Kemal Sunal is much more serious that that of the film itself. He seems to have ended his career artistically with this movie ( I do not mention Cumbul and El Roman who even did not start serious artistic careers at all). His acting lacks enthusiasm and is artificial. Do not expect to see the Saban performances. I could go on forever talking about the gaps in the plot, errors in cut and badly done act and cinematography problems. At the bottom this movie is a good example of how you can start with good actors, a good story, a good director of photography, nice setting but end up messing them all. The director Çetin's appearance and his mock-Kurdish speech later mixed with English cuss-words reveal that the movie is not serious at all. Sorry for those who liked it but this is just another Sinan Çetin moviewhich tries to reach fame with a quick gathering of few popular names rather than focusing on the artistic and cinematographic quality.

Propaganda fmovies. Sinan Cetin, on the evidence of this film, seems to be a follower of the Norman Jewison tradition of romantic comedy; I thought of The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming, The Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck... Cetin knows how to milk a situation for pathos, and to get good performances from his actors.

Kemal Sunal as Mehdi gives a wonderfully funny and touching performance as the civil servant who can't see where his rigid and unimaginative application of the rules is taking him and the village. When his wife declares that the border runs through their bed from now on, all he can do is sigh fatalistically. Metin Akpinar is splendid as Rahim, the doctor and life-long friend to Mehdi--he reminded me of Topol at times.

The blend of Romeo and Juliet, Kafka and Hollywood formula comedy will not work for all viewers, but I was greatly entertained.

Propaganda is another failed attempt by Sinan Cetin to make decent, above-average movie. The experience and talent of the cast list seems to give him a head-start in Propaganda, but he squanders this credit with usual sloppiness and lack of imagination. Even so, Propaganda is not as unwatchable as his older movies.

Sinan Cetin is a spoiled, pretentious, unimaginative demagogue with no decent story-telling skills, and he generally builds his movies around empty, overly-populist, lumpen, pseudo-critiques of the 'system'. He is a consistently bad director, and his movies must be avoided at all costs.

Propaganda, fails miserably especially at the finale, where Cetin once again plays his cheap demagogical tune with a 'rally around the flag' trick with no subtlety, no wit, and certainly with no success.

To be honest, Propaganda is Cetin's best work (which is sad). So if you really need to have an idea of him, watch this one.

Well another Box-Office Film in Turkey: Propaganda. I think it was one of the films in which you realise that your work is not always so important as your friends. Especially when it's your friend from your childhood and your son is going to marry his daughter. The movie had sacharastic Fun and some Drama in it which is a mark for Sinan Cetin. Well watch the Movie and see it for your self. I give it a rating of 9 points.