Turkish Cinema and the Recep Ivedik films

Nicholas Meyer

It has been said that Turkey’s largest cities, like Istanbul and Antalya, are truly global cities, in that they have a unique mix of western, oriental, and Muslim cultures. Despite this eclectic group of cultural influences, there is a generally accepted way to act in professional high-class settings. The most respected members of Turkish society seem to be the upper class, such as wealthy businessmen, high ranking government employees, successful doctors, and high-level bankers. It is generally accepted that the more successful and higher class an individual is, the more western they are. This typically means they can speak another language, have some familiarity with western customs, and have international connections for their profession. 

The Turkish middle and lower class are generally small business owners and service workers. These classes are much larger and are generally seen as “more Turkish”, or at the very least, seen as less western. The urban lower class is the fastest-growing class as urbanization continues across Turkey. This is because work for them is getting harder to find and is becoming less long term. About thirty percent of the Turkish population are rural farmers, which are considered peasants. While conditions for these social classes are improving, they are still less educated and more impoverished than their upper-class peers. These lower classes are far less familiar with western culture and languages as those in the upper class, as their work and day to day lives don't require interaction or communication with westerners. These lower classes are seen as more in tune and more oriented to Turkish culture. Seeing as the majority of the Turkish population is made up of these social classes, it is easy to see why they can be seen as more “genuinely Turkish” than their more westernized, upper-class peers.

These stark cultural differences, which are exasperated by western influences and class, are reflected in the incredibly popular and successful “Recep Ivedik” films. The first film in the series came out in 2008 and went on to be the highest-grossing film in Turkey that year. The franchise has continued to spawn 4 subsequent sequels, with a fifth one due to come out in 2019. While long-running comedy franchises are a staple of Western cinema as well, it's unfair to say we have any franchise that quite reflects what the Recep films reflect about Turkey. These are more than cheap, fluke hits; they draw huge box office dollars, with Recep 4 being the highest-grossing movie in Turkish history. 

Does Turkey simply have a fascination with silly gross-out comedies? There’s likely more to it than that. The first film in the Recep franchise follows “Recep”, a lower class guy who is rude, brash, often gross, and generally a larger than life personality. It follows Recep as he travels to a high-class hotel in Antalya, one of Turkey’s largest and most economically important cities. Recep gets an extended stay in a luxury hotel, where he proceeds to try to win the affection of his estranged childhood crush, all while breaking every expectation and convention of what a high-class guest would do at a hotel like this.

What is it about Recep that has such a large cultural appeal to Turkey? While the premise is simple enough and has great comedic potential, as fish out of water stories often do, I believe there's something deeper than that. Most of the Turkish population does not live in the upper class, and therefore don’t live like the guests do at the luxury hotel. Recep, on the other hand, is just a driver, which is not a particularly important part of his personality or character. Having the main character be a populist, everyman, is what makes the fish out of water premise inherently work, but more than that, it allows for the average Turkish person to identify with him.

This is not to suggest that Recep is reflective of every or really any average Turkish person, but he certainly does not reflect the more western-influenced Turkish upper-middle class. Throughout most of the film, Recep is a rather gross and often unlikable character, but what makes him a captivating character is that he is unique and unapologetically himself. He plays by his own rules and does not seem to care about the consequences of his actions. Even if the viewer does not approve of his actions, which they likely often don't, it is captivating to watch a character subvert the system simply because he can.

The success of this film and the continued success of the franchise points to the fact that a large contingent of the Turkish population like this character, or at the very least wants to see more of him. This might be because parts Turkish population see aspects of themselves or their culture in the character of Recep. As people move up the financial and social ladder, the more westernized they become, and in a certain sense, leave aspects of Turkish culture behind. Since the more westernized part of the population make up a smaller, yet more powerful segment of the population, the average middle, and lower class Turkish citizen likely identifies more with Recep and his unapologetic nature, than they do with the upper class portrayed in the film. Recep is a large personality that has no intention of being anyone but himself, and in that, likely represents the “more Turkish” middle and lower class of the population. 

While it is possible that the success of these films is simply reflective of fun escapism, i believe that the character of Recep and the continued success of the franchise point to the fact that a significant amount of the Turkish population identifies with his uncompromising character and his refusal to be anyone, but himself.

 

https://www.theistanbulinsider.com/turkish-customs-and-etiquette/