Sometimes you don’t know almost any actor in a film, but you watch that film because there is only one actor, or you don’t know an actor, but you watch and follow the director who made the film.Our favourite actors and directors have always had a special place in our lives. When I saw the first poster, my heart started beating faster with excitement, and when I read the names of the actors in order, I even felt a Mexican Wave inside me. I mentioned at the beginning, sometimes you watch a film for an actor or director. Imagine; if those actors and the director meet in the same place, can there be a bigger excitement for a film lover? Who wasn’t on that poster?
Uğur Yücel, the great master Uğur Yücel, who sat in the director and actor’s chair in many projects, who still gives us goosebumps when we watch the film Eşkıya, Kenan İmirzalıoğlu, who has taken great steps in the cinema and TV series sector in recent years, who we know from the films “Yazı Tura” and “Kabadayı”, who is one of the jöns of the future and even today, and Nejat İşler, another jön candidate who is engraved in our minds with the film “Barda”, which has many of the features I have just mentioned, were the first names that stood out on the poster. In addition, Ceyda Düvenci, who gained acclaim with her role in “Her Şey Çok Güzel Olacak”, Berrak Tüzünataç, whom we will remember from a Zeki Demirkubuz film “Kıskanmak”, and Ozan Güven, the Taşo of the film A.R.O.G, were successful actors who were taking part in this film. Do you understand the reason for this excitement? Even if these actors were to make a film on their own, you would sit down and watch it, but they are all together and formed a circle around Uğur Yücel. Uğur Yücel, as actor and director, is in the centre of the circle and greeting us.
Uğur Yücel; He sat in the director’s chair with the series İkinci Bahar and Karanlıkta Koşanlar, and then with the film Yazı Tura, he gave the signals that he would keep his place in that seat for many years with the awards he received. Anyway, it is unnecessary to say anything about his acting…
So far, so good. The director and actors are what we call number 10, so to speak. When the script and editing come into play, things get a bit complicated. The script was entrusted to Kubilay Tat, but Uğur Yücel seems to have blended it a bit. The motifs of Ahmet Ümit, a writer he worked with in the past, are occasionally seen in the film. When I first heard the plot of the film, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. A killer who commits serial murders, good and bad cops trying to catch him, mysterious environments and overcast, stuffy weather. Although the subject of serial killers is far away for our country, because of the American films we have watched, we embrace this subject as if it happened in us and we even comment on it as we do now. How could we not; the men made all kinds of serial killers and we sat and watched. You can call it a bone collector, you can call it a self-justifier, you can call it a religious ritual killer, you name it. The guys really made a few copies of all subjects. When this happens, you enter into a flood of thoughts about how a Turkish film about a serial killer would be, and you expect a little originality. Why? What kind of a film do you think it would be if there was a passenger ship sailing to the Marmara Sea, if two passengers got on the deck of a ship that is said to be unsinkable and opened their arms to the side, and if the name of this ship was Batanik? Only the name is different, but the subject matter and clichés are exactly the same. OK, it would be the first film of this kind shot in Turkey, but what happens next? We’ll categorise it as an absurd comedy and watch it like that…
When we leave the prejudices and look at the scenario; Ensar (Nejat İşler), who is doing his military service as a commando in the Southeast, comes home after finishing his military service and encounters bad news. His 12-year-old sister was raped by a mentally ill ex-convict and her sister committed suicide. Ensar wants to take revenge for this, but his path crosses with Scorpion Celal (Kenan İmirzalıoğlu), the chief inspector of the homicide department, who wants to stop him. A series of murders are committed in which paedophiles and rape criminals who are released from prison after a special amnesty are killed. Ensar disappears during these murders and all suspicions are centred on him. 1 month later, Abbas (Uğur Yücel), the deputy director of the homicide unit, who dreams of retiring and living with his lover Cavidan (Ceyda Düvenci), and the chief inspector Scorpion Celal take over the investigation. Ezo (Berrak Tüzünataç), a trainee at the centre, helps them in this case and becomes dangerously close to Scorpion Celal.
The film classically revolves around the pursuit of a serial killer. The first disappointment starts here. Nejat İşler is portrayed as the lead actor, whereas Remzi (Ozan Güven), who plays a supporting role, appears on screen almost more than him. The fact that Nejat İşler, that is Ensar, is never seen in the middle of the film has largely caused the predictions about the end of the film to be made at the beginning of the film.
The point we will discuss; as I mentioned above, in order to be the first within the borders of Turkey, it may be possible to shoot clichés that the world is now ashamed to do. A serial killer, a twist ending at the end of the film, clichés such as good cop, bad cop (if the audience does not feel it, it would be number 10 and applauded, but in this film we have the luxury of making a point shot, not a guess from the first part, thanks to a few details) are the kind of clichés that we now eat and swallow. The film first welcomes you with the Se7en atmosphere and continues and completes it. Rainy weather, dimly lit environments make you think that this is a serial killer film. Because many times you have watched films in this genre with different actors, directed by different directors but with the same subjects. After a while we remember the film Saints of the City. The public’s support for the murderer, their defence of the rightness of him finding his own justice in the way he has chosen leaves a smile on our faces. Some of the cult scenes in the film remind us of some episodes from Hollywood films. Ezo and Scorpio Celal’s jokes mixed with slaps to each other; Mr. & Mrs. Smith style is a nice thing to say. Throughout the film; it is possible to sense an Original Murders, Al Pacino Uğur Yücel air and tone of voice. For some reason, all the actors speak to us either with a dialect or with a shaky voice tone, which is a situation to be discussed separately.
There are many good things to say about the acting. Uğur Yücel and Kenan İmirzalıoğlu did justice to their roles and carried the film. Ceyda Düvenci managed to bring her acting to the forefront in the pavilion scenes and other scenes and put you in the atmosphere of the film, but her story is also unfinished. Once again, the script and editing are the shortcomings of the film. The character of Cavidan is also one of the unknowns. Berrak Tüzünataç comes to the forefront in a few frames apart from the lovemaking scene. Nejat Isler is not on the market anyway. The names I saw on the poster were disappearing from my mind one by one.
I have to give credit to the action scenes, a team working with Luc Besson was brought from France to shoot the special scenes. The scene of flying a car from the Galata Bridge is another cliché, as if it was added to the film later. Of course, it’s nice that we now have a jumping scene, but it’s a bit boring to watch it again when the scene of jumping over the bridge as it closes has become a must for every detective film, and to guess that the car will fly off the bridge as soon as it gets on the bridge before watching it.
In short, while there are countless films with the same subject matter, the same dialogues and clichés, making this film with such a budget and cast just for box office expectations casts a shadow on Uğur Yücel’s good work in the past. If a film is to drown, it should drown in the sea of originality. Because in that film, the actors or the director can be a lifeline and save the film from drowning. In the ocean of Hollywood clichés, there are already many American films drowning, and even if we do not drown there, we cannot be different from Batanik. Although the film represents a big step for Turkey but a small step for the world, it can be watched and even enjoyed with its feature of being the first Turkish film of better quality shot in this genre after Beyza’s Women. Of course, if you have not spent your life watching American serial killer, detective films. Otherwise, it is not even inevitable that you will not remember another film in every second.
By the way, I never mentioned the name of the film, if those who have not watched it will watch it out of curiosity;
Our film is called: Dragon Trap (Ejder Kapanı)…
Good clichés
DETAILS
Release Date: 22 January 2010
Duration: 135min
imdb: 6.5
Genre: Action, Thriller, Crime
Director: Uğur Yücel
Screenwriter: Kubilay Tat
Production: 2010 – Türkiye
Producer: Erol Avcı
