Somersault in a Coffin

1996 [TURKISH]

Drama

Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 94% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.6/10 10 12019 12K

homeless person hunger homeless unemployed

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by 8bithummingbird 8 / 10

A Homeless Man in Bosphorus

This is a tale of "The Insulted and Humiliated".Mahsun (Ahmet Ugurlu) is a homeless man, gentle as he can be, addicted to auto burglary (not for joyriding but for staying alive in freezing Istanbul nights.) and trying to make sense of it all. He makes friends with a heroin addict and a peacock, yes a peacock he stole from the historic Rumelihisari (a historical fortress) and things get complicated and messy. Ahmet Ugurlu plays flawlessly as if he is the real Mahsun. Director makes you witness surreal moments around the fortress and the sea.With enchanting musics by "Baba Zula" and "Yansimalar" and pristine views from Istanbul city, Somersault in a Coffin takes you on a journey to the life of backstreet people.If you wanna join their night journey, here's your pick!
Reviewed by l_rawjalaurence 8 / 10

Low-Budget Indictment of Modern Turkish Capitalism

Shot on a minimal budget around the streets of İstanbul, TABUTTA RÖVAŞATA focuses on the life of Mahsun (Ahmet Uğurlu), a down-and- out living on the edge of the Bosphorus. He ekes out an existence living under bridges, and subsequently as a bathroom attendant, offering eau de cologne to the customers. He encounters a drug- addict girl (Ayşen Aydemir), with whom he dreams of traveling away in a boat; but nothing comes of it. In the end he ends up in the Rümeli Fortress, where he steals a peacock and cooks it over an open fire. Derviş Zaim's debut feature makes some trenchant points about the way society treats its lowest members. Mahsun is regularly beaten up by the police, or forced to do errands for the local criminal classes in order to survive. At a heart a good-willing person, trying to help the girl, his efforts at kindness come to naught.Zaim contrasts this worldly indifference with more enduring elements; there are regular shots of the Bosphorus, suggesting its timelessness. The use of the peacock in Rümeli likewise suggests the timeless theme; they have strutted around the castle battlements for centuries, and will continue to do so. By stealing the peacock Mahsun hopes to associate himself with that timelessness, as an alternative to the exigencies of the present; but hunger eventually gets the better of him, and he is forced to eat it.TABUTTA RÖVAŞATA introduces several of the motifs characteristic of Zaim's later work - the emphasis on the power of water to transcend merely human affairs, regular shots of a graveyard that once again emphasize the timeless theme - where past, present and future collide - and the regular shots of the protagonists standing by the water's edge, prompting us to reflect on the human condition. This is not just an indictment of contemporary Turkish life: Zaim wants us to reflect on all human life.
Reviewed by fittyfitty 9 / 10

man who owns nothing

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