Prensesin Uykusu (2010) Online

Sleeping Princess,the latest dramedy by Cagan Irmak,the prolific whizz kid of the Turkish cinema, is a modern fairy-tale. Aziz (Cağlar Çorumlu) works as an assistant in a public library. Aziz is a bit of a naive fellow though he is not necessarily socially detached, unresponsive or unsophisticated. He has this facial expression that any stranger takes for granted that he is constantly grinning.In fact,that's just his facial expression. While he is an incurable optimist who is able to imagine harlequins on the faces of people who travel on the public bus during the rush hour, his childhood friend (and flat mate)Neşet (Alican Yücesoy) is on the other hand, is a very sociable,amiable man who has a promiscuous love of women. Aziz' blissfully peaceful life completely changes when he knows about the fact that they have new neighbors in the apartment. Şeçil (Sevinç Erbulak) the owner of the newly opened hairdressing salon and her daughter Gizem (Sevval Baspinar) apparently want to turn over a new leaf in their life in their new home and Aziz, the confirmed quirkyalone, is determined to have a place on that page. When something really awful hampers the dream Seçil has cherished for so long, Aziz and some other memorable characters will fight to change the course of fate. Let's not spoil the rest of this intriguing story. Sleeping Princess sounds like the previous Irmak movie Karanliktakiler (In Darkness)in some ways. Aziz is really like Egemen in Karanlıktakiler. He is alone, he does not have many friends but he is not really embittered against life. He just seeks an emotional refuge in someone who will care about him. In Darkness we see a mother whose life has been grotesquely shaped by the moral judgment of a podunk society and a young man obliged to live in his mothers shell while we have a lonesome male character who had once been abused by his father and a female character who has been running from her past along with her daughter to start over in Sleeping Princess. Yet, Sleeping Princess is not really an angst-ridden movie. It does not smother the audience with 'darkness'. At times, it sounds highly humorous,witty and lively.One runs the risk of being mawkishly sentimental and subordinating character development to storyline when he/she makes a melodrama. Cağan Irmak knows how to put a smile on the faces of the audience while his characters take the bull by the horns.Irmak also tries a new thing that no other Turkish movie maker has ever masterfully done before. He uses computer graphics for the imaginary thoughts of Aziz (like the octopus in the library) and creative animations for the flashback scenes in the movie.That really adds up to the visual effects of the movie and sheer power of acting. Çağlar Çorumlu have not acted in so many movies but Irmak presents yet another not very-well known talent to the silver screen. (IMDB cast board says he acted in "Osmanlı Cumhuriyeti" and "Rina" but honestly this is the first time I have seen him on silver screen.)Genco Erkal the sought-after,consummate actor,the ultimate doyen of the Turkish cinema gives a cinematic tour-de-force as the long forgotten régisseur at his age. All in all, Prensesin Uykusu is a movie that I would not miss. It may not be a smash-hit on its opening day (like the recent blockbuster Five Minarets in New York) but it takes life at its very center. The script may sound predictable at some points but Irmak knows how to put the movie back on track with memorable dialogue and a bit of nice music that accompanies brilliant acting.

PRENSESIN UYKUSU (THE SLEEPING PRINCESS) begins predictably enough with librarian Aziz (Çağlar Çorumlu) befriends little girl Gizem (Sevval Başpınar in a seedy apartment block in one of the less salubrious suburbs of İstanbul. Her mother Seçil (Sevinç Erbulak) is suspicious of Aziz's motives; and has every right to do so, having become accustomed to living with a series of violent boyfriends including Ersin (Baran Ayhan). This basic scenario is highly reminiscent of Zeki Demirkubuz's ÜÇÜNCÜ SAYFA (1999), where another one of life's losers becomes involved with a single parent and her offspring.

As the narrative unfolds, however, we understand that director Çağan Irmak is less interested in social criticism and more preoccupied with the ways in which people deal with life's pressures. Like Gizem, Aziz has had a turbulent childhood; beaten by his father and institutionalized from a young age, he has cultivated a Billy Liar- like capacity to create fantasies for himself. In Gizem he discovers a kindred spirit, especially when he reads her journal. Hence he ends up constructing modernized versions of the fairytale "The Sleeping Princess," in which he plays the Prince, Seçil the princess, and Gizem the little girl perpetually asleep in a white four-poster bed.

Irmak shows how such fantasizing is not just confined to Aziz; the elderly retired film director Kahraman (Genco Erkal) is equally preoccupied with the power of the imagination, especially when he spends a riotous night out on the tiles with Aziz's room-mate Neşet (Alican Yücesoy). Irmak has great fun linking the bright lights of one of İstanbul's fun-fairs to Kahraman's elated mental state; so long as the imagination is kept alive, anything can be possible.

The narrative comprises a fascinating combination of cinematic styles. Irmak is fond of using a hand-held camera to suggest instability, both mental as well as emotional: all the protagonists resemble ships that pass in the night, trying to forge relationships while being aware of the futility of their task. On the other hand the film contains numerous fantasy-sequences depicting Aziz's dreams of a perfect life for himself and Gizem, as well as animation depicting his turbulent past. Such sequences remind us of how the past can become as fictional as any story, especially to those who use fantasy to negotiate it.

The film has a sentimental ending in which everyone achieves their dreams. On the other hand the fixed smiles of the protagonists are strongly reminiscent of those used in Yeşilçam melodramas of the past (the kind of movies that Kahraman used to direct at the height of his powers), suggesting, perhaps, that happy endings are transient and soon forgotten once the memories of a particular movie start to fade. It's best to enjoy the moment and not think too deeply about the future - which is precisely what Aziz tries to do.

PRENSESIN UYKUSU is an entertaining film, notable especially for two stellar central performances. Çorumlu's Aziz is at once strong- willed yet winsome, impossible to dislike despite his childlike nature. Even the hard-hearted Seçil comes to appreciate his qualities. Erkal's Kahraman offers a nuanced interpretation of an old man brought to life by the prospect of living life to the full, even though his Cinderella-like night of pleasure has the possibility of a tragic end.