‘Yeraltı’ -- the art of contempt

The film won awards for best director, best cinematography, best editing and the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Jury prize as well as the best actor award for lead Engin Günaydın at the 31st İstanbul Film Festival, which wrapped up over the weekend.

Günaydın, whom Turkish audiences know from Turkish TV series and who is mostly acclaimed for his comedic talent, stars in what might be a career-changing role as Muharrem, the begrudged antihero who is on the brink of losing his marbles. Muharrem’s voiceover lets us know right from the beginning what is about to happen to him: “Suddenly, I had started a war between myself and everything.”

Muharrem is a single bureaucrat who lives in a small apartment in Ankara, a city shown in Demirkubuz’s universe as one of the most dismal places to inhabit. Then again, almost every location in the Demirkubuz universe reminds one of Dante’s seventh circle of hell. Muharrem is utterly angry with life and those around him; he doesn’t have many friends and admits that he is not much liked amongst his colleagues. The only “decent” communication he has is with the caretaker woman (Nihal Yalçın) who looks after the brutish elderly man downstairs. For the caretaker, Muharrem’s apartment is initially a haven where she can confide in him her troubles, but what does she represent for our antihero? Does he actually enjoy this friendship, or does he enjoy his influence over her and perhaps feed on her emotional weaknesses?

But Muharrem has his own demons to deal with: His loneliness and obsessive compulsive behavior are just the tip of the iceberg. He brews hatred of almost everything around him, especially his old friends. He gets himself invited to a dinner to celebrate his friend-turned-arch nemesis Cevat (Serhat Tutumluer) who has just won a very important award for his novel “Ankara Sıkıntısı” (“Boredom in Ankara”). Cevat, while perceived as a successful artist in literary circles, is a fraud in Muharrem’s eyes. The writer has stolen ideas and exploited the lives of his friends to “create” his work; at least this is what Muharrem believes to be the case. Fueled with rage, he goes to the dinner with the intention of humiliating Cevat, only to be humiliated himself without ever being able to openly express his true feelings regarding Cevat’s hypocrisy.

Thus comes the real turning point at which Muharrem’s spiraling journey begins into the underground as he finds himself in the darkest corners of the city on a path to self destruction. Muharrem hates the world and the world hates him back. He will always be the excluded marginal figure in the system and Demirkubuz unabashedly shows that while Muharrem is a self-exiled outcast who will shred himself to pieces in his unhappiness, there is nothing to be ashamed of in that.

The film is carried on the shoulders of Günaydın, who deservedly earned the Best Actor award in İstanbul with his awe-inspiring performance as a man who is arguably the most unlikable character in Turkish cinema. But that is exactly Günaydın’s forte: he is not afraid to take risks as an actor and his power in showing his vulnerabilities while practicing his craft goes to show that great acting, no matter what the role is, lets the most difficult stories seduce the audience.

As for gossip among movie critics that Demirkubuz makes a reference to director Nuri Bilge Ceylan in the film, represented in the relationship between Muharrem and the successful Cevat (whose novel “Ankara Sıkıntısı” might or might not be a direct reference to Ceylan’s “Mayıs Sıkıntısı” [Clouds of May]), one ponders whether it really matters. As do all Demirkubuz films, this film clearly stands next to the losers of this world (who by far outnumber the winners) and such references, if there are any, will not make any difference in the grand scheme of things.

Demirkubuz’s film is not everyone’s cup of tea; his harshness and contempt towards the hypocrisy of human nature is not for all to digest but unlike Muharrem he’s got the guts to tell the world about its follies. “Yeraltı” is a film that has something to say. It’s up to you if you will listen.

‘Yeraltı’

(Underground)

Directed by: Zeki Demirkubuz

 Genre: drama

Cast: Engin Günaydın,

Nergis Öztürk, Serhat Tutumluer, Nihal Yalçın