Saturday, 18 September 2021 18:49

Market, The A Tale of Trade






PAZAR – BIR TICARET MASALI (THE MARKET – A TALE OF TRADE)

Turkey, 2008, 93 minutes, Colour.
Tayanc Ayaydin, Genco Erkal, Hakan Sahin, Rojin Ulker.
Directed by Ben Hopkins.

Though written and directed by British Ben Hopkins, this is a Turkish film. It has won some top awards at Turkish festivals and national awards. However, while it has a strong flavour of Eastern Turkey and Azerbaijan, it has universal interest and appeal.

Hopkins directed the rather striking 19th century fable, Simon Magus. His output in the years following is not extensive and includes some low budget dramas and some documentaries. The idea for this film came from a visit to Moldava in the 1990s and an examination of how people survived with trade and the black market after the fall of Communism. However, there is no major film industry in Moldava. Hopkins visited Turkey and made a documentary in the Eastern region of the country. With the backing of Turkey's film industry and international help, he set his story in this Eastern part of Turkey, Kurdistan.

The film is brief but, with the location photography graphically showing the mountainous landscapes, the deserts and the villages, the audience will feel that it has visited this part of the world.

Mirham is a small-time fixer. Anything you want, he can find it and offer you a bargain. He is an independent, which irks the local black market mini-czar. He is married to a loving wife who sees the good man underneath the surface. He loves his little daughter and his wife is pregnant. Despite being a devout man who prays and visits his mosque, he drinks and gambles at cards.

When he undertakes a mission to buy children's medicine in Azerbaijan because the lorry carrying pharmaceuticals to the village has been hijacked, he takes it as a sign that he should become respectable and set up a shop for selling the coming mobile phones (this is 1994). The journey does not turn out as hoped for – but we see Mirhan in action, smuggling chemicals under his car, letting the border guard have a cigarette mini-bribe. He also engages the help of his old uncle.

The thing with Mirhan is that he has charisma, he is a charmer you can't help but like and hopes that he makes good. And his uncle is a great gentleman of the old school. Together, they keep us watching and hoping.

In the background, of course, are the pressures of capitalism (and some TV footage of how the mineral they are smuggling in Turker comes from exploited workers in Africa), the globalism of companies like those for mobile phones. And, there is the ever-present local corruption. Interesting, entertaining and thoughtful.

1.The title? The role of the market? Trade? Sales and dealers? Legitimate business, the black market, corruption? Globalisation?

2.The Turkish settings, Eastern Turkey, the towns, the dealers and robberies, the needs, the terrain and the mountains, the Azerbaijan border, Azerbaijan towns, homes and streets, cafés and hospitals, the borders? A sense of realism?

3.The stylised song, the introduction to Mihram? The song later, Mihriam sleeping, the end? The Ballad of Mihram?

4.The introduction: the factory, the bosses, the workers, deals, the wiring, the failure, the wire stolen, reselling?

5.Mihram as a personality, his charm, ability to sell, his gambling failures, losing, drinking with his friends, his love for his wife, daughter, her being long-suffering? The lack of money? At home, his hopes? The discovery about mobile phones? Needing the money, wanting to set up a shop? His visiting the building of the mobile phone towers?

6.1994, Turkey and change, commerce, mobile phone towers, the phones, the global companies, learning English? The smooth talk for salesmen? Mihram and his wanting to build a shop, Mustafa and his pressure to become a partner?

7.The doctor, the medicines stolen, the deal, the plan, getting the vehicle?

8.Going to Azerbaijan, smuggling chemicals, the guards and the search, the bribe of the cigarettes? Going to his uncle, his uncle’s personality, long history, being in Azerbaijan, a learned man, a good man? Going to the factory, the deal for the sale, the bargaining? The use of the chemicals – and the later information on television about the exploitation of Africa to get this chemicals?

9.The money, gambling, trying to be too smart, bashed and robbed in the streets?

10.Going to the hospital, the pharmacist having sold the medicine, his frustration, the treatment by the staff, his stealing the medicine? The escape? His uncle’s reaction? Going to other hospitals? The uncle discovering the doctor had died earlier?

11.The return home, Mihram and his hopes, Mustafa and his having stolen and bought the pharmaceuticals? The confrontation with Mustafa? Drinking, beaten?

12.The possible hopes, his wife and her continued support, love, pregnancy, the family? His uncle, a strong character? The possibility of setting up the mobile phone shop with the help of his uncle?

13.The title, themes of the market, globalisation, global forces, individual victims? Corruption?
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