The Ottoman Republic

Synopsis

The year is 1888. A 7-year-old child was first seen running on a vast field to scare the crows off of the meadows of Thessalonica, and then he falls from a tree while reaching out to a nightingale. Everything goes black. The child who falls from the tree is Mustafa, who would have grown to become the founder of Turkey and be given the surname Atatürk, that is, if he did not fall to his coma that day. The film fast-forwards to over a century later into the year 2007. Without Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey's history, no War of Independence has been fought, Ankara has not become the country's capital, and the country continues its existence as the Ottoman Republic, ruled by the Sultan Osman VII (Ata Demirer), who has become little more than a figurehead and a source of ridicule by foreign dignitaries, especially by the United States.

At first, he emerges from his palace as Janissaries play a march for him. Outside the palace, several protesters who objected to foreign interference in Ottoman affairs were suppressed by the police. He then prays at a mosque, before the next scenes focus on his wife's shopping.

For all of his bumbling antics, the Sultan was forced to abdicate for his failed administration, and was exiled. The scene shifts from the Istanbul harbour back to the wheat fields of Thessalonica, as the boy Mustafa recovers from his coma. He gets up and runs off beating a can with a stick, as a voice-over of one of his future speeches plays in the background.

Release

The film opened on general release in 205 screens across Turkey on November 21, 2008 (2008-11-21) at number one in the Turkish box office chart with a worldwide opening weekend gross of $1,988,968.

Box Office

The movie was number one at the Turkish box office for two weeks running and was the fourth-highest-grossing Turkish film of 2009 with a total gross of $7,746,467. It remained in the Turkish box-office charts for nineteen weeks and made a total worldwide gross of $8,689,739.

Reviews

In his latest historical comedy, popular satirist and TV writer, Gani Müjde, travels on similar turf, to his debut feature "Kahpe Bizans" (The Perfidious Byzantium), which poked fun at the earlier nationalist films of Turkish cinema, introduces Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emrah Güler, who concludes, both Gani Müjde and Ata Demirer are favorite household names who never fail to put a smile on followers of Turkish pop culture.