The Girl with the Red Scarf (1977)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalim (The girl with the red scarf) is a romantic drama, originally written by Chingiz Aitmatov and later directed by Atif Yilmaz. The film was released in 1978, falling under the "Postmortem Yesilcam" category. This indicates the fact that the film represents some elements that would generally be found in that time period. Some of which include the Turkish mentality in the late 1970s, the connotations of masculinity and a man's possession over his family, the reliance of Yesilcam films on the audience, where they showed the viewers what they wanted to see and what the lower and/or middle class people could relate to. As a further matter, the metaphorical elements of the political differences between one word titles and longer titles in the Yesilcam industry, illustrates the importance of politics in film as well, particularly during this time period. What unites all of these elements together, is the fact that they all relate back to the audience and would not have been as successful without such consideration. The film paints a dramatic picture of the Turkish culture within powerful emotions sending deep messages to the audience, and showing the importance of social and cultural issues which impact the Turkish mindset.

Shot on a shoestring in the countryside, SELVI BOYLUM AL YAZMALIM is an acknowledged classic of Turkish cinema. The plot is straightforward enough: village girl Asya (Turkan Sorak) falls in love with itinerant truck-driver Ilyas (Kadir Inanir). They get (unofficially) married and have a child, but Ilyas cannot adjust to life as a husband and seeks solace elsewhere. Asya leaves home for good, and is left alone on the road until Good Samaritan Cemsit (Ahmet Mekin) takes her in. After a whole, during which time Cemsit proves a good father to Asya's son Samet, the two get married. However Ilyas returns quite unexpectedly to the scene, forcing Asya to make a choice between past and present lives. Yilmaz's direction is straightforward; while allowing the plot to unfold at a cracking pace, he uses the shot/reverse strategy to powerful effect, especially at the end. The three central performances are just brilliant: Soray and Inanir were never better during their entire careers as the ill-fated couple, while Mekin has a wonderful talent for showing repressed emotion in a single expression. SELVI BOYLUM AL YAZMALIM has proved highly influential: the 2012 films ARAF and GOZETLEME KULESI both have sequences borrowed from the film.

True love is the thing people try to find for centuries. But you will question what is "true love" while watching this classic film of Turkey.Is it a physical attraction or is it a full devotion (sharing the good and bad sides of life). The story is a known one. An innocent girl and a passionate young man... And a third person enters their life. This could be seen as a love triangle. And the girl with the red scarf has to make a decision....And you will think what you would do if you were Asya. You must think twice.

Without doubt, one of the most beautiful Turkish movies ever. I have seen this movie on television a while ago and I dont remember the whole details clearly. But I definitely remember bursting into tears many times during the movie. A legendary movie indeed!