Ben Hopkins has an acute outsider’s eye, and it’s the accumulation of telling detail that makes this mid-’90s tale of a smalltown Turkish chancer so satirically sharp and dramatically poignant. Despising organised criminality, wheeler-dealer Tayanç Ayaydin is desperate to tap into the mobile phone boom. But the same inner conflict that drives this devout Muslim to drink compels him to risk his reputation on a hazardous quick-buck scheme involving stolen medical supplies.
Ayaydi makes a charismatic anti-hero and his exchanges with crotchety uncle Genco Erkal crackle with sour wit and a sullen sense of injustice. Hopkins missteps with the chorus interludes, but his use of landscape is exceptional and the uplifting ending is neatly judged.