Unexpectedly Great Turkish Comedy

Korkuyorum Anne / Momy, I am Scared, is the best movie I watched from the Turkish director Reha Erdem which he produced in 2005. Honestly speaking, after watching his more recent movies before this one, I was expecting another experimental film full of physcodelic images but with a very weak story -or no story at all. And to my surprise, it turned out to be one of the best comedies I have ever watched.

Generally speaking, the plot is about a lost ring, a man with amnesia, a pathetic lover, and a jewelry robbery. You will definitely love the story if you love the kind of stories in which things suddenly goes crazy because of misunderstandings and lies which are told to hide something else, and of course, some unfortunate coincidences.

But the movie is not limited to the lost ring story. There are other sub stories which are masterfully embroidered into the main story. As a matter of fact, the film is full of very interesting characters and each of these characters have a different story of their own. It is all about people living in the same apartments building and each of their individual stories are woven into each other and around the lost ring. So you are not going to watch some people in pursuit of the lost ring all the time, but you are going to watch how each individual is masterfully combined to the other and how it all leads to the story of the ring. And I promise you, it is going to be entertaining.

I have watched some very lame films which use the coincidence factor to give a push to a story which is not going anywhere. This particular movie has nothing to do with those lame movies. It uses coincidences to create conflicts, not to solve them with the cheapest solution possible. For example, when the jewelry store is robbed, you know that it is going to open new channels in the story, but not conclude them. And I'm pretty sure that you will love how thing really go wild afterwards.

But don’t get me wrong. This movie is not about robbery, or any sort of violence at all. On the contrary, the whole movie is about ordinary people. Yet, everybody has a peculiar side, and Director Reha Erdem masterfully emphasizes these peculiarities, neither spoiling the "ordinary people ambiance" nor scarifying the intriguing story.

So this is a great comedy coming from Turkey and I am really sure you will love it if you ever find a chance to watch it. But I have to warn you about this one little thing: the directing style of the movie might be a little bit alienating at the beginning. Some of the techniques he tries seem more like a short-film style rather than a full length feature film. I think this is because the director Reha Erdem has a commercials background. But if you can get used to this unorthodox style, you will definitely love the movie.

I respect the direction the director Mr. Erdem has taken later on, but I think it is a pity he had preferred that "more sophisticated" approach and completely abandoned what he had done with this particular movie, "I am Scared, Mom."