Çağan Irmak might just be the epitome of the ideal filmmaker. The prolific Turkish director knows how to tell a good story. And he loves telling those stories. He takes risks, he is highly imaginative and he never repeats himself. Each of his features is different than the previous. This might hinder his chances of being an auteur, but it definitely makes him one of the best Turkish filmmakers of our age.
You will most likely hear his latest feature, Prensesin Uykusu (The Sleeping Princess) labeled as “a modern fairy tale.” Any new film, book or work of art with some edge can very well be called a modern fairy tale. What Irmak skillfully manages to do is let his imagination loose while being simultaneously realistic and over-the-top along the way.
Somewhere along his career, Irmak has become the voice of the fallen modern man. Prensesin Uykusu introduces yet another lonely man as the film’s protagonist. One of the most optimistic, most hopeful characters to come to screen, Çağlar Çorumlu’s Aziz lights up the screen from the very first scenes. Riding on a bus every day to go from his apartment to the library he’s working in, he sometimes makes the people around him apprehensive with the big smile plastered over his face.
The smile is “always there,” as he informs one of the characters. He brightens his otherwise dull life with an imagination running rampant. He puts harlequin masks over the bored commuters in the bus, he greets a colorful phoenix high up in a tree, he shoos the giant underwater creature from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and when he is scared, he summons a Cyclops from the underbellies of his imagination.
Giving hope in most unlikely places
Aziz has two people in his life. One of them is his childhood friend (in fact, his friend from the orphanage) and flatmate Neşet (Alican Yücesoy), the womanizer with a heart of gold. And the other is the cleaning lady in the library, Hacer (Ayşe Nil Şamlıoğlu), looking after him with motherly affection. Things take a turn in the routine life of Aziz as the little princess in the title of the movie moves into his building. With her mother. Aziz tries befriending the new neighbors, the 9-year-old Gizem (Sevval Başpınar) and her single mother Seçil (Sevinç Erbulak). Seçil is rightfully apprehensive of this overly friendly man as she is trying to escape from her past, with a very wrong selection of men.
Soon after they move in, Gizem falls into a coma after an accident, hence becoming the Sleeping Princess. Aziz and Seçil form an unlikely bond in the corridors of the hospital in a shared concern over the life of the little girl.
The film’s narrative is mostly the real and imaginary world of Aziz, with state-of-the-art animation working as flashbacks to his past. While not refraining from showing despair in its most naked form, Irmak weaves a magical story brimming with hope. He has that talent: giving hope in the most unlikely places, shining a light in the pitch black. Maybe Prensesin Uykusu is a fairy tale after all.
Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News on 27 Nov. 2010
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