A small-time drug dealer enjoys precarious celebrity status on Istanbul’s arty party scene in young Turkish writer-director Emre Erdo?du’s The List of Those Who Love Me. Elegantly filmed in 16mm monochrome, this bittersweet character study combines witty, self-aware humour with caustic observations on the hidden faultlines of class, race and privilege that run through even the most outwardly liberal bohemian crowd. Following its international premiere at Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn last month, where it won the Best Cinematography prize, Erdo?du’s stylish and engaging second feature should pick up more festival traction and possible art-house interest.
The List of Those Who Love Me bounces along with a freewheeling, jazzy energy that recalls early Jim Jarmusch or Spike Lee. Indeed, Jarmusch gets a namecheck in the screenplay alongside visual homages to Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, A Bout de Souffle and more. These movie-star fantasies reflect the aspirations of Yilmaz (Halil Babür), a handsome minor-league drug dealer and wannabe film-maker who pinballs between party scenes with the sharp-dressed swagger of a young De Niro or Belmondo. Yilmaz may come from the wrong side of the tracks, but he seems comfortably at home among the moneyed boho actors, musicians and artists of Istanbul’s trendy Cihangir district. They need him because he brings them cocaine, marijuana and other illicit highs. He needs them for status, validation and a sense of upward social mobility. Two types of addiction working in uneasy harmony.
But all this brittle, chemically-assisted bonhomie cannot last. With elections looming, a police crackdown on drugs is sweeping Istanbul, and Yilmaz finds his usual supply lines running dry. Desperate to retain his famous circle of friends, he resorts to seeking out shady connections in rougher neighbourhoods, only to encounter suspicion, physical threat and financial ambush. A potential deal with a sleazy, pushy businessman Yasar (Onur Ünlü) goes badly wrong when Yilmaz refuses to expand his one-man operation into a more formal criminal enterprise. He then takes a long, risky bus journey to buy more supplies in the coastal resort city of Izmir.
Much of the dramatic tension in The List of Those Who Love Me happens below the surface, in the buried class barriers that divide Yilmaz from his more wealthy, successful clientele. This conflict ultimately boils over into bitter betrayal, but it fuels plenty of wry observational humour too. In one scene, a middle-class screenwriter consults Yilmaz about his plans for a bleak social-realist drama. The film is aimed at festival audiences, he explains, so it needs to heavy focus on “the suffering of the people in the slums.” Yilmaz replies with a baffled shrug, protesting that his life is actually not so bad. Naturally, his lived experience makes no difference to the writer’s poverty-porn plans.
To his credit, Erdo?du does not resort to crude caricature here, favouring wry observation and low-key satire. Yilmaz is presented as sympathetic but not saintly, his famous clients as self-involved divas rather than irredeemable grotesques. In a deft narrative loop, the opening and closing scenes turn out to be the same druggy party, the latter charged with extra import as impending doom hangs in the air. The closing, handwritten credits are a smart touch, wittily implicating the director and his film-maker friends in the scenes playing out on screen.
The List of Those Who Love Me is a slight but engrossing meditation on fickle friendship, human vanity and social inequality. Babür’s wiry, magnetic performance invests Yilmaz with flirtatious charm but also shows the vulnerability behind his chiselled physique and slick professional smile. Other stand-out elements here include Ali Güçlü ?im?ek’s twangy, funky score and Emre Tany?ld?z’s prize-winning monochrome lensing, with its sumptuous greyscale shades and kinetic hand-held close-ups. Both amplify the overall sense of a polished package infused with the loose, jazzy, informal energy of DIY cinema.
Director, screenwriter: Emre Erdo?du
Cast: Halil Babür, Hayal Köseo?lu, Ahmet R?fat ?ungar, Nazl? Bulum, Sermet Ye?il, Cem Uslu
Producers: Tanay Abbaso?lu, Hazar Ergüçlü
Cinematography: Emre Tany?ld?z
Editing: Ayris Alptekin
Music: Ali Güçlü ?im?ek
Production company: TN Yap?m (Turkey)
World sales: TN Yap?m
Venue: Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn (main competition)
In Turkish
90 minutes
