Beginning with former students of a film school Hakan, Gaye who now run a souvenir shop in Bodrum, the couple is spending their vacation in Istanbul. The video cassette was supposed to be left with one of their friends, Selen as it was their last day, however, Selen left to Cappadocia and the unreasonably strict caretaker of these buildings, Durmus becomes a source of many problems leading them to end up in the police station. During their time there, they meet a very warm-hearted sex worker who happens to be close to the police director, Sevket who is dreading an upcoming call from his doctor telling him if he has lung cancer or not, it hasn’t been a good day for him.
And as the couple is in that dire situation, this unhinged man doesn’t bother making goes to great lengths to ensure it’s lingering around their toxic mental state and proposing that they are terrorists as they grudgingly turn to some of their older colleagues from their film school. As the story unfolds further again expect the unexpected as it gets a little out of hand.
“Oregon” is categorized as a situational comedy, but at the same time it bases itself on humor. As it draws a chuckle, the film also attempts to make some sociopolitical statements which requires its audience to pay close attention to the movie. For instance, during the period after the junta in Turkey, the police appeared to be the dominant force however they were still trying to motivate fear of a leftist insurgency.
For easy comprehension, when Sevket is roughening up illegal immigrants and petty criminals in a police station, there are two of his friends, Hakan and Gaye whom he abuses since his part of Istanbul considers them to be hippy and potential terrorists. Instead of the crumpled up first pages excuse “the movie is about my family, man” he emphasizes his being an American never allows turning back, that his childhood memories indeed are “tainted” forever, the aspects of his blind ambition are never disregarded when an authority figure is talking, the superstars often used are usually breaking points. Ayan seems to take notice of the working of the film industry in the movie, which correlates to the rest of his life in a negative manner.
Funny episode writing and characters are the strongest elements of the film and these are greatly served by Umit Unal’s screenplay. Hakan and Gaye are intriguing to observe, especially how they argue and reconcile but they’re not the ones who grab attention. Sevket in particular, throughout the film and every new scene he is in totally dazzles, one of the films best parts is his temper for both his medical status as well as the cases piled up at the station. Ferit Aktug in the role is a treat to watch throughout the movie, in all probability the best part of the whole thing.
The second quite interesting performance is indeed from Onur Gürcay in the role of Durmus who has this general attitude of taking things too seriously even the way he detests the ‘hippies’ in a manner where there seems to be a joke and a purpose, which is indeed the case. Once again, his breaking up with this attitude is one of the highlights of the story. Finally, Melissa Dogu as the good-hearted prostitute is, funny and engages viewers’ attention being dramatic and comical at the same time that is typical for many other heroines in films made during the sixties and seventies.
But at the same time, this is where the problem comes in because the whole though the individual elements of the movie are rather high quality the whole concoction of characters and scenarios tends to get a bit too excessive at certain times also because it is difficult to find a heartfelt connection with so many different people and episodes so many of the times. Once again this was the norm in movie making in the past, but in this period which seems to valorize realism and “real life events” it seems absurd to have this technique, and so the movie after sometimes gets rather tiresome.
Barış Aygen impressively encompasses the range of elements (or stages for that matter, considering the theatrical aspect of the docudrama) with relative ease, in muted exclamations, for the most part, leaving the action and the actors to do the work. There is a considerable Genesis of speed which Hayaud extends and it matches the overall design, the cuts sometimes are embedded within the wit in the movie.
Especially for the filmgoer who will not pick up the sociopolitical satire, “Oregon” will definitely form part of those films that you view, enjoy and forget at once which is not to say that the ensemble does not help. Ayan, however, is able to narrate his tales both in a subtlety overt manner, the film is quite a reassuring normalizing of feelings, given I think, that his future works focus more bluntly on the political issues.
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