Ay Lav Yu
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''Ay Lav Yu'' is a 2010 Turkish
comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
, written and directed by Sermiyan Midyat, about a young man who having completed his education returns to his home village along with his American bride-to-be. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on , laid claim to various firsts for Turkish cinema including; first movie to feature Turkish, Kurdish, Syriac and English dialogue; first movie to show the blend of different religions in East Turkey; and first comedy with an international ensemble to look at the
9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
.


Production

Filming took place from 14 July to 10 August 2009 on location in Hasankeyf, Nurlu, Izbirak and Istanbul, Turkey.


Plot

Yusuf Ağa, the landlord of the tiny southeast Anatolian village of Tinne, keeps sending petitions to high level state officials to make the voice of his village heard by the central government. Years ago, Yusuf abandoned his son, İbrahim, in the courtyard of a university so that he could get a good education and become an important man. There, İbrahim was found by Father Hana, who raised him and gave him a good life. Now İbrahim has turned 30, and he returns to his village along with his girlfriend, Jessica. But will the tiny village of Tinne become the new home of İbrahim and Jessica? SYNOPSIS In a forgotten part of the Earth, in a deserted land in this forgotten part, is a simple and lonely village 'Tinne'. Almost no one knows about its existence, except the beaming Sun maybe. This land is Tinne, that doesn't even exist on the national map, that has no school, roadway or clinic. No dweller has identification paper over there. 'Existence' or 'nonexistence' is the one and only question. Its destiny may as well be the victim of its name's definition in Kurdish language, which means 'non-existent'. Tinne, a village abandoned to its own destiny in the middle of Mesopotamia, in the Southeast of Turkey, has been intentionally or unintentionally 'forgotten' by the government for years. Its inhabitants don't even have any record in the civil registry. Neither Tinne, nor any of its people exist officially, whereas Yusuf Agha and its whole family have been living in this land for over a century. Even though Yusuf Agha constantly tries to get in touch with the government, he cannot get a reply to any of his letters. Hoping that his son will get a certificate of identification, he decides to leave his newborn son Ibrahim in the courtyard of the college while many others leave theirs in the mosque's courtyard. Luckily, Priest Hanna who happens to pass by there comes to Ibrahim's rescue. He adopts him so that he has identification, so that he exists, and by his existence, makes Tinne finally exist. Now-30-year-old Ibrahim returns to his homeland having finished his military service and graduated from college. He is enthusiastically and joyfully welcomed in the village. The only hope for Tinne, the village's unique source of pride is back, bringing with him the chance for Tinne to start to exist, to become wealthy, to have a school, a roadway, a clinic and to become modern. However, Ibrahim's heart is left in far away lands. Even though the facts that he received his college degree, that he finished his military service and that he is in love with a girl are greeted with happiness, this whole picture turns into a complete shock with Yusuf Agha hearing the girl's name: Jessica. So, where is this Jessica from? What family does she belong to? Ibrahim answers: Colorado! The family is completely bewildered. Kolarado??? Ibrahim, while studying fishery engineering at the University of Çukurova, met Jessica who worked as an interpreter in America's military base in Incirlik-Adana and he quickly fell in love with her. She became the reason of his life, so he did for her. They both had a hard time trying to convince their families. For Ibrahim's family, it is a major issue to travel to the United States from Tinne, considering that they don't even have identification cards. Finally, Jessica manages to take her father Christopher, her mother Pamela and her brother Danny to Tinne. This is the arrival of America to Tinne, which is not heard of, seen or known by the Turkish government. After this moment, everything becomes a reason for bewilderment and confusion, one after the other. Different cultures, different traditions, different civilizations and different philosophies of life...


Cast

* Sermiyan Midyat as İbrahim Kanıt * Katie Gill as Jessica *
Steve Guttenberg Steven Robert Guttenberg (born August 24, 1958) is an American actor, author, businessman, producer, and director. He is known for playing Carey Mahoney in the '' Police Academy'' films from 1984 to 1987. He also acted in '' Three Men and a Baby ...
as Christopher *
Mariel Hemingway Mariel Hemingway (born November 22, 1961) is an American actress. She began acting at age 14 with a Golden Globe-nominated breakout role in ''Lipstick'' (1976), and she received Academy and BAFTA Award nominations for her performance in Woody Al ...
as Pamela * Meray Ülgen as Yusuf * Ayşe Nil Şamlıoğlu as Xate * Fadik Sevin Atasoy as Zisan *
Josh Folan Josh is a masculine given name, frequently a diminutive (hypocorism) of the given names Joshua or Joseph, though since the 1970s, it has increasingly become a full name on its own. It may refer to: People A–J *Big Josh, stage name for America ...
as Danny *
Ayça Damgacı Ayça Damgacı (born 29 July 1973) is a Turkish actress. She is best known for her role in the 2008 movie '' My Marlon and Brando '', which earned her the Best Actress award at the Sarajevo Film Festival. She initially planned on studying econom ...
as Fehime * Erdoğan Tuncel as Ubeyd * Cengiz Bozkurt as Saido *
Şener Kökkaya Şener is a Turkish name and may refer to: Given name * Şener Özbayraklı, Turkish footballer * Şener Şen, Turkish actor Surname * Abdüllatif Şener, Turkish politician * Aydan Şener, Turkish film and television actress * Erman Şener, Turk ...
as Behcet * Nazlı Tosunoğlu as Gule *
Nihal Yalçın Nihal Yalçın (born 29 March 1981) is a Turkish actress. Career In 2005 she appeared in the movie '' Hacivat Karagöz Neden Öldürüldü?'' as Zeyno Bacı and in 2009 in '' Ay Lav Yu'' as Rukiye. She briefly joined ''Avrupa Yakası'' as Me ...
as Rukiye * Muhammed Cangören as Papaz Hanna * Halil İbrahim Babur as Faruk * Bahar Ün as Sultan *
Sinan Dağ Sinan (Arabic: سنان ''sinān'') is a name found in Arabic and Early Arabic, meaning ''spearhead''. The name may also be related to the Ancient Greek name Sinon. It was used as a male given name. Etymology The word is possibly stems from th ...
as Aliko *Local people of Midyat.


Release

The film opened across Germany on and across Turkey and Austria on at number seven in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of $274,525.


Reception


Box office

The film has made a total gross of $1,128,315.


Reviews

Emrah Güler, writing for ''
Hürriyet Daily News The ''Hürriyet Daily News'', formerly ''Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review'' and ''Turkish Daily News'', is the oldest current English-language daily in Turkey, founded in 1961. The paper was bought by the Doğan Media Group in 2001 and ...
'', describes the film as, ''a comedy on cultural differences between the residents of a remote village and Americans with a newfound paranoia of Muslims after 9/11,'' which is ''the latest in a string of movies reflecting the government's Kurdish initiative.'' ''Though the movie sets out to break prejudices,'' he continues, ''its primitive jokes play on – and at times perpetuate – these stereotypes about cultural differences,'' as ''The four languages spoken in – and boasted about in hype for – the film basically become the backbone of the movie, providing silly jokes about miscommunications.'' He recommends the film to, ''Those who would like to see how a director from Turkey perceives Islamophobia by Americans,'' but concludes that, ''in the end, though "Ay Lav Yu" claims to celebrate diversity, it becomes all the more dangerous for making light of it.'' A review in ''Didim Today'' states that you should see it because, ''The talented Sermiyan Midyat is writer, director and star of this culture-clash comedy from Turkey,'' and compares it favourably to ''
Bride and Prejudice ''Bride and Prejudice'' (also known as ''Bride and Prejudice: The Bollywood Musical'') is a 2004 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Gurinder Chadha. The screenplay by Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges is a Bollywood-style adaptation of Jane A ...
'', ''
A Good Year ''A Good Year'' is a 2006 romantic comedy-drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott. The film stars Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, Didier Bourdon, Abbie Cornish, Tom Hollander, Freddie Highmore and Albert Finney. The film is ba ...
'' and ''
My Life in Ruins ''My Life in Ruins'' (released as ''Driving Aphrodite'' in the United Kingdom) is a 2009 romantic-comedy film directed by Donald Petrie and starring Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Rachel Dratch, Harland Williams and Alis ...
''.


References


External links

* for the film * * {{Rotten Tomatoes, ay_lav_yu_2010 2010 films 2010s Turkish-language films 2010 comedy films Films set in Turkey Turkish comedy films Turkish-language comedy films