Eskiya [The Bandit] (1996)

(YouTube Streaming, December 2021) Patriotic vote manipulation being very much a thing, I was skeptical of The Bandit’s ranking on the IMDB Top-250 — it wouldn’t be the first film to earn a spot on the list through a concerted effort. But while I don’t think it’s worth a place in the Top-250, I can see why the film was acclaimed in Turkey back in 1996, and why it still works nowadays. There’s an admirable use of genre elements in service of a weighty story here, as a man is freed from prison after a 35-year stay, and immediately sets out to avenge himself. As a simply countryside bandit heading to Istanbul to track down the man who ratted on him, he’s out of his element… and yet old enough to act as a mentor to a younger man. Things get complicated once he becomes aware of organized crime in the capital, and realizes that his lifelong enemy has become one of Turkey’s richest men. There’s a quasi-Scorsese-esque intent to writer-director Yavuz Turgul’s film, as it mixes a crime story with a distinctive protagonist, a very serious dramatic intent, some interesting camera work (including a nightclub one-shot sequence that screams for acknowledgement) and a conclusion that reaches for some cosmic tragedy. The Bandit’s pacing is deathly slow in its first half-hour, but things progressively pick up throughout the entire film until the fireworks of the conclusion. I’m not at all convinced that it’s one of the best 250 movies ever made, but it’s a good one, and my favourite Turkish film so far.