History, romance, genocide: Joseph Ruben & John Stockwell's THE OTTOMAN LIEUTENANT

Both old-fashioned and up-to-the-minute, THE OTTOMAN LIEUTENANT is a historical romance that manages to be relatively compelling, despite -- even perhaps because of -- its rather standard-issue filmmaking, including adequate direction (by Joseph Ruben) and by-the-numbers scripting (from Jeff Stockwell). And yet, because the locale is so sumptuous -- the movie was filmed in both Turkey and the Czech Republic -- and the tale told here one of love and sacrifice in wartime, the movie is difficult not to enjoy for its visuals & story.

Mr. Ruben has proven himself a journeyman filmmaker over the past forty-odd years (his biggest critical hit was probably The Stepfather; his box-office hit, Sleeping With the Enemy), and he does a creditable job here, as well. His international cast is well-chosen, with romantic leads played by actors relatively new to me (since I don't watch that much television): Michiel Huisman (below, left) in the title role, and Hera Hilmar (below, right) as the young Philadelphia woman who forsakes America and its racist institutions (she works in a hospital where a black man dies because the administration refuses to let him be cared for) to light out for Turkey and a hospital in the hinterlands run by Josh Hartnett.

What makes the movie seem ever relevant and current -- even though it takes place just prior to and during World War I -- is the fact that it puts us in the center of what will soon become in horrific Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Turks, for which, even now, the country refuses to take responsibility. We are spared the kind of mass killing and horror we've seen in other films (Ararat, for one), but we cannot escape the fact that this is happening. (The Muslim Ottoman Empire aligned with Germany in World War I, while the Armenian Christians sided with the Allies -- including England, France and Russia -- adding to the build-up of hatred that would encourage more of the ongoing genocide.)

Huisman's lieutenant turns out to be a "good Turk" who protects the Armenians, while the hospital in which Hilmar, Hartnett (above) and Ben Kingsley (below, center, playing another drug-addicted doctor with a sad backstory of his own) all labor, refuses to take sides, treating and caring for the wounded, whatever their uniform. Romantic conflict ensues when both the young men's desire for Hilmar's character comes to the fore, and a rather good fight between the two men takes place.

Love, sex, and a suicide mission involving detonating a fortress full of ammunition all occur, along with death, destruction, and a loss of friends, lovers and entire families. A horseback ride lets loose some freedom and passion, and in one of the movie's best moments, a combination of sexual attraction and mutual respect leads to a very nice and unusual near-love scene that's unusual in the annals of cinema.

All in all, The Ottoman Lieutenant proves quite watchable, even if it never loses its been-there/seen-that sheen. From Paladin and running a just-about-right 110 minutes, the movie opens today all around the country. Here in South Florida you can catch it in Miami at the AMC Sunset Place 24 and the Regal South Beach Stadium 18; in Fort Lauderdale at the AMC Pompano 18 (formerly Broward 18), the Regal Oakwood 18, the Regal Sawgrass Stadium 23, and the Regal Cypress Creek Stadium 16; in Palm Beach at the AMC Parisian 20; at the Regal Shadowood 16, in Boca Raton; at the Regal Royal Palm Beach Stadium 18, and the Indian River 24 in Vero Beach. 

FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE AEGEAN: Maria Iliou is back with a follow-up to her fine "Smyrna" doc

Evidently, though I did not realize it at the time, Maria Iliou's excellent documentary, Smyrna: The Destruction of a Cosmopolitan City, 1900-1922, was but the first of a two- (and maybe even more) part series that now continues with FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE AEGEAN: Expulsion and Exchange of Populations, Turkey and Greece, 1922-1924. No one would ever accuse Ms. Iliou of creating marquee-friendly movie titles, but she certainly does give us interesting films about a part of the world with which most of us will have had little familiarity.

In this second work, the filmmaker (above, left) and her historical consultant, Alexander Kitroeff (above, right), take off pretty much from where the first film ended. We do see some of that history of the great cosmopolitan city of Smyrna and what happened to it and get a quick course in the part played by WWI and the "Great Powers" in this whole sad business. This takes up perhaps 20 minutes of the new film, and then we're pushed ahead to see and learn what happened after the destruction and how and why well over a million refugees (1,100,000 Greeks alone!) were herded unnecessarily from what was now -- after the end of the Ottoman Empire -- suddenly part of Turkey or Greece. (Unless I missed it, I don't think figures were given for how many Muslims were sent packing back to the "new" Turkey.)

We learn more about the Lauzanne Negotiations, and what these meant to displaced Greeks and Muslims/Turks. These refugees were families who, often for generations, had lived in the same towns and had sometimes very important jobs and businesses -- for which their compensation ranged from little to none. One thing this documentary makes enormously clear (as did the last one) is how the push for "nationalism" rather than for cosmopolitanism, can create such havoc in so many lives.

Once again we see and hear interviews with younger family members who tell us stories they heard from their elders, and all this is woven together with the use of more of those wonderful archival photos. One thing the movie will probably have you considering: How much better may have been the old Ottoman Empire, with its grand inclusivity of cultures, religions and ideas, when set against the nationalistic states that have, in its place, since surfaced: Turkey, The Balkans & the Middle Eastern states.

One thing I noticed in this second documentary is that Ms Iliou seems less quick to blame Turkey over Greece for all that happened here, something I felt might have been a tad imbalanced in the first film. This second documentary doesn't whitewash anyone but simply seems less pushy toward the Turks. Hearing the stories of the displaced Muslims, as well as the Greeks, goes a long way toward achieving a good balance.

These tales make you realize anew that refugees and their stories are so very similar in so many ways. This is a terrible way to live, and it doesn't matter who is on the giving or receiving end.

If From Both Sides of the Aegean doesn't quite come up to the level of the earlier Smyrna documentary, this may simply be due to its not having a subject as grand and awful as the horrible destruction of that in-some-ways model city.

A must-see for anyone whose family hails from these parts, the movie should also appeal to anyone curious about the history of the world outside our relatively small sphere.

The new documentary -- from Proteas and Proteus NY Inc. and running 87 minutes -- opens this coming Friday, March 21, for a two-week run at New York City's Quad Cinema. Elsewhere? Not sure. But you can click here to keep up to date with other scheduled screenings.

Filmmaker Maria Iliou and Historical Consultant Alexander Kitroeff, will attend the opening night screenings on March 21 at 7 and 8:30pm and on March 29 at 7pm for a Q&A. Cinematographer Allen Moore, Historian Eleni Bastea and director Iliou will be present on Saturday, 

March 22, at the 7pm screening for a Q&A.  

DVDebut (and streaming soon, we hope): Pelin Esmer's WATCHTOWER from Film Movement

Watching present-day films from the country of Turkey is tricky. They seem to represent modern living to some extent, as experienced by those of us who live in the west, but then we get these whiffs (sometimes much more than that) of cultural craziness that makes the movies seem as though they are coming at us from a different century. (Or two. Or three.) Think for a moment about movies such as Bliss, The Edge of Heaven or When We Leave (a German film, yes, but more about Turkey than Germany), and you'll have an idea of what I mean: violence, honor killings and women as chattel, to name a few fairly typical themes.

Interestingly enough, Turkey's most successful "international arthouse" filmmaker, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, has smartly managed to sidestep this by concentrating more on the male than the female, while offering themes that would seem to make Turkey more western than eastern. Hence, I suspect, his full acceptance by our cultural gatekeepers.

WATCHTOWER, from the female writer/director Pelin Esmer, shown at left, is one of the better and more interesting examples of new Turkish cinema because it faces head-on the question of woman's place in Turkish society and finds it greatly wanting. Yet, due to the story Esmer tells and the manner in which she tells it, we see the situation a step removed from the full-frontal, in-your-face, honor-killing set-up of Bliss. Here, a young woman takes charge of her life in a way that would never be necessary in most of the western world but that seems perfectly understandable in Turkey.

The location of the film, too -- a mostly un-populated, mountainous region of the country and the tiny bus stop with a shop or two nearby that services the area -- works beautifully to clue us in on how any kind of behavior that does not fit into fundamentalist thinking must finally be relegated to outsider status. Only if people do not know about it can deviation from the norm be tolerated.

The two main characters here (they pretty much make up the entire movie) are both running from their former lives, while dealing with a ton of guilt. Nihat (Olgun Simsek, above) has come to the area to work at the titular watchtower at the top of the mountain as a guard against forest fires. Seher (Nilay Erdonmrez, below) has left university suddenly with no explanation and is now working on the bus line that arrives and departs from the tiny station.

Part of the movie's pull is that we have little idea from what these two are trying to escape. Slowly this is revealed to us, and not, fortunately by any lumpy exposition. We learn in degrees, and in a way that seems believable to the situation. Dialog is kept to a realistic minimum, and both performers do an excellent job.

Initially there is almost no connection between these two people. When real connection comes, after a few months, it is fast and shocking and eventually leads to a guarded rapproachement. Among the movie's highlights are a fraught scene between the girl and her mother, and another scene of a natural act often witnessed in films but never, I think, seen in a condition as shockingly "solo" as here.

From Film Movement and running 100 minutes, the Watchtower DVD hits the streets this Tuesday, February 18, and as with most Film Movement titles, will probably be available on Netflix streaming very soon.
Watch for it.

A sad, shocking education: Maria Iliou's SMYRNA: A Cosmopolitan City, 1900-1922

The power of a good documentary to inform, educate, entertain, shock and encourage further thinking and discussion is brought to fine fruition in the film, SMYRNA: THE DESTRUCTION OF A COSMOPO-LITAN CITY, 1900-1922. Even, I suspect, old fogies like TrustMovies, may have some trouble coming up with the time and place that this fabled city existed (and we don't mean Smyrna, Georgia), so long has it been since many of us have heard the name or, for that matter, the larger location in which this city rested: Asia Minor. (It has literally been decades, I think, since I've heard spoken or seen those two words in print.)

Now, thanks to writer/director Maria Iliou (shown at left) and the several experts whom she and her crew have rounded up, this truly cosmopolitan city comes to life -- and death -- in a documentary that should take its place as a prime work of necessary historical excavation. We often hear the world "cosmopolitan" bandied about, in reference to American cities such as New York and San Francisco, but to hear our narrators speak about Smyrna -- the sounds of its multi-cultural music, its languages spoken, fashions worn and food eaten -- is to define that word anew, and definitively.

Filled with wonderfully rich, archival footage, we see a city made up of Muslims, Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Levantines (TM had to look up that word, so he figures you might need the definition, too), each group in its own district and all managing to get along within the borders of the city -- thanks in good part to the kind of "mayor" who made certain that every group was included in the "spoils," so to speak.

The film give us a tale of nationalism vs. cosmopolitanism, and for those of us who've lived awhile, it will not be difficult to imagine which group prevails. Though located in the area of the Ottoman Empire known as Asia Minor, Smyrna was always pulled most strongly between two cultures, religions and countries -- Greece and Turkey, Christianity and the Muslim world. The city became such a popular place that it was, in a sense, "protected" by the Great Powers, at least so long as it served the interests of those powers.

After World War I, the favor of the Great Powers moved from Greece to Turkey, for reasons of trade, among other things. The historians/narrators gives some very good history here, with cogent explanations of what was happening and why. One big question that hangs over the film is why did not the residents of Smyrna realize the horror that was on the horizon, which ought to have been clearer to see. Yet life in the city was so secluded from what was happening elsewhere -- in other cities, in the nearby countryside -- that, like Germany and much of Europe pre-World War II, the populace did not want to believe what they most needed to at that time.

The experts here include Alexander Kitroeff, Giles Milton, Victoria Solomonidis, Eleni Bastea and Leyla Neyzi, and they are all worth seeing and hearing. When it comes time to tell us what happened to Smyrna, the speakers do not stint, and it is among the most horrible tales of destruction and genocide that I can recall -- made worse by the fact that warships of the Great Powers were sitting in the Smyrna harbor all the while and for too long a time did absolutely nothing to help the populace.

The story has its few heroes, as well as its many villains (foremost among these the actions of the Greek military as they withdrew, and then much more so the Turks). After the Armenian genocide, Turkey now has another permanent blot on its honor with the Smyrna story. And of course, that country refuses to own up to anything. Little wonder it is still not a full-fledged member of the European Union. Though, if and when it is finally accepted, this will have more to do with the Higher Powers getting what they want and less about anything so trivial as a judgement on the country's past actions and its refusal to take responsibility for them.

This Smyrna documentary begins its two-week theatrical run on Friday, April 5, in New York City at the Quad Cinema, where director Maria Iliou (shown above) and Historical Consultant Alexander Kitroeff will be present for a Q&A after the 7:00 show on Friday, April 5th. There will be another Q&A with Director Maria Iliou and the film's director of photography, Allen Moore, on Friday April 12th at the 7:00pm show. You can learn of other screenings internationally by first clicking here, and then clicking on SCREENINGS AND NEWS at the bottom of the frame.