For a long time after 1980, there has been a violent supression on the people of my suffering country. The governments which came after the military period all ruled my country as their successors. They were brutally militarist and fascist. The director of the movie is a director who has been sent to prison and been tortured on that evil period just because he had socialist ideals. They have been hunt down and slaughtered in the very dark corners and 3000 people haven't been found. A little Pinochet is the general who arrives the city at the end of the movie. The ignorant young people who believed that they were socialists but were only a band of stupid idealists were shown to be responsible of killings and massacres. This movie is a very good movie which tells the truth from a very far corner. Maybe because director is still afraid that he will face the same tortures again. But still he wants you to see who they were in fact. They were young men and women, 18-30 years old, grown up in the 60s and 70s with the belief that one man can change the whole world. All they did was listening to the communist international (turkish translation: beynelmilel), speak stupidly of how the world should be. That's a very sad story told in a very touching way. You laugh all through the movie but in the end there is a big fist in your throat which maybe for generations we will not be able to swallow. Thank you for a great movie like this.

One of the best Turkish movies that I watched in years! It is certainly in the class of great Italian movies; the script, acting, cinematography, and the music are all great! This movie tells the story of an era in Turkish political history full of military oppression, violence, prosecution, and ignorance in a satirical way. The choice of the song "International" as the theme music in the movie is smart and wonderful!I have only one criticism about the script and that's why I did not give a perfect score: the events in the last 5 minutes of the movie have evolved very quickly and ended in an unusually dramatic way, which made me think if there were financial reasons for ending the film so abruptly. Otherwise, it had the potential to win prestigious international awards. Congratulations to the crew who produced such a great movie with a small budget!

Beynelmilel Amsterdam has a large Turkish population and this was my first Turkish movie of life. I went to see this movie because I read good review of this movie.The story is in a small town in Turkey in 1982 where the local military head hires a musical troupe to play for the arrival of their chief. The lead maestro's young daughter and her lover boy are influenced by communism movement. One day on hearing a communist song being secretly played by the daughter the musician assume it as an international song (thus the name of the movie) and composes a musical piece for the arrival of military chief. It is only during the last performance that everybody realizes the performance is of a communist song. The movie is a light arty comedy with a simple love story woven in it. But the ending of the movie is sad.Cezmi Baskin as the musician has played his role with ease, his daughter's role is played by beautiful Ozgu Namal; her lover's role is played by Umut Kurt. There are lots of other character actors who have all played their role nicely.This is the first directoral debut for Muharrem Gulmez. He has given a simple, light hearted approach to the serious topic, and it is there within his low budget parameters he excels to keep things real and enjoyable.I am from India and I do not understand Turkish, but seeing the movie reminded me of the 1970's era of Indian movie where there were many art movies made on the backdrop of communist movement.Just a trivia –There were 9 Turkish ladies who had come to see this movie and I think this was also the first movie of my life when I was the only male in the audience.(Stars 7 out of 10)

The film is telling a story from Turkey in a difficult time slice and place. The time is 1982 and place is Adiyaman from less developed portion of Turkey. Story is using local musicians who are earning their life from night entertainments or from weddings, as a tool to develop around. Scenario is convincing well and many details such as small things, objects, and clothes are perfectly reflecting that time and that place. This is together with the correct dialogs developed between local people and officers, giving a highly realistic atmosphere to the movie. In spite of some accent errors, cast is successful as well.The mood of the film has a spectrum from comedy to tragedy like their life itself. The peak comedy scene in cemetery is really better than many comedy movie, and the last scene showing the changed world after years are really tragedy, or black comedy. Old and fat but congenial singers who are derived from other cities to sing in the nightclub are playing the timeless philosophic minds of such situations.To avoid any spoiler, I will not tell in details but the final public meeting scene and unusual events in the meeting are not realistic. This portion is the only faulty portion of the movie. This is not a masterpiece but a movie not to miss.