*** Welcome to piglix ***

The Magician (2006 film)

The Magician
Hokkabaz.jpg
DVD Cover
Directed by Cem Yılmaz
Ali Taner Baltacı
Produced by Necati Akpinar
Written by Cem Yılmaz
Starring Cem Yılmaz
Mazhar Alanson
Özlem Tekin
Tuna Orhan
Music by Ozan Çolakoğlu
Cinematography Uğur İçbak
Edited by Engin Öztürk
Production
company
Beşiktaş Kültür Merkezi
Distributed by KenDa Film
Release date
  • October 20, 2006 (2006-10-20)
Running time
119 mins
Country Turkey
Language Turkish
Box office $9,146,764

The Magician (Turkish: Hokkabaz) is a 2006 Turkish comedy-drama film, directed by Cem Yılmaz and Ali Taner Baltacı, about a magician who tours around Turkey with his father and best friend so that he can make enough money for laser eye surgery. The film, which was released on October 20, 2006 (2006-10-20), was short-listed for Turkey's official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards but lost out to Takva.

The film was shot on location in Istanbul, Gallipoli and Eceabat, Turkey.

Iskender is a juggler, but to everyone besides himself and his childhood friend, Maradona, he is actually a magician. The two friends undertake a great deal of risk by including Sait in their tour program while being forced to escape Istanbul. Moreover, Father Sait had stopped appreciating Iskender years ago. While the tour brings them much closer, it also results in a magnificent falling-out. Iskender, Maradona, and Sait keep coming back together and falling out with their fellow traveler, Fatma.

The film opened in 378 screens across Turkey on October 20, 2006 (2006-10-20) at number one in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of $1,462,608 and was later released across a number of European territories.

The film was number one at the Turkish box office for two weeks running and has made a total worldwide gross of $9,146,764.

Todd Brown, writing for Twitch Film, notes that this film, looks to be a beautifully shot piece of work, and that, while it was impossible not to see an awful lot of Mel Brooks influence on [the writer-director's previous film] G.O.R.A. this one sees Yilmaz in a much more restrained mode that I think plays a fair bit better.


...
Wikipedia

...