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Hicran Street (Hicran Sokağı)

Hicran Street (Hicran Sokağı) (translated)

Movie · 2007 · 21 people

Reaching cinemas on 14 December 2007, Hicran Sokağı is a sentimental Turkish drama. It is the last film directed by Safa Önal, who also wrote it; Önal and Atilla Gökbürü produced it, and Özen Film distributed it. It gathers a cast of Yeşilçam veterans.

The story is set in a Bosphorus neighborhood of modest, hopeful people. At its center is the honest Arif (Arda Esen), abandoned by his parents and raised in an orphanage, who repairs water heaters, taps and bicycles for a living. Arif loves Leyla (Ahu Türkpençe), a university student from a wealthy family, to death, but her family will not give her to him. When Leyla leaves her home and neighborhood and vanishes, Arif is shattered. In the same street live Müyesser (Pelin Batu), who loves Arif without hope, and her widowed mother Şaziye (Ayla Algan). Among the other residents are the meatball seller Temel (Tanju Gürsu), the restaurateur Rıfkı (Süleyman Turan), the former singer Handan (Selda Alkor) and her elderly admirer, the oud player Şadi Bey (Müjdat Gezen), the lathe worker Bekir (Cüneyt Arkın) and orphanage director Zümrüt (Hülya Koçyiğit).

Türkân Şoray (Sabahat), Haldun Dormen, Rutkay Aziz and Ezel Akay also appear. Music is by Gökhan Kırdar and Cahit Berkay, with cinematography by Mahmut Yumuşak and Çetin Tunca.

DirectorSafa Önal

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Cast

Ahu Türkpençe Ahu Türkpençe Actor · 49 years old Leyla Ayla Algan Ayla Algan Actor · died at 86 Şaziye Cüneyt Arkın Cüneyt Arkın Actor · died at 84 Bekir Hülya Koçyiğit Hülya Koçyiğit Film actor · 78 years old Zümrüt Pelin Batu Pelin Batu Actor · 47 years old Müyesser Selda Alkor Selda Alkor Actor · 83 years old Handan Süleyman Turan Süleyman Turan Actor · died at 82 Rıfkı Tanju Gürsu Tanju Gürsu Film director · died at 77 Temel Ağa Türkân Şoray Türkân Şoray Actor · 81 years old Sabahat Yeliz Doğramacılar Yeliz Doğramacılar Actor · 48 years old Rutkay Aziz Rutkay Aziz Actor · 79 years old Hakkı Necip Haldun Dormen Haldun Dormen Actor · died at 97 Seyfettin Usta Bülent Kayabaş Bülent Kayabaş Actor · died at 71 Afşin Arzu Gamze Kılınç Arzu Gamze Kılınç Actor · 57 years old Hicran Engin Çağlar Film actor · died at 85 Adil Ezel Akay Ezel Akay Film director · 65 years old Niyazi Kemal İnci Kemal İnci Film director · died at 85 Police Inspector Gülşen Tuncer Film actor · 81 years old Doctor Jeyan Mahfi Ayral Tözüm Jeyan Mahfi Ayral Tözüm Actor · died at 95 Müjdat Gezen Müjdat Gezen Actor · 83 years old Şadi Arda Esen Arda Esen Actor · 51 years old

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Through different eyes

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

Türkân Şoray, Hülya Koçyiğit, Cüneyt Arkın, Ayla Algan and Selda Alkor in one film — for anyone raised on Yeşilçam, the cast alone is a reunion. Hicran Sokağı, Safa Önal's last film, portrays the people of a Bosphorus neighbourhood: poor but always hopeful, measured even when they quarrel. That is exactly the moral warmth of our old films. The love that honest Arif, raised in an orphanage, cannot reach carries all the sorrow of a classic tale of longing. The story may be familiar, but the familiar has a flavour of its own.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Hicran Sokağı's most lasting value is almost documentary: it brings Yeşilçam's master actors together in the same frame in 2007. That crowded cast, however, brings a dramaturgical problem with it. The neighbourhood portraits, from the köfte seller to the oud player Şadi Bey, from the lathe operator Bekir to the orphanage director Zümrüt, compete with Arif and Leyla's main line, and the film risks becoming more of a parade than a story. Safa Önal's script deliberately leans on old melodrama patterns; that choice creates a nostalgic warmth but also makes the narrative predictable. The music by Gökhan Kırdar and Cahit Berkay and the Bosphorus atmosphere, though, give the film an air all its own.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Hicran Sokağı builds a Bosphorus neighbourhood as a place where class differences meet. On one side is Arif, raised in an orphanage and making a living repairing water heaters, taps and bicycles; on the other, a wealthy family that will not let its daughter marry him. What keeps the lovers apart is not fate but social distance. Characters like the köfte seller, the restaurant owner, the lathe operator, a former singer and an oud player capture a snapshot of Istanbul's fading neighbourhood fabric. The film idealises this world a little; a neighbourhood where people stay measured even in a quarrel describes a longing more than a reality. But that longing itself says something about its time.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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