Pardon

Mert Baykal directed Pardon, a Turkish black comedy released on 4 March 2005 and running about ninety-nine minutes. The screenplay is by Ferhan Şensoy and adapts his own stage play Çok Tuhaf Soruşturma. Drawing on a real incident, it blends drama and comedy, and it was shot inside Sinop Prison.

The film tells the story of three close friends who are ordinary citizens. İbrahim, who did his military service very late, has come to flee wherever he sees an official uniform. That seemingly harmless phobia drags him and his friends into an unexpected chain of events. Caught at Muzaffer's home in Istanbul, İbrahim is taken into custody together with him, and Aydın, who runs a kiosk in Taksim, is questioned as well. The trio find themselves on a journey from courtrooms to a prison cell. Behind bars their minds stay outside, while those left outside slowly begin to chart their own paths. The cast includes Ferhan Şensoy, Rasim Öztekin, Ali Çatalbaş, Zeki Alasya, Erol Günaydın, Sermiyan Midyat and Bülent Kayabaş.

Critics have called it a thoroughly Şensoy film for its wordplay humour, the characters he calls "psychomic" and its heavy mockery of social, economic and political matters; one writer likened him to a Turkish Woody Allen.