Article: Jülide Karahan Photos: Ahmet Bilal Arslan / Emre Canpolat

Çok Güzel Hareketler Bunlar Comedy Troupe Dreams Of Anatolia

The Çok Güzel Hareketler Bunlar (ÇGHB) Comedy Troupe has begun its countdown for their Anatolian tour. The team wishes to be onstage in any city they can reach, having newly rehearsed ‘Çok Filim Hareketler Bunlar’.

ÇGHB’s small team of giants, consisting of 24 actors, has a longing to do an Anatolian tour. The team,gathered from various provinces like Izmir, Izmit, Erzincan, Bursa, Hakkari, Fatsa and Manisa, has been attracting viewers throughout the country since May 2007, and they continue to receive invitations from all around Turkey. Now, what they promise is this: “We shall go to any place with a hall where we can perform.” Fine, but when? “Immediately after the movie is completed.”

They mainly wish to visit Antep, Van, Trabzon and Samsun.  All they talk about is ‘finishing the movie’. The movie in mention is certainly not ‘Neşeli Hayat.’ It is ‘Çok Filim Hareketler Bunlar,’ written and acted out by the BKM Mutfak Team, directed by an old Mutfak veteran, Ozan Açıktan. The movie was shot in Antalya, Çorlu and Istanbul. This is how it all came about: “We were all at Mutfak, and it was time to head to class. We kept going in and coming out of class.  ‘One day, this team will write its own script and shoot its own movie’ said the teacher. It was 2005, and we had just started. It was like a dream to us, but we have always believed in Yılmaz Erdoğan. Yet, no matter how much we believed in him, the possibility still seemed far-fetched. The process developed all by itself. It was all a kind of joke and all of a sudden, someone hollered ‘action’.

THE MOVIE OF 24 JOKESTERS
The movie, ‘Çok Filim Hareketler Bunlar,’ which was finalized by a simple ‘okay, cut’ on November 17th, will be in theaters in Turkey by mid-January. The movie consists of 9 sketches. All sketches have a different story, but in the final one, they are somehow all combined. A series of short films form a full length movie which has an introduction, a climax and a conclusion. Of course, there is a narrator - Eser, as usual. “The important part is to have fun. Jokes are a must. We trust them,” he says, and the team adds “The movie is like the TV program in a way, but it is not. First of all, the equipment and opportunities are not comparable.” Everyone expresses the same wish: “I hope we continue with the movie and are able to shoot the second part.”
 
Just as the team says “this is a movie in which 24 people are constantly joking,” the movie is like one huge caper, from beginning to end. When you think of ‘Neşeli Hayat,’ which had to be shot for the second time, due to technical problems, this is a film in which everything went as planned. Possible that at the time of a raining scene, it actually starts to rain? Well, it has happened.

THE MOST AMUSING SCENES ARE ON THE PLANE
The most amusing scenes of the movie, which is kind of a rehearsal for the Anatolian Tour, were shot on a plane. It is obvious that the team had loads of fun at Çorlu Airport and on an AnadoluJet plane.

When 24 people get on board and the number of passengers increases due to the premiere, the private show and so on, funny episodes occur on the plane, which certainly reflect on the sketches. Think of a plane trip with a team whose members are funny even off-stage. It is inevitable for jokes to follow one after another and laughter to burst out every second. Dialogues with the passengers, cockpit comedy, stewardess jokes… All are present in the sketch written by Metin Yıldız. Murat Eken acts as the pilot and is quite successful at it. He is just about ready to land a prop plane in case of emergency. By the way, Ersin Korkut plays the role of a little child who is on board alone. He wears a big piece of cardboard on his neck, and hopes that someone will come to pick him up from the airport. With Ersin, even his breathing can summon a laugh. Another surprise is that Yılmaz Erdoğan (founder and mentor of the BKM troupe) plays a school principal in a sketch.

NEW MUTFAK MEMBERS WANTED
A challenge for the Mutfak (meaning ‘kitchen’) team faces occasionally is the production of new, unique and funny sketches. Although they follow daily events,all as funny people, it’s not that easy to come up with new jokes, weekly.

Some weeks, they have difficulty in getting their sketches ready on time when script writing, casting, decorations, rehearsals, decoration and costume preparations are all done simultaneously. If they’re short on time to memorize, they either read off scribbles, or take refuge in improv. Finding jokes is a whole other game, sometimes seven days of working going to waste.

For them, work and living are inseparable. They laugh and cry about the same things. They live close to each other, generally around Beşiktaş. “We don’t have many other relations, anyway.  We are like a family” they say, and add “No one in our group gets upset or angry at one another, like some other theater groups do.” Finally, one last surprise. The BKM Mutfak team will have new friends joining them next year. New students will arrive at Mutfak and those to pass preliminary eliminations will complete intensive training.Outstanding students will find themselves on stage and on camera. Those who dream of a joyful, but hard-working life, or have the general intention should hurry up and apply to BKM Mutfak. We’re just saying…


SEVEN DAYS A WEEK
The  troupe works nearly 7 days a week, to the effect that Ersin (Korkut), although has been living in Istanbul for many years, has never even made it across the Bosporus to visit the town of Moda. Until the shooting of ‘Çok Filim Hareketler Bunlar’

I WENT ON A DIET
Backstage ‘Çok Güzel Hareketler Bunlar,’ one of the major topics is dieting. Almost every day, someone in the team goes on a diet and ends it the same day. Especially if that day is one of those days which Chief Decorator Nuri Bey’s wife bakes her famous pastries. Dieting becomes pointless at that moment and is therefore postponed until the following Monday.

EVERYONE HAS A DUTY
Faruk, Hıyarlı Baba and Havuçlu Anne from ‘Çok Güzel Hareketler Bunlar’ are characters whom we are all familiar with. Backstage is no different than the actual stage, wherein everyone has a role or a given task. For example, Gizem (Tuğral) is responsible for the production and Emre (Canpolat) is responsible for the stage. Eser (Yenenler) on the other hand, is like the class president.

ÇOK FİLİM HAREKETLER BUNLAR
‘Çok Filim Hareketler Bunlar’ was written collaboratively by its own cast of 24, and is full of surprises. ‘Çok Filim Hareketler Bunlar,’ also featuring Yılmaz Erdoğan will premiere in film theaters at the end of January.