Pazar - Bir ticaret masali (The Market - A Tale of Trade) - Ben Hopkins

Ben Hopkins ha uno sguardo diverso, fresco e sempre meritevole di essere visto.
qui è in Turchia, negli anni dopo la caduta del Muro, e si viaggia anche oltre il confine, nell'ex Urss, e tutto si può vendere e comprare.
lo stato non esiste, le persone in divisa sono corrotte, c'è solo la legge del più forte, i due attori principali, entrambi turchi, sono bravissimi, il protagonista e lo zio, una spalla formidabile.
contrabbando, medicine, tutto è commercio e ogni contrattazione è una partita a poker.
un film che non delude, anzi è proprio bello - Ismaele

... Attraverso questo antieroe roso dal senso di colpa, l'ultimo film di Ben Hopkins esplora l'universo elettrizzante del commercio, con le sue regole aleatorie, i suoi rischi e i suoi imprevisti. Nonostante la sua sete di denaro, Mihram è ossessionto da un codice morale proveniente in parte dalla sua educazione musulmana. The Market - A Tale of Trade (Pazar - bir ticaret masali) si interroga senza dare risposte sui rapporti conflittuali tra commercio ed etica, e sulla loro ipotetica compatibilità. Questa favola moderna piena di humor e poesia è interpretata principalmente da attori turchi ed è stata girata in Turchia con una troupe cosmopolita - una pratica originale che il regista britannico predilige.

da qui

"The Market" is set and filmed in eastern Turkey and Azerbaijan, a part of the world most Americans and Brits have never given a moment's thought. Films in these settings are always interesting, as they provide a little glance into a world most of us had not previously been aware of. What Ben Hopkins – a Brit who has built his film career in the less-explored settings – has made is a small social commentary on capitalism's impact on how people interact with each other. Despite the freshness of its setting, the film's main ideas are pretty used goods…

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… His ingenious yet impotent attempts to improve his lot make him an everyman in a globalised economy, so that, for better or worse, his negotiations with the world are ours too. We might feel distant from Mihram both geographically and culturally, but when we witness his self-delusion and naïveté in the face of irresistible market forces that he imagines he can control, we are really only looking in the mirror.

Like any bazaar, The Market has something for everybody. There is the cynical satire of the scenes in which Mihram goes about his business, and the escalating suspense of the bargaining episodes, each one with higher stakes than the last. There is the comedy of Mihram's relationship with Fazil, and the tragedy of his inevitable lapse into crime and debt. There is the local colour of Mihram's immediate environment, and the universal dimension of his travails. Hopkins, aided by an excellent cast, handles this all with assured deftness, offering an entertaining film with a great deal of substance to it, and a devastating sting in its tail.

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… As is always the way with these things – and in society as a whole, the film seems to be saying – the deal goes wrong. Mihram has a tense ride through the border, and the deal with the factory nearly goes under. Unable to resist a game of cards he stakes the medicine money, then his uncle’s connection at the hospital lets him down. Can he leave without the vital supplies? And is he doing it for the children, as his wife believes, or for his own profit?

It’s a beautifully played and paced drama, with moments of almost unbearable tension – the card game in particular is seared with peril, yet it works because of the hugely sympathetic performances. Ayaydin in particular gives a nuanced portrayal of a man trying to keep his family alive and survive in an increasingly hostile and baffling world – he’s not particularly smart or brave, but on his side we certainly are. It’s no Wal-Mart or Capitalism: A Love Story but it certainly works as both a drama and satire on how we are all going to make a living…

da qui

… You can enjoy The Market on many levels: excellent acting by unknown (in the West, anyway) new faces; a feel for life in those indeterminate border zones where rules are something for the books; an allegory for how all of our lives are influenced by "market forces."  Ben Hopkins' "Director's Statement" is definitely worth reading, as it traces how he came to write the screenplay "that dealt with my conflicting feelings about capitalism - my admiration for its creativity and innovation, and my cynicism that it can ever deliver its benefits without inequality and exploitation…

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