MOVIE REVIEWS : Warm Tale of a Wartime Childhood in Turkey

A sentimental yet perceptive charmer, “Piano Piano Kid” (at the Vagabond), which is Turkey’s official Oscar entry, focuses on daily life in a shabby-elegant Istanbul apartment house half a century ago. Unfolding as the off-screen narrator’s recollections of his childhood, the film is seen through the eyes of Kemal (Emin Sivas), a 9-year-old boy with a beatific smile.

Many of us who were children during World War II will feel an uncanny sense of identity with Kemal, for what he experiences and remembers best is the same as what we do: that it was a time when people pulled together, shared joys and sorrows and created a secure, caring atmosphere of solidarity that we were never again to enjoy once the war was over. As long as wartime casualties did not hit too close to home, World War II was for lots of people a great time to be a kid.

Of course, wartime conditions in Turkey and in America were otherwise considerably different. Although Turkey initially allied itself with Britain and France, it had signed a nonaggression pact with Germany by 1941 and stuck to a position of neutrality until February, 1945, when it was clear that the Allies would be the victors. Whereas Turkey was spared the losses of battle, World War II was clearly a time of hardship for many and of considerable anxiety over what Hitler might or might not do.

In Kemal’s apartment house, as spacious as it is rundown, everyone is engaged in a struggle for survival. The big challenge is in staving off hunger, yet what little there is to eat is shared equally with everyone. That Kemal’s father is a luckless gambler makes things especially tough on him and his mother--there’s not enough money even for shoes for Kemal. However, he is fortunate in his bearded, scholarly Uncle Kerim (Rutkay Aziz), who dreams of emigrating to Italy but all the while is quietly cooking up a scheme to better the lives of all his relatives and neighbors. It’s his favorite remark to his nephew, piano being Italian for soft or softly, that gives the film its title.

Directed with much warmth and wisdom by Tunc Basaran, who with others adapted Kemal Demirel’s probably autobiographical novel, the film is special in that it views with forgiving humor rather than righteous indignation the decidedly illicit nature of Kerim’s scheme.

Not much is expected of Sivas except to seem adorable, but Aziz, one of Turkey’s leading stage actors, makes Uncle Kerim a sly, perceptive figure, as kind as he is shrewd. “Piano Piano Kid” (Times-rated Family) creates its own distinct world, but it’s one in which we feel right at home.

‘Piano Piano Kid’

Rutkay Aziz: Uncle Kerim

Emin Sivas: Kemal

A United Cinema Network release. Director Tunc Basaran. Producer Arif Keskiner. Screenplay Basaran, Umit Unal, Kemal Demirel, from the book by Demirel. Cinematographer Colin Mounier. Music Can Kozlu. Art director Jale Basaran. In Turkish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes.

Times-Rated Family (suitable for all ages).