Orhan Gencebay: Mar Sur

I love this Orhan Gencebay video. Especially the studio scenes. I'm guessing it must be from an old Turkish movie. I would love to see this film and others like it.

You don't have to understand Turkish to follow the narrative here, or to appreciate how this clip combines music video with film scenes. As the song begins, a lovely redhead irons Orhan Gencebay's shirt with an ecstatic smile. Meanwhile he's shaving around his full mustache. His lady then helps him get dressed, and a shot of a saz foreshadows the coming scene: a recording studio, where Gencebay is now singing the song you've already been listening to. There's something really satisfying about suddenly seeing the string section in the flesh. Some of the violinists are wearing really fresh sunglasses. A guy in the booth conducts with clownish gestures but no one seems to notice him.

At a break in Gencebay's vocals, dialog cuts in. Redheaded lady is wearing a bubblegum pink t-shirt and she talks to a blond friend. She picks up what appears to be her passport and gets a faraway look in her eye. Now cut to Gencebay in an office. He signs a contract. His vocals in the song return, now quieter, so that he can talk to the man behind the desk. Gencebay is handed a stack of lira.

The pretty redhead character is then in an office of her own. Applying for a job? Her hair looks darker. She says "no" to the man who looks over her papers and the passport, or maybe it's a national identity card. Then she says something else and leaves.

The last two scenes, the picnic and the shower, are the best and the main characters are each wistful in his and her own way. I won't spoil it by describing the ending except to say that it looks like Gencebay drinks some raki and the woman stands motionless under a shower head and washes away the day's frustrations - in her clothes.