Don't Fear Life (Hayattan Korkma) (translated)

Friendship and solidarity among small tradespeople who live on what they make themselves in a provincial town are at the heart of Hayattan Korkma ("Don't Fear Life"), a Turkish drama. Made in 2007 and running 103 minutes, it opened in cinemas on March 7, 2008. It was written and directed by Berrin Dağçınar, a television veteran, and was her first cinema film. It sets out to make audiences laugh and be moved in turn.

Its heart is three friends, and the closely knit families around them, who have lived in the same town since birth and never been apart since childhood: Talat the dairyman, Bedrettin the poultry farmer and Rıfkı, who bakes bread in the bakery inherited from his father. Life changes when Talat's son falls ill and risks losing his sight. The three friends set about raising the money for his operation. Zeki Alasya, Tarık Papuççuoğlu and Hakan Boyav lead the cast, with Sedef Avcı, Didem Balçın, Mert Fırat, Zeynep Eronat as Zehra, Esra Ronabar and Ceren Soylu also appearing.

One critic read the film politically, noting that the money is raised entirely through communal effort, without relying on the existing system, and concluding that it sides with a collectivist alternative to capitalism. The same critic found it built on a template audiences connect with easily, and judged it favorably.