Biyograficim
Jolly Life (Neşeli Hayat)

Jolly Life (Neşeli Hayat)

Movie · 2009 · 16 people

Yılmaz Erdoğan wrote and directed the comedy Neşeli Hayat and also plays the lead; it opened in Turkey on 27 November 2009. A New Year's film, a sub-genre rarely tried in Turkey, it did well at the box office and was among the highest-grossing Turkish films of 2009. It competed at the 29th International Istanbul Film Festival and was nominated in several categories at the 3rd Yeşilçam Awards. Oğuzhan Koç co-wrote the script, and BKM produced.

At its centre is Rıza Şenyurt, an ordinary man who keeps out of everyone's business and wishes nobody harm. He works part-time as a shopping-mall Santa Claus, though he barely knows the figure he plays. Living in the back streets of a Muslim country, he is pulled into a journey that is both funny and sad as he tries to hold on to life. The story unfolds in a poor home in Esenyurt in a narrow world around one character. Erdoğan says Rıza is caught between the worlds of the Westernized upper class and working-class people in the east of the country.

The cast includes Erdoğan, Cezmi Baskın, Erdal Tosun, Büşra Pekin and Ersin Korkut; most of the players come from the Çok Güzel Hareketler Bunlar troupe. The film runs 100 minutes.

DirectorYılmaz Erdoğan
Production companyBKM
Jolly Life (Neşeli Hayat) Jolly Life (Neşeli Hayat)

Reactions

You can pick up to 3 reactions.

Cast

Yılmaz Erdoğan Yılmaz Erdoğan Actor · 59 years old Rıza Ayça Erturan Ayça Erturan Actor · 43 years old Aydan Taş Aydan Taş Actor · 44 years old Bülent Emrah Parlak Bülent Emrah Parlak Actor · 47 years old Pelin Öztekin Pelin Öztekin Actor · 39 years old Pelin Erdal Tosun Erdal Tosun Actor · died at 53 İbrahim Büyükak İbrahim Büyükak Actor · 43 years old Oğuzhan Koç Oğuzhan Koç Actor · 41 years old Timur Rıza Akın Actor · 1955 – 2022 Ersin Korkut Ersin Korkut Actor · 49 years old Gözde Kansu Gözde Kansu Actor · 46 years old Eser Yenenler Eser Yenenler Actor · 42 years old Cezmi Baskın Cezmi Baskın Actor · 77 years old Şahin Irmak Şahin Irmak Actor · 45 years old Metin Keçeci Metin Keçeci Actor · 50 years old Büşra Pekin Büşra Pekin Actor · 44 years old Ayla

Titles sharing this cast

More from this director

Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Written and directed by Yılmaz Erdoğan, who also plays the lead, Neşeli Hayat brings a rarely attempted subgenre in Turkey, the Christmas-and-New-Year film, together with a local hero: Rıza, who doesn't even know the Santa Claus he plays at a shopping mall. That irony is the film's strongest idea, and setting the story in a poor home in Esenyurt, within one character's narrow world, gives it focus. Erdoğan tries to balance comedy and sadness in a single character and mostly pulls it off. But a structure built around one man sometimes slides into a chain of loosely linked sketches, and the actors from the Çok Güzel Hareketler Bunlar troupe carry the rhythm of stage comedy more than of cinema. Its selection for the Istanbul Film Festival competition signals ambition, but the film doesn't live up to it in every scene.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Through a man who dons a Santa Claus costume in the back streets of a Muslim country, Neşeli Hayat depicts a cultural in-between zone. In Erdoğan's own description, Rıza is caught between the worlds of the Westernised upper class and the working people of the country's east; his part-time job at a shopping mall and his poor home in Esenyurt mark the concrete borders of those two worlds. Playing a figure he doesn't know just to make a living puts an imported consumer ritual side by side with the daily struggle of the urban poor. The film does this without preaching, mixing comedy with sadness, and leaves a notable record of Istanbul's class landscape at the end of the 2000s.

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

An ordinary man who wishes no one harm and keeps out of trouble… Rıza Şenyurt is like a present-day relative of the pure-hearted heroes of our old films. The effort to hold comedy and sadness together also recalls one of the things I love most about Yeşilçam. Still, the shopping mall, the Santa costume and today's sense of humour are far from the simplicity of those old films; some of the jokes, I feel, slip from warmth into mockery. Yılmaz Erdoğan's good intentions come through, but the feeling it leaves is a little bittersweet.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

Reviews (0)

Log in Log in to write a review.

Comments