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The Third Page (Üçüncü Sayfa)

The Third Page (Üçüncü Sayfa) (translated)

Movie · 1999 · 7 people

Mavi Film made the Turkish drama The Third Page (Üçüncü Sayfa), which Zeki Demirkubuz wrote and directed, sharing the producer credit with Nihal G. Koldaş. Shot in color on 35 mm and running 92 minutes, it opened on October 29, 1999. In 1999 and 2000 it won many prizes at home and abroad, among them four at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and two each at the Turkish Film Critics Association and Sadri Alışık awards.

At its center is İsa Demirci, played by Ruhi Sarı, who scrapes a living as a film extra. A mix-up makes him responsible for money belonging to the mafia and is given a single day to find it. In the depths of despair he comes across a pistol, and just as he contemplates suicide his landlord arrives asking for the overdue rent. İsa shoots him by accident. What follows, shaped by his bond with his neighbor Meryem, draws him into a dark world. Başak Köklükaya plays Meryem. Cengiz Sezici is the landlord, Serdar Orçin his son and Emrah Elçiboğa Reis; Naci Taşdöğen plays the agency boss Şeref.

The cinematographer is Ali Utku and the music is by Cengiz İmren. Demirkubuz also takes a small extra's part.

DirectorZeki Demirkubuz
Production companyMavi Film
The Third Page (Üçüncü Sayfa) The Third Page (Üçüncü Sayfa) The Third Page (Üçüncü Sayfa)

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Cast

Başak Köklükaya Başak Köklükaya Actor · 52 years old Meryem Serdar Orçin Serdar Orçin Actor · 50 years old House-Owner's Son Zeki Demirkubuz Zeki Demirkubuz Film director · 62 years old Extra Ruhi Sarı Ruhi Sarı Actor · 54 years old İsa Naci Taşdöğen Naci Taşdöğen Actor · 63 years old Şeref (Agency boss) Mustafa Turan Mustafa Turan Actor · 60 years old Production supervisor Ayten Soykök Ayten Soykök Actor · 51 years old

Also in the cast: Cengiz Sezici (House-Owner), Emrah Elçiboğa (Reis)

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Through different eyes

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

Zeki Demirkubuz's The Third Page is one of those films that showed, at the end of the nineties, how strong an independent voice in Turkish cinema could be. Its script leans on film noir: a mix-up, a one-day deadline, an accidental killing and a darkness that steadily draws the character in. Yet Demirkubuz seems less interested in genre thrills than in the moral impasse, building tension out of İsa's desperation rather than out of incident. The director's own small appearance as an extra is a subtle wink in a story about a man who lives off extra work. Viewers expecting a genre picture may find this approach heavy going, but that weight is a deliberate choice and helps explain the prizes it took in Antalya.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

On paper the premise is pure thriller: mafia money, a one-day deadline, a pistol that falls into his hands and a gun that goes off by accident. But this is not an action film, and it is best to know that going in. Anyone expecting chases or big shoot-outs will be disappointed. The tension comes mostly from a sense of being cornered. The trap the character falls into keeps you curious; I just wish the pace were tighter.

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

The Third Page seems to take its name from the newspaper pages given over to crime reports, and it looks from the inside at the lives of the kind of people who end up there. İsa, who scrapes by as an extra, behind on his rent and invisible to everyone, becomes a symbol of poverty and invisibility in the big city of the nineties. The mafia's money, the agency boss, the landlord: everyone in his life wants something from him. His bond with Meryem across the landing hints at a search for something to hold on to amid loneliness. Violence and despair weigh heavily, so this is not an easy watch, but it raises uncomfortable questions about urban life at the time that still ring true.

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

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