Sev Beni (Love Me) a Ukrainian-Turkish co-production tells the story of Cemal (Ushan Cakir) and Sasha (Viktoria Spesivtseva). Cemal is about to marry a girl whom his mother chose for him. Given the fact that arranging marriages is the still the common practice in rural Turkey, Cemal's case is hardly surprising. At the henna ceremony (traditionally part of the fertility ritual that take places on the eve of a wedding usually at the bridal home) his friend asks Cemal which football team his fiancée supports but Cemal wonders why he should talk to a girl about football in the first place. He is actually on the brink of marrying somebody whom he has barely talked to. He has probably never had any long term relationships and he is sexually inexperienced. His uncle suggests Cemal should accompany his friends to Ukraine on a business trip. While Cemal is quite reluctant to join the team at first, he gives in to his uncle. For Cemal's uncle and his friends, Ukraine is a place to let off steam with beautiful Slavic Natashas (the prevalence of sex workers from the ex–Soviet Union has earned them a nickname: Natashas in Turkish). Cemal meets Sasha at a strip club in Kiev. Sasha, who is the mistress of a rich man, wants to have a baby so that she can secure her future. Sasha takes him to her place. When Sasha happens to know that her grandmother ran away from the nursery home, they can't fulfill the arrangement and an idiosyncratic series of scenes centered on cultural clashes ensue. The acting in the movie is good enough while the chemistry between Ushan Çakır and Viktoria Spesivtseva would be more compelling without the trappings disguised in a white jeep and fur :) Sev Beni which reminds me of Elveda Katya (starring Anna Andrusenko), Eylül (starring Elena Polyanskaya), I loved you so much (starring Alma Terzic) doesn't actually say anything new. I don't know about the Russian people but Turks must be tired of the Slavic-Turko love stories. In Sev Beni,we see the usual racial stereotypes. All of the Turkish guys except Cemal are just lecherous people who want to have the time of their lives away from their 'ugly' Turkish wives. And, all of the Slavic women seem to be interested in making some easy money by shagging foreign men. What makes Slavic women more sensual to the eyes of Turkish men is not really how they look. They are really uninhibited in both their dress and behavior. On the other hand, what makes Turkish woman emotionally and physically inhibited is the patriarchal society engineered by Turkish men. Turkish men are actually the victims of a system that they've built up themselves. That's why they might sound quite horny, uncouth and inconsiderate to foreign eyes. And the he reasons why Slavic women behave the way they do is more about how they feel their societies perceive them. They simply don't have to be on their best behavior. When everyone has got some sex appeal, the unbearable lightness of sexual rivalry kicks in. In the movie Cemal meets a Turkish doner seller( Yavuz Bingol). He tells Cemal that if Slavic women are honest, they are very honest and if they are bitches, they are real f*cking bitches and he adds he left his wife and kids for the latter kind of a Slavic woman. He says the woman for whom he has risked everything in his life works as a prostitute in Antalya. There could be many Slavic women who are willingly indulge in prostitution but I believe that's not where reality lies. The movie overlooks the fact that the forced prostitution of women through coercion or violence is still a global tragedy and we know that some of these women are duped into working as prostitutes in Turkey. With a smarter plot, a fairer portrayal of sex tourism and fewer platitudes on race Sev Beni could have been a memorable movie. Maybe the only thing which would make it stand out is its finale. The dénouement reminds us real life is not a romantic dramedy.
Review of Love Me
