The eternal culture clash between the haves and have-nots is perfectly encapsulated in Volkan Üce’s engaging and insightful documentary that follows two young Turkish men as they try and settle into jobs at the all-inclusive Nashira Resort, a large hotel on the Turkish Riviera where tourists from around the world come to let their hair down.
Both have arrived at the resort to escape their home life and earn some money…their ambitions are to move on in their lives, learn English and – in an ideal world – try and find a way to escape to the United States. The film blends footage of both men trying to adjust to a life dealing with a demanding public while living a modest and at times frustrating life behind the façade of the hotel.
Hakan is 25 and the youngest of 12 children, but despite having a place at college he opted to stay at home and read. Meanwhile Ismail is 18 and has dropped out of school to earn money for his family. Both have come to the hotel to try find a new direction in their lives – Hakan is allocated work as a lifeguard (he tells the head of HR he used to live near a river), while Ismail, who dreams of becoming a hairdresser, is employed as a kitchen chef.
Both respond differently to the rather surreal work environment of the hotel, especially as the demands of the guests get more and more intense. For shy Ismail, who watches the guests from behind the buffet counter, his interest in the Western world gets more intense, but Hakan struggles to a be a ‘nobody’ at the pool whose only job seems to be to stop tourists having fun on the waterslide. He tries to discuss Pushkin and Dostoyevsky with the Russian tourists, but few want to engage with him.
The film follows them through the entire summer as they try to feel at home in the strange world of all-inclusive tourism. The pair become friends during their time there, but as the season develops it also becomes apparent they are different personalities. Ismail slowly becomes more confident and learns about cooking while Hakan feels he has lost his individuality and has become just a cog in the system.
As they sign their papers to leave the job at the end of the summer season, both are adamant they won’t be back next year. Ismail feels he has learnt enough about catering to find alternative work, while Hakan feels he has become a person without values during his time there. But can they escape the resort’s allure?
While the film charts relatively familiar territory, its gentle story of the loss of innocence and being lost in a faceless system is an engaging and often amusing one. This kind of tourism (or “uninhibited fun” as the resort’s posters claim) is a challenging one for the young Turks, but despite the challenges and their very real concerns, both men grow and subtly change.
Belgium-Netherlands-France, 2021, 80mins
Dir Volkan Üce
Production Cassette for Timescapes, Halal, Little Big Story, Magellan Films, Onomatopee Films
International sales CAT&Docs
Producers Magalie Dierick, Emmy Oost
Cinematography Joachim Philippe
Editor Els Voorspoels
Music David Boulter, Darius Timmer
