I enjoyed this film greatly for its entertainment value as well as the outstanding motifs I felt it translated effectively. One of the motifs I found to be most striking was the sort of coming-of-age. The audience can root for Ibo, the main character because he is portrayed as morally good and we follow him in his pursuit of responsibility and worthiness of a child and Titzi. The motif of cosmopolitanism and the blending of cultures was approached in a light-hearted manor. We see Ibo's struggle to please his father, who is both supportive of Titzi and rejecting to Ibo. The efforts Ibo makes to please Titzi, including lessening his societally deemed masculinity, is refreshing because it is not accompanied by a complete loss of his Turkish culture; it was important for the cosmopolitan discourse for him to not lose his Turkish culture as a result of integration. The most interesting aspect I found in "Kebab Connection" was the film team's use of film inside the film. The use of Ibo's commercials in plot development and exposure of the underlying story to other characters is very clever. The second way the film-in-film technique was used was to show the internal discourse within Ibo. I feel that this is often a great challenge of directors; to discretely show the thought progression of the characters. I felt when watching that this internal peek was effective in both making Ibo more likable and it made it easier for me to "root" for him, and allowing the audience to follow his development. Overall very entertaining and well carried out!
Review of Kebab Connection
