Number 3: Code Name
KOZ (2015)
Propaganda movies. They have existed almost along as moving
pictures have. Birth of a Nation, Triumph
of the Will and Brexit: The Movie being
notable examples.
Now it’s Turkey’s (who have been making a late stab at being
the home of bad movies) turn to have a go at it. The main message being:
President Erdoğan, what a guy.
Code Name Koz is a re-telling of the 2013
corruption scandal in Turkey. Basically, what happened was a number of
government ministers were accused of bribery and money-laundering of Iranian
gold in return for Iran’s gas and oil despite Iran being under international
sanctions.
Except
that isn’t what happened. Not if you’ve watched this movie. No, it was all a
conspiracy by Erdoğan’s enemies backed by the evil United States. Needless to
say, this film was funded by the Turkish government. Nobody really wanted to show the film but 850 cinemas in Turkey were forced to put the film on, pushing back the release dates of more legitimate films. Luckily, this doesn't mean people have to go to see it. And they didn't. Well done.
But, let’s
be fair. Let’s imagine this isn’t just a cheap propaganda movie. Let’s imagine
this as a film in its’ own right without the government angle. After all, this
blog is about film and not politics. And…it still sucks balls.
In
fairness, the production isn’t terrible even if the director is a little too
keen on his jump cuts and split-screens. It’s just everything else.
If I hadn’t
looked up the background of this movie, I would not have a clue what was going
on. Even the subtitles didn’t help much with so many different characters
flitting in and out all the time.
Apart
from the acting, confusing plot and awful music, the worst thing about Code Name Koz is that it is deathly
dull. More than once I found myself thinking ‘is this still going on?’, then I
would look at the timer and realise it was not even half way through. They even
manage to make a helicopter crash look boring, how do you do that?
I hope
you are a fan of watching men sitting at tables talking because there is a lot
of it. I would estimate a good 80% of the film is men talking at tables (with
an occasional woman as well) with other events happening in between, such as
the afore mentioned helicopter crash. But those were just to whet your appetite
for more table sitting. One scene it looks like they are just sitting on chairs
without a table setting off my OCD but luckily, its soon revealed there is a
small coffee table in between the men. Crisis averted.
It
presents itself as an action/political thriller but it’s not. It’s really not.
Back in
the real world, following the scandal of government officials taking bribes, Erdoğan
had 350 police and intelligence officers removed from their positions and
changed a number of regulations relating to how financial crimes are investigated.
Because that’s not suspicious. But as we all know the truth from this movie, it
was all a plot from America to remove him from power as part of a 10 year plan
to take control of the middle-east (which in fairness, isn’t that unbelievable).
Still,
what a guy.
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