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Rating: Francesco and Marta are partners both in life and in their careers. They both work in interior renovation, along with their colleague Paolo, until Francesco is contacted by the Turkish embassy: an old aunt, who had moved to Istanbul years ago, left him a hamam, a Turkish bath, as an inheritance. The architect leaves Rome for the Turkish capital with the intention of selling the building. He is warmly welcomed by the hospitable family of the caretaker Osman, rediscovers the voice of his aunt Anita through some letters, falls in love with the son Mehmet, and his stay in Istanbul becomes a permanent relocation. He intends to reopen the hamam to the public, and just as he has started the restoration project, he is joined by his wife Marta. The woman, having started an affair with their mutual collaborator, brings with her the divorce papers, but an unexpected event will change her decisions.
In 2008, from December 4 to 12, the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York paid a retrospective tribute to the Turkish director, who became naturalized Italian, presenting his entire filmography to the public. In Italy, Ferzan Ozpetek came to prominence only starting from his third feature film, "Le fate ignoranti" (His Secret Life), so a return to the past, an Ozpetek before Ozpetek, could prove interesting. After all, various things have been said about his works; critics opposed but indulgent, in reference to "Un giorno perfetto" (A Perfect Day), presented in Venice, called him a "director not for festivals," to underline the more emotional than technical nature of his films, while others praise him without reservation. So let’s start from the beginning. It was 1997 when Sorpassofilm decided to fund the debut work of a new director. The role of the protagonist ended up in the hands of Alessandro Gassman, who already had a decent number of film appearances at that time, while the role of Marta was assigned to Francesca D'Aloja, unknown to most but always active in the world of cinema as an actress, director, and screenwriter.
It begins with a brief but effective illustration of the couple. Middle-class individuals mutually indifferent, always ready to fight (even over trivial matters) and on the verge of ending. The attention gradually shifts to the male part of the couple. Francesco's journey to Istanbul and the approach to a foreign culture are loaded with multiple and significant meanings: the encounter between Eastern and Western cultures, the man from the West who is bewildered by the kaleidoscope of smells, tastes, and colors of Turkey, the slow surrender to homoerotic ecstasy. And here already a cue is offered. The West boasts levels of emancipation unknown elsewhere but is still not free from that nameless malaise, which, in "backward" Turkey (where the revolutionary pushes of our time have not yet been felt), seems absent. In the West, homosexuality is confined to a ghetto; in the East, it finds in the Turkish bath, where men and women are strictly divided, a world entirely at its disposal. But perhaps speaking of homosexuality might be reductive. The caste of men, in fact, is the only one free to do what it wants with its own sex, to live it without the need for a label, and Francesco adopts this perspective from the beginning, rejecting Mehmet's sister and preferring him instead.
Far from any misogynistic attitude, there is also space for women. Marta betrays Francesco because she is annoyed by the feminine component in him, Marta is fascinated by Francesco because she is attracted to the feminine component in him. Only the setting changes, Rome first, then Istanbul. The event that will change their lives, and which with some difficulty I avoid revealing for those who aim straight at the conclusion, as if a film were a marathon, will determine a turning point: Marta replaces Francesco, fully immersing herself in a different reality that, upon discovering her husband's homosexuality, had disgusted her. Aunt Anita, present through her letters, sets the rhythm of the narrative, introducing the audience to a new scene and the characters to a new dimension, with one constant: the search for a man in a jungle of conflicting feelings, capable of giving him vital strength and simultaneously revealing how fragile he is.
A happy debut, far from future glories, but laying the groundwork for them.
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