The mayor (Altan Erkekli) of a small village in Southeastern Turkey in the 1970s bitterly opposes the activities of sleazy opportunist Letif (Cezmi Baskin) who runs open-air film screenings and seeks to break his monopoly over village entertainment with the introduction of the first television (called Visiontele by the locals).
The mayor recruits a crazy electrician called Emin (Yılmaz Erdoğan) and some of his office staff to help him to set up a television transmitter on the highest position of the mountain. While Latif seeks to undermine his efforts by decrying television as the work of the Devil and a slap in the face of Islamic tradition. The story is based on the childhood memories of the writer-director Yılmaz Erdoğan of the arrival of the first television to Hakkari, Turkey in the 1970s.
Vizontele is a 2001 Turkish comedy-drama film, written and directed by Yılmaz Erdoğan and co-directed by Ömer Faruk Sorak, based on the writer-director’s childhood memories of the arrival of the first television to his village in the late-1970s. The film, which went on nationwide release on February 2, 2001, won three Golden Orange awards and was one of the most successful Turkish films to that date. A sequel, entitled Vizontele Tuuba, involving the director and most of the original cast followed in 2004.
Vizontele (2001)
Directed by: Yılmaz Erdoğan, Ömer Faruk Sorak
Starring: Demet Akbağ, Yılmaz Erdoğan, Zeynep Tokuş, Yasemin Alkaya, Şebnem Sönmez, Altan Erkekli, Cem Yılmaz, Bican Günalan, İclal Aydın, Tolga Çevik
Screenplay by: Yılmaz Erdoğan
Production Design by: Yaşar Kartoğlu
Cinematography by: Ömer Faruk Sorak
Film Editing by: Mustafa Presheva
Costume Design by: Deniz Göktürk, Seyhan İnceoğlu
Music by: Kardeş Türküler, Bosphorus University Show Art Group
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: February 2, 2001
Visits: 77
