Cem Yilmaz is a major celebrity in Turkey, where he writes and acts in comedies that are apparently similar to Mel Brooks’s. (His Science Fiction hit parody Gora drew comparisons to Brooks’s Spaceballs.)
Now he’s filming a Western spoof called Yahsi Bati, which is about two Turkish civil servants who have come to America bearing a gift from the Ottoman sultan to the U.S. president, sometime in the 1880s.
The production values, based on the trailer (search “Yahsi Bati” on YouTube), appear to be top notch, but there’s no way to tell if the picture can cross the Atlantic with its humor intact. It’s not as though Americans don’t love a double helping of hoke—think F Troop—but Turkish hoke may be another animal altogether.
I do feel safe in assuming that no cowboy in the movie ever turns to Aziz (Yilmaz) and asks, “Aziz, why the long fez?”
YouTube the West and e-mail us your videos: editor@twmag.com
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