ISTANBUL // Reis (The Chief), a heavily-hyped biopic about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan premièred with fanfare last week, but the box-office figures for the feature film proved dismal.
Only 67,000 people showed up to see the bombastic film, which shuffles between Mr Erdogan’s life as a child in the working-class Istanbul district of Kasimpasa and the years leading up to and following his election as the mayor of Turkey’s largest city in the 1990s.
By comparison, Istanbul Kirmizisi (Istanbul Red), the latest from acclaimed Turkish director Ferhan Ozpetek, sold 160,000 tickets the same weekend, opening in 305 theatres compared to 331 for Reis.
The date of the biopic’s release was significant, as it came just six weeks ahead of a constitutional referendum for which president Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been campaigning fiercely. Mr Erdogan aims to transform Turkey’s parliamentary system into a presidential one, giving him more power and consolidating his already dominant role in Turkish politics.
Though a number of low-level AKP figures attended the gala premiere in Ankara, Mr Erdogan himself was notably absent, as was Hudaverdi Yavuz, the director. Yavuz has disassociated himself from the film, which was financed by a real estate investment company. He has said the shoot was beset with problems and delays and some of the crew had still not been paid. He also had to re-edit “pointless editing changes” and is unhappy with the film.
The biopic performed even more poorly than a film released two years ago about a December 2013 corruption probe that Mr Erdogan and the AKP claim was orchestrated by followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen to overthrow the government. Kod adi K.O.Z. was blasted by critics and holds the distinction of being the lowest-rated film on the movie site IMBD, but it still sold nearly twice as many tickets as Reis on its opening weekend.
Mustafa Akyol, senior visiting fellow at the Freedom Project at Wellesley College, said the film had flopped at least partly because people were already bombarded with so much Erdogan publicity.
“They probably know that pro-Erdogan TV [channels] would show the film in full soon. They may also be saturated by the pro-Erdogan propaganda that is in their face every day,” he said. The conservative AKP base “is not typically a cinema-going crowd”, he added.
Mr Erdogan's rags-to-riches story, from child street vendor to the most successful and powerful politician in the history of the Turkish republic, is potentially fascinating. But Reis is monotonous and overblown with heavy-handed acting, too many pointless scenes and a weak subplot. The star, Reha Beyoglu, bears a convincing resemblance to Mr Erdogan, but does not replicate the president's distinct, resonant voice, the source of much of his charisma. All indications are that the film will have little influence on the outcome of the hotly debated referendum on April 16.
Curiously, Mr Erdogan himself has remained silent on the film in public, prompting speculation that he and his party are also displeased.
“I don’t think the AKP has distanced itself, but it did not endorse it either,” said Mr Akyol. “If Erdogan had seen it and liked it, he would make that clear, and it would become ‘blessed’ for the AKP base.”
Without that blessing, it appears The Chief is more of an embarrassment.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae