Енгин Акюрек в „Kara Para Aşk”, нови и стари проекти – Тема 263

Asmaa Fahmi

Gregory Peck once said "In the long run what an audience enjoys is to see someone being himself on the set. He becomes one not two; there is no telling who is who. What they want is being allowed to look inside someone and see themselves there. The secret of genuine acting is that complete openness … when you let them see the real you lurking inside”. Engin has always been this genuine human-actor and that's why we love him so much and always will. He always had that talent for creating complex characters and subtle moments, see his unique ability to muster up genuine tears, let alone genuine everything. He really is a real actor with an emotional wellspring just waiting to spring out any time.

Given this fact, I love watching Engin as Omer a lot. He is one of very few who can make us cry and smile at a time. But it is not even watching him shedding tears that make us shed them too. It is watching his struggles to do something positive while he is in conflict, like giving a faint smile of mixed emotions in the middle of tears … this is what truly moves us to tears … Omer holds us captive in his world of expressions but he just lacks enough realism. Maybe because we have his previous characters in the back of our minds and judge accordingly? I don't know … but with Engin what moved us over and over was his inner world … it was the conflict within … the layers of feelings that come with tears or smiles or empty expressions … the guilt Karim felt beneath his tears every time he was treated badly or even when later he was embraced by FG, the vulnerability Mustafa felt behind his seemingly forceful harassing behavior and the different meanings of tears in expressing joys and sorrows, pride, and denial, gain and loss.

Omer still gives us this enjoyment He could in the middle of a crying scene make us laugh, or at least smile. Engin takes Omer to the point of tears and then finds, and helps us find too, the humor in it … the irony of life itself. We cry and smile at the same time. Nobody but a genius could find a moment of humor in a crying scene and make us all live them together. Omer does that with Elif so often to help her come back to herself as he did in the plane scene and as he did in their talks in episode 6 and made her tell him her Italian sentence and he did that in his talk with his brother and he keeps doing that. He does it in such a naturally beautiful way. Yet, Omer still can't make us connect with him. And I say Omer because I'm sure it has nothing to do with Engin as an actor. Like most other characters, except for Metin, Omer's lacks depth. Apart from his moments of emotional attachments to Sibel since her moment of death and through all talks about her and with her in the graveyard, nothing about his character is clearly made known to us. What are his moments of doubts … what goes on in his mind every time he meets with Elif, what about his motives and his fears behind his seemingly confident leading attitude?

I expected episode 6 to be deeper and more interesting and expected some growth to show in the characters but I still enjoyed watching the episode, especially Omer and Elif's interactions. I loved the most the scene of Omer and bro talking together. I wished they could only give it more time but they seldom do anyway. But it just happened suddenly. I smiled at first, thinking "are the scenarists reading our comments :)Did Hussein read our minds and comments too and wanted to clear his conscience and gain face to us too as well as to Omer. But what really changed his attitude I didn't know. Is it only Arda's confrontation with him about the need to support his brother! You see that's why emotional depth is very important in tackling characters … we understand why they did this or that and we feel it coming natural and not forced in any way. Even the beginning of their talk didn't give a sign this reminiscence and remorse chat would be coming. I felt as if Hussein was doing a duty or doing what the director asked to get this job done and please everyone. But I still loved this scene for its significance for Omer and his rest of heart. I loved it when Omer sat with Elif in the street and kept joking with her. It seems they are really having feelings for each other at this stage, only it is still unconscious and comes out in their frequent bickering. Someone once said when two are falling in love or even in a deep relationship of any kind they start it with testing each other's limits and getting on each other's nerves But then we can't really tell for sure because Omer is simply like that by nature … his attitude and personality trait make it hard to tell. I mean we could easily tell how Karim and Mustafa felt. Their emotions, feelings, and thoughts were open to us even if not all vocalized. I loved the scene where Omer is reassuring Elif he will be there no matter what trust issues come in the way between them. It shows his constant care against odds. Omer's chat with Sibel was also a reminder that he is the same Omer in love bonds with his deceased fiancé … but his frequent question to her gets me wondering … will his discovery of the truth about Sibel really change his heart for her? I mean if you loved someone and lived many things together will it matter if they loved you back or hid things or even hid who they really were? Is it really easy to give up your love! It always seems to me as a kind of legitimization for what feelings he might have in the future with Elif. But maybe it just is not like that … the man is just expressing his constant fear and anxiety of what he may find out under one of the stones he keeps lifting and he is giving all his thoughts out. I love this natural frequent routine of visiting Sibel's graveyard it keeps the organic unity and consistency that we feel missing in other ways.

I loved all Omer scenes but I certainly liked getting to know Metin more in this episode, knowing more of his inner world and struggles in feeling and thought. I believe Metin is the best character in terms of realism and depth so far. All Tayya's scenes makes me nervous. I think they are pushing this too far to give us the freaky effect required but I just find all this too much. No matter how monstrous Tayyar is, however, he still has a weakness around his son. Glad to know he can be calm with someone except his late fish, peace on her soul I can't understand though how can any woman take all that Pinar is taking for any reason on earth, even if a fortune. She almost dies every day around him, what kind of woman is that! I see her position is well-deserved until further notice. I really wish to know more about the deeper motives and conflicts inside characters and I will keep looking forward to that. It is the one thing I am waiting for, not solving the mystery of plot and not any potential love affairs between the heroes but solving the mystery of the characters and making them come to life is what I really care about. I think it is worth waiting … getting to know the characters, entering into a frank and open exchange with them, pressing our ears to the ground, patiently watching for them to reveal anything at all of their hidden potentials, anxieties, wounds and secret feelings that lend them their emotional depth. We have to be like gold miners lying in wait all the time. I am willing to do that for Engin's sake and I am all trust he won't let me down.