Turkse chick (2006) Directed by Lodewijk Crijns

(Review originally written at 18 May 2007)

You know, this sort of 10 minute short movies should always have a provoking or clever message in it, or just should purely entertain, also by showing of some skills from the director's part. This movie really doesn't do any of that. If there is a message in this movie then I surely missed it.

The movie tries to handle a delicate subject, regarding falling for a Turkish girl, while yourself are Dutch and get confronted by the dangers of the so called 'honor revenge' by the direct family of the girl, which still is a hot-subject in the Netherlands. Director Lodewijk Crijns uses all the stereotypes about the Muslim and Turkish culture in particular that exist and of course exaggerates them, to a point when they go completely over-the-top. It's probably also the reason why this movie probably works better as entertainment than as anything provoking, though of course some people will remain feeling offended by this movie.

Lodewijk Crijns has a sort of reputation as a weird movie-maker. "Jezus is een Palestijn" is probably one of the weirdest Dutch movie's to have ever hit cinemas. This short movie also shows some weird tendencies and style but it overall is too short all to consider this movie an 'odd' one, or anything like that.

Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen doesn't seem like a likely pick for the title role, mainly because, well she is not Turkish at all and it's not like that there aren't any good Turkish actresses around who would had wanted to play the role. Plus on top of that Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen is a person who acts mostly in soap-series and other low-budget production, so she also isn't the greatest talent around, in the business. The only reason why they seemed to have cast her in the role was to receive some free publicity (which mostly failed by the way, although I'm sure that if she wasn't in this, this movie would had been even more unknown to the public.), since she is considered to be one of the most beautiful Dutch-female at the time and since her role is a provoking one, when it comes down to showing some skin and I admit, she really is not punishment to look at in this movie.

It's not really that this movie is bad or not entertaining enough, it's just that it lacks a real purpose and is nothing more than a simple pleasant waste of time. Only recommendable if you want to see Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen's hot body, which should be reason enough for some people to watch this.

6/10