The "Bride from Istanbul" director did it again: Netflix's "Nightclub" is fascinating

Zaynap Gunai Tan, who is behind "The Bride from Istanbul", is back with a new series on Netflix called A Little Honey Trap.

Instead of a glittering nightclub at the center, the plot is actually about the life of the Jews in Istanbul in the 1950s, a barely-tolerable minority among its Muslim neighbors.

There is a special pleasure in that

Songs of salvation

24/11/2021

Wednesday, 24 November, 2021, 08:41 Updated: 08:56

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Trailer for the series "The Nightclub" (The Club) (Netflix)

While the news on the radio comes about a general amnesty (as the Turkish government occasionally does), and the inmates celebrate, Matilda in her corner, busy lighting Shabbat candles and blessing the candles in Hebrew

Unlike other Turkish quality series produced by Netflix in the past year, such as "Conventions" or "Fatma", whose opening figures were more complex as they were series about hard-working women and not-so-easy contemporary realities, the new "The Club" comes with Promise except escapism and sex appeal.

This is a period series about a different place and time, supposedly far from our lives and from our social and religious gaps that have been at the center of other series.

It takes place in 1950s Istanbul in the last century, and presents itself (in its name, in the profile picture, in its trailer) as taking place in and around a popular and glittering nightclub ("Istanbul Club").

The "Night Club" also offers a list of names that will attract viewers of the Turkish series, led by Zainap Gunai Tan, who created the series and directed it (alongside Captain Yuja).

Gunai Tan also directed the hit series "The Bride from Istanbul", which is known to the Israeli audience perhaps more than any other Turkish series.

In the excellent cast you can also find familiar names (or at least faces) from other series - the lead actress, Gokcha Bahadir ("Gonol", "Vandetta"), Brish Arduch ("Love to Rent", "Cosgon") and more.

As we have already seen in "serious" Turkish series, the familiar actors from telenovelas demonstrate their abilities and talents for drawing complex and fascinating characters.

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Seduces us through escapism and sex appeal.

"Night Club" (Photo: Mehmet Ali Gök)

Gunai Tan chooses to present this detail in Matilda's being as the first thing we know about her.

The candle lighting scene is strong, and it connects us, the Israeli viewers, to its story in an immediate and powerful way.

From that moment on, every part of Matilda's story - her past that is about to reach her, her present that came as a surprise to her, and her uncertain future - is always in relation to her Judaism and the life of the Spanish Jewish community in Istanbul.

What does it even mean that a character is Jewish?

Is that more important than the fact that she sat 17 years on murder?

Is it more interesting than the fact that she has an abandoned daughter in an orphanage?

Supposedly not, but a fact that is.

Because this individual paints every event and every relationship between two characters in a specific meaning.

The main character is Jewish, and belongs to a Jewish community, so she receives support from the very fact of being part of a community, and on the other hand is discriminated against and humiliated and belittled due to this fact, and every day you get treated differently.

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There is something exciting about hearing the characters move from Turkish to Ladino.

"Night Club" (Photo: Mehmet Ali Gök)

It feels a bit like the creator chose a name, a location, in the atmosphere of the nightclub, as if to say, concentrate on it and do not notice (until it is too late and you are already in the middle of the series) that this is not what the plot revolves around, That although it had existed there since the expulsion of Spain, over 450 years, it was still not considered equal among equals, and was subject to the whims of the Muslim public.

There is some special pleasure in watching a story that takes place in another era, in another country, not knowing the culture to the end, the laws and conventions, and confronting our prejudices about lifestyle, but from a point of view that can be identified as "ours", "we". We probably do not know everything there is to know about the life of the Jews in Turkey in the fifties, about the politics of the country, maybe we do not fully understand the meaning of the tension between the Turks and the Greeks that figures occasionally mention, but we all recognize the Sabbath prayer on candles, We all understand the celebration of Purim. We all know how cruel it is to prevent a Jewish woman from leaving work after Shabbat and turning off the light for her knowing that it means she will have to work in the dark because she is not allowed to pick up the switch. Even if we ourselves are not particularly Sabbath-keeping or traditional, identification exists. One can connect to our cultural knowledge that the preservation of religion is the glue that held us together as one people when we were scattered all over the world for centuries.And there's something exciting about that, like hearing the characters fluently move from Turkish to Ladino, or talk about immigration to Israel.

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The actors of the Turkish telenovelas are proving that they are capable of drawing complex characters as well.

"Night Club" (Photo: Mehmet Ali Gök)

Of course, the dream of immigrating to Israel is a kind of fantasy, and immigrating to it is mentioned as an almost magical solution.

Matilda has been released from prison and has nothing left in Turkey?

Her first plan is to buy a ticket to Israel.

The young couple want to start a new life?

They will travel to Israel.

It seems that no thought was given to the question of what will actually happen in Israel - where will they live, what will they make a living from, how will they manage and what does life there look like in general?

The new state is like a magical place where, if you are a Jew, all your problems will be solved.

After all, this is one big Jewish community, so they take care of each other there, like in Istanbul, don't they?

There is an expectation that in Israel they will no longer be the "other", the oppressed minority, and will not be required to give up their identity (unfortunately this did not exactly correspond to the Israeli reality).

Pretty soon Matilda is forced to give up on her dream of Israel when she decides to try to form a relationship with the daughter she left when she went to prison, Rachel (Asuda Kalbek).

Rachel is a wild and wild girl who hides from the Muslim man she is in love with (Arduch) the fact that she is Jewish.

When Rachel gets involved, Matilda undertakes to repay her debt by working at the glorious "Istanbul" club, where Muslim and Jewish workers work together. The club manager will have to make a difficult decision in this matter. Matilda joins Salim Songor, the club's new singer ), Who has a huge vision to bring a modern and cosmopolitan revolution to the traditional Turkish shows, and creates a sensational show that is all about a "show". His story has themes reminiscent of those of Jewish characters - the need for concealment, an insecure life, a dream of a different future.

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The ending is sudden.

"Night Club" (Photo: Mehmet Ali Gök)

The first season of "Nightclub" has only six episodes, so there is a sense of suddenness when it ends, ostensibly in a kind of lack of point.

Just when the viewers get a feeling that all the parts have been laid out, and now it is possible to start the story, and there remains only a feeling that the sequel has yet to come, must come, because all the things that should happen have not yet happened.

Obviously they took into account the fact that a second season was booked in advance (the two parts were filmed together), but what we got was something in the middle - not exactly a crazy cliff-hanger, nor Gunai Tan's decision to give us a sense of reality. ") By the fact that she does not present us with his closure we expect.

The paucity of episodes causes the ending to be frustrating and even spoil the pace built up throughout the season.

And yet the second season is on its way, and in the first part the director seems to know well where she is leading the story.

The "nightclub" is well made and thought-provoking, the actors are wonderful and the reconstruction of the fifties in Turkey is reliable and charming.

And above all it is worth watching because it is absolutely fascinating in the story it tells us about the Jewish community in Turkey.

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• Nightclub - Series

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• Netflix

• The bride from Istanbul