Chokehold 2023 Movie Review
Yalin Sahin ( Kivanc Tatlitug ) has a great talent for convincing others of his visions and plans – and taking their money for it. This has brought him fame and fortune while others have lost their belongings. When his fraud was exposed, he faced a long prison sentence. Instead, he betrayed his accomplices to get his own head out of the noose. Now he wants a new life and so he moves with his wife Beyza ( Funda Eryigit ) from Istanbul to the small town of Assos, where he hopes to put his past behind him. But this plan doesn’t quite work out, the number of people he cheated is too large. People who now want to take revenge on him…
In recent years there have been a number of films about people struggling to return to normal life after serving a sentence. Whether it was Palmer , Lorelei , or Home , they all told of men who, in one way or another, struggle with the post-prison life. Sometimes it can be that they have been away for so long that they simply lack the points of contact. Other people are often the problem because they make it difficult or even impossible for the protagonists to return, be it because of personal stories or because of prejudice against criminals. At least initially, one might think that the Turkish Netflix film Boğa Boğagoes in that direction when yet another criminal man’s past catches up with him.
Yalin was even willing to make big changes if he exchanged the big Istanbul for the small Assos. The fact that he failed with this plan also has to do with the scale of these crimes. Where there was a manageable number of victims in the examples above, Boğa Boğa presents us imagine a man who has betrayed countless people. People who no longer want to put up with this and are willing to go outside. When movies are about someone trying to start a new life, it’s usually meant in a figurative sense. Here it is quite literal, as there are some who seek Yalin’s life. He, in turn, is not above taking the lives of others. It is a well-known fact that everything is allowed in war and in love. Yalin loves money and herself, will do anything to protect it.
That’s pretty exaggerated at times, both in terms of the story and the scenes when someone bites the dust again. In fact, Boğa Boğa could have worked very well as a black comedy and it’s almost a pity that the film didn’t go all the way, but stopped somewhere halfway. At least the film stays true to itself. Unlike the Turkish series Who are we actually running from?, where the bizarre rashes led to involuntary comedy, here one builds on the other. You know from the start that Yalin is unscrupulous and, when in doubt, is ready for any outrage. In this respect, the surprise is not that great if he actually keeps this promise.
There are twists and turns that you don’t see coming. Especially one in the last third will have an effect on the audience when there really seems to be no limits. At the same time, this is also quite exciting, because it is really hard to say how far this will all go. But that also makes Boğa Boğa a bitter to the point of depressing film that gives you little hope along the way. The Turkish thriller tells the story of a thoroughly depraved person who actually doesn’t seem that bad. Where other contributions to the genre like to work with characters whose evilness is taken to the extreme that they become caricatures, Yalin is rather unremarkable – which makes him all the more dangerous.
“Boğa Boğa” initially seems to be one of those dramas where a person doesn’t really find their way back to normal life after prison. It just means that various people have to bite the dust when the fraud victims want revenge and thus provoke violence on their part. This would also have worked well as a black comedy, but here it becomes a bitter thriller that doesn’t give much hope.
