‘’Love is all around. Love is in the air. I feel love love.’’ From my short stay in Istanbul I realized one thing: everything is about romance and love in this city. You can feel it from the couples walking in the streets holding hands, you can listen to love ballads in every radio station and finally you can watch many many many romantic films that come out every once in a while in this city’s cinemas. Words as ‘’ aşk, sevgi, sevda’’ are heard all the time from men and women of all ages. People in Turkey are capable of feeling strong emotions and they are used to express them. Either they love or hate they do it passionately. Couples of all kinds are shown in every romantic movies. Either they are free to express their love or they suffer from being separated from their other half.
Bir Tutam Baharat (A Touch of Spice 2004): a man decides to move back to the city he grew up in order to reunite with the girl he fell in love in his childhood. Unfortunately ‘’musts’’ are stronger than ‘’wants’’.
Başka Dilde Aşk (Love in Another Language 2011): can love win all obstacles? A girl fights for her love for the man whose world is silent but all senses and emotions shout in his heart.
Aşk Tesadüfleri Sever (Love Likes Coincidences 2011): Two people that are meant to be together will eventually meet each other and many coincidences will occur. When two people love each other, their hearts can beat as one.
Ya Sonra? (After That? 2011): A young woman is feeling suffocated and is searching for her prince charming outside of her house. But she doesn’t realize that she has already found him and got married with him.
Uzun Hikaye (A Long Story 2012): A train station is the place of birth of the love of two young people. A man who struggles with all his forces for the well-being of his family and a simple but forceful woman who left everything behind for her loved one.
Evim Sensin (You Are My Home 2012): Boy loves girl, girl falls fatally sick, boy suffers, girl forgets. Love wins. A carefree love story that ends up tragically, but love comes on the surface even in the very last minute.
Kelebeğin Rüyası (The Butterfly’s Dream 2013): Poverty, famine, illness, poetry and love: the ingredients of a bittersweet tale set in a small village between three or maybe more young people.
Su ve Ateş (Water and Fire 2013): The opposites attract each other: a young girl falls in love with an enigmatic and full of secrets man. Can true love flourish? Or it will end to a tragedy? In a world where ‘’wants’’ come second they have to fight until death for their love.
Unutursam Fısılda (Whisper If I Forget 2014): Love acts as a remedy for the lost thoughts and life of a woman who once had been deeply in love. Bi Küçük Eylül Meselesi (A small September affair 2014): Love brings live, love brings joy and happiness but also love can bring pain. A girl visits an island where she meets a strange man with whom was in love. When everything points her to get out of that place she insists on connecting the dots.
Aşk Sana Benzer (Love Is Related To You 2015): A couple in love, a romantic island scenery and their strong love that cures all troubles of the past.
Movies with happy ending, movies with a bitter sweet ending, with lots of laughing and crying. Movies of bad and good quality. Idyllic setting and romantic music. Couples that are the opposite of one to each other. Love triangles. Fights between ‘’must’’ and ‘’want’’. All these are elements that synthesize a romance similar to the romance that many young couple experience in this city filled with love.