Why is “7. Koğuştaki Mucize”, the Turkish film from Netflix, a hit?

• 7. Koğuştaki Mucize , remake of the South Korean film Miracle in Cell No 7 by Lee Hwan Gyeong, was released in 2019 in Turkey.
• Put online in mid-March by Netflix, it is "in the top 10 most watched programs" of the platform "in 40 countries".
• Françoise Zamour, author of Melodrama in contemporary cinema: A Factory of Peoples (Presses Universitaires de Rennes), analyzes the phenomenon for 20 Minutes .

A real phenomenon! 7. Koğuştaki Mucize, remake of the South Korean film Miracle in Cell No 7 by Lee Hwan Gyeong, was released in 2019 in Turkey where it touched more than 5.3 million viewers in theaters . Put online in mid-March by Netflix, 7. Koğuştaki Mucize made a real splash there when nobody had heard of it before. The film directed by Mehmet Ada Öztekin quickly integrated the top 10 of the platform in France when it is only available in the original version with subtitles! It is about to conquer the planet and is, according to Netflix, "in the top 10 of the most watched programs in 40 countries".

A man with a mental handicap and separated from his daughter is accused of the murder of a child.

If you don't cry in front of 7. Koğuştaki Mucize, an absolutely overwhelming Turkish film, nothing more can be done for you. It's available. pic.twitter.com/f7hry53uyF

The feature makes you cry in the cottages. As proof, the numerous testimonies of Internet users who could not hold back their tears on social networks, where it was renamed "the Turkish film" because of its difficult to pronounce title. On Tik Tok, Internet users even film themselves sobbing in front of the film.

How to pronounce “7. Koğuştaki Mucize ”? pic.twitter.com/geF4LbpYlA

Why did this unlined Turkish film, staged by a director and worn by unknown actors in France, succeed in upsetting the hearts of so many Netflix subscribers in full containment?

7. Koğuştaki Mucize tells the fictional story of Memo, a widowed father with a mild mental disability, who raises his daughter Ova with the help of his grandmother. Their daily life, happy despite poverty, derailed when he was accused in the early 1980s of the murder of the daughter of a colonel. “The film was very successful in Turkey. Mehmet Ada Öztekin is a TV director accustomed to productions intended for the general public ", notes Françoise Zamour, lecturer in cinematographic studies at the ENS and author of Melodrama in contemporary cinema: A factory of peoples (Presses Universitaires de Rennes ).

"Flouted innocence and the triumph of truth"

7. Koğuştaki Mucize is, according to the expert, "a pure melodrama". "This film stages mocked innocence and the triumph of truth," explains Françoise Zamour. Unlike the tragedies where the "destiny" of the heroes is undermined by "the arbitrariness of an unknown god", in 7. Koğuştaki Mucize , "destiny is the social and political situation, the relationship of power, the power of the military who can do everything on the most humble of small farmers, ”analyzes the researcher.

7. Koğuştaki Mucize uses the classic codes of melodrama. "The heroine is a little girl, the very figure of innocence since the creation of melodrama, victim of life and of the bad guys". And to recall that: “The melodrama appeared at the end of the French Revolution, at a time when everything was going badly, when everything was a bit ass over head, where nothing had any meaning anymore. "

"Melodrama has the ability to give meaning to the chaos of the world"

With the pandemic and containment, we have lost all our bearings. The success of Netflix's melodrama can therefore be explained by the intrinsic properties of the genre. “Melodrama has the capacity to give meaning to the chaos of the world: there is justice, good, evil, the good are rewarded, the bad, punished. It is very reassuring for us at a time when we are in the midst of the chaos of the world, ”says Françoise Zamour.

Billions of human beings are confined to their homes, helpless in the face of "some sort of invisible threat". For Françoise Zamour, it is not surprising that a melodrama from Turkey makes a splash: “The strength of melodrama is to highlight what brings us together, which is stronger than what separates us. The melodrama always works on the resemblance and in a certain way, that one also works on the resemblance, between us and this family. "

"The melodrama is optimistic, even when everything is going badly"

7. Koğuştaki Mucize stages “the victory of the weak”. “Many of us are in the third line waiting for something to happen, all a little seized with anxiety and dread. It is quite beautiful to see this strength of the weak manifest through a fiction. And there is nothing obviously weaker - it is humanity naked - than a simple-minded man and a child ”, analyzes the researcher. 7. Koğuştaki Mucize represents the “people as a whole and in their most vulnerable and strongest. "

No cathartic effect for the researcher. Lamenting the trauma experienced by fictional characters does not allow the confined spectator to forget his own. On the other hand, “The melodrama is optimistic, even when everything goes wrong, even when people die. Optimism, openness, and faith in people remain. And perhaps that is what reassures. "

7. Koğuştaki Mucize also has its detractors, who denounce a film which tends to force the line on the scenes of emotion and some heaviness in the staging. This film expresses “optimism, confidence in what is best for humans, including the killer… The idea that there are things that unite us beyond what separates us. The film defends this in a pretty beautiful way, then obviously with slow motion effects and a little heavy music ”, tempers Françoise Zamour.

And to recall: “The melodrama is not at all negligible in our relation to fiction. Douglas Sirk, Pedro Almodovar or Aki Kaurismäki and other great filmmakers make real melodramas. 7. Koğuştaki Mucize insists a little on the moments that will arouse emotion, even tears, but is not so profoundly different from all the great melodramas of classic cinema. Others believe that the plot is sewn with white thread. Another reason for its success, according to the expert: “There is also something very childish. We know roughly what will happen as soon as we start, a bit like the children to whom we always tell the same story, but it is not because they know it that they have not want to hear it! "

The Turks you are too strong in addition to having created the Suçuk you have created a more moving film than the Green Line I didn't even know it was possible.

I recommend everyone film 7. koğuştaki mucize on Netflix. A masterpiece.

I have a headache from crying 😭

"The film also shows magnificent landscapes, it comes out to us, we travel thanks to this film", underlines the expert again. Koğuştaki Mucize is far from a masterpiece, but this naive, Manichean and tearful film was timely. Salvator, no doubt that it allows some (Netflix, I admit, I am definitely lost) to evacuate the overflow of emotion!

Series

Escape to the very cool "World according to Jeff Goldblum"

Series

Why curb binge-watching is it the good idea of ​​Disney + especially in full containment?

• Cinema
• Netflix
• Containment
• Turkey
• Success