Erdoğan’s ‘Cheerful Life’: Santa Claus is coming to town

“Neşeli Hayat” (A Cheerful Life), the fourth feature film Erdoğan has written and directed, could be defined as a Capraesque exploration that brings the “Christmas spirit” of generosity and optimism into a Muslim community. Sounds a bit unsettling, doesn’t it? Yet Erdoğan pulls it off without coming out as pretentious.

Rıza Şenyurt (Erdoğan) has a lot on his plate. He’s originally a small-time chef, but ever since his small restaurant went bankrupt he’s been throwing himself from one dead-end job to another. The last one has gone extremely sour; he’s taken a try at network marketing (a job that can turn simultaneously into hell and paradise) working hard at selling a line of health products with the help of his neighborhood friends. Turns out that the products have been banned by the Health Ministry, and so Rıza and his friends have been embezzled. Rıza’s friends hold him responsible and decide to take him to court.

On top of all the debts Rıza has accumulated, there’s the issue of his wife, Ayla (Büşra Pekin), who wants a baby while hubby drowns in impotence, and his brother-in-law Lokman (Ersin Korkut), who’s gotten himself into big-time girl trouble. Lokman needs enough cash to wed his bride-to-be on New Year’s Day, and to convince her family that he’s not a complete loser, he naturally turns to family for help.

Among the jobs available, Rıza finally lands a one-month gig dressing up as Santa Claus in front of a toy shop in one of those newly built massive shopping malls. It’s not his preferred choice, but the man has to bring bread to the table. He polishes his “Ho, Ho, Ho,” and despite a furrowed brow that makes him look like Snow White’s dwarf Grumpy, he manages to pull off being Santa.

The question remains whether among the ruckus of his family and community he can keep the job and earn enough money to save his family, pay off his debts and possibly make the wife happy. As you can imagine, in a film that offers the notion of giving and cheerfulness, all’s well that ends well. Never mind that the crisis is looming over all of us like Damocles’ sword.

The thing about “A Cheerful Life” is that despite its gloomy background of lower-middle class misery in Rıza’s neighborhood and capitalistic tyranny found in the form of a massive shopping mall, its ensemble cast has that touch of melancholic yet genuine humor that embraces life without ever falling into the trap of brooding and economic-driven self-pity.

Every character maintains a weighty and three-dimensional presence, most of all Erdoğan’s Rıza, and the story indeed flows like a cozy little Christmas tale that is fully adapted to Turkish ethos, never coming off like glue-on pretense. In fact, it is those moments of cultural self-reflection in the film that make it successful; when Rıza tries to adapt to a Western lifestyle he almost always falters: His Amway-inspired network marketing moments are disastrously funny as he’s obviously out of place, and his attempts at being Santa Claus are never fully successful. It is exactly this acceptance of disparity that helps the film reach its peak of wit and authenticity.