Director: Nikolai Leshenko, Reza Tahmasib
Cast: Rashid Behbudov, Leila Bedirbeili, Lutfali Abdullayev
Azerbaijan; 95’, 1945, color
Azerbaijani with Turkish subtitles
The operetta “The Cloth Peddler/Arşın Mal Alan” a world-famous musical comedy from Azerbaijan was composed by legendary Azerbaijani composer Üzeyir Hacıbeyli. This comic and romantic operetta, which was ahead of its time and rich in national characteristics and realism, is about pure love, women’s rights, fight against outdated traditions, and aspiration for modern way of life free of damaging customs. Young Asgar wants to get married. He is a rich, successful businessman and has everything he could wish for except for one thing – a wife. Tradition does not allow him to choose his own bride. Marriages are customarily arranged and, in fact, it’s impossible for young men to even catch a glimpse of potential brides as they are secluded in their homes and never come out unveiled or unaccompanied. So Asker wanders from house to house as a poor peddler selling fabric. Eventually, he meets Gülçehre, the beautiful daughter of Sultan bey, a wealthy merchant. Asgar decides Gülçehre is the one he wants to marry. She, too, falls in love with him, although she knows him only as a peddler.
The wind blows, rubbing against my legs made of layers of metal and wires, swaying the leaves of grass that have shot up from the cracks in the tarmac, and going off to the windows that look like the eyes of dead children in the wrecked buildings that seem to be everywhere as far as the eye can see.
Pera Museum, in collaboration with Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), is one of the main venues for this year’s 15th Istanbul Biennial from 16 September to 12 November 2017. Through the biennial, we will be sharing detailed information about the artists and the artworks.
A firm believer in the idea that a collection needs to be upheld at least by four generations and comparing this continuity to a relay race, Nahit Kabakcı began creating the Huma Kabakcı Collection from the 1980s onwards. Today, the collection can be considered one of the most important and outstanding examples among the rare, consciously created, and long-lasting ones of its kind in Turkey.
Tuesday - Saturday 10.00 - 19.00
Sunday 12.00 - 18.00
The museum is closed on Mondays.
On Wednesdays, the students can
visit the museum free of admission.
Full ticket: 25 TL
Discounted: 10 TL
Groups: 20 TL (10 people or more)
