Talkie Tuesday: The Ottoman Lieutenant

"I thought I was going to change the world.

But, of course, it was the world that changed me."

Hello everyone!

It's blog post time yet again and I've dug out an older entry from my little sheepy notebook. One that I absolutely LOVED while watching but somehow never got to actually review before, which is actually shame on me, but what would you? 

Anyway.

Last summer during my little vacation, when I took the time off to not be online more than strictly necessary, I watched a heck of a lot of movies.

And among them was one which I'd actually stumbled upon rather randomly without even knowing I'd been looking for it. Of course this happens to me a lot when I somehow land with movies I never knew I wanted to watch until I watch them haha.

I'm talking about one that might not have gotten the international promotion that Avengers did, but it was cool just the same: The Ottoman Lieutenant.

Now, first thing's first, this movie is set in east, what is today called Turkey, and it's more or less acted out between four key players of the story: Michiel Huisman, Hera Hilmar, Ben Kingsley and Josh Hartnett.

That's it.

Yes, there are extras and sure, there's people running all over during the war-torn country scenes, but basically, it's those four.

And they sell it.

Totally.

In 1914, a young nurse, Lillie, is outraged when a man with dark skin is turned out of the hospital she works for because "he's black". On the other hand, she's inspired by a visiting doctor who speaks about his hospital in Anatolia, where he tries to treat patients as equal, and so she makes a bold decision of her own.

She will donate supplies to the hospital AND her deceased brother's truck. And her services, if they'll have her.

Which is how she ends up in Istanbul and meets Lieutenant Ismail Veli (Huisman), who not only shows her around the city but ends up being her military escort for the supplies, not that he's initially happy about it. He kind of thinks this babysitting gig isn't for him, after all.

I mean, it's BORING, right?

WRONG.

When bandits attack their convoy, Lillie and Ismail barely escape, but eventually make their way to the location of the field hospital, sans supplies or truck, but ironically enough the bandits pop up one day SELLING the stuff because ... well, money, honestly.

Lillie might be outraged, but she can't do much about it aside from do her job and help out the hospital founder (Ben Kingsley), who she realises can only sleep with the help of ether (bad memories) but this makes him unstable during surgeries and such. With her determination, she sets out to cure him of his addiction, and actually succeeds.

She also succeeds in making Jude (Josh Hartnett), the other doctor, fall in love with her, not that she returns the sentiment.

She's kind of into Ismail, after all.

Stationed at the local garison, Ismail helps Lillie discover more about the country she now resides in, and the two slowly begin to fall in love ...

at the epically wrong time.

As World War I breaks out across Europe, everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

Ismail is in a difficult position as a military officer, because he sympathises with the people, not the military, which is how he purposely doesn't discover the hidden weapons in the hospital church during a raid, weapons that Jude had hidden there for the Anatolians. Instead, this earns him more doe-eyed looks from Lillie, and the two consumate their relationship before he has to go on a solo mission to destroy a weapons cache the Russians have on-hand.

Lillie waits for his return, and eventually sets out to find him, luckily, seeing as when she DOES find him, she brings him AND the refugees to the hospital.

Ismail is badly wounded and would need a lot of rest to recover, but the pair have to flee when the Russians suddenly come barging into the hospital. Despite being the scorned lover, Jude stalls them long enough that Lillie and Ismail can escape.

She rows them out to sea, hoping to reach the Turkish border, but Ismail unfortunately doesn't make it, passing in the hold of her arms.

Devastated, but determined, she sinks his body so no one would be able to find it, then returns to the hospital, realizing that the world had changed her and that she would never stop thinking about Ismail - but above all else, she can't go back to America now. She's not American anymore.

She's one of the people she learned to care for.

Honestly, this movie had a very simple premise but it delivered with a ton of packed emotions, especially with the subplot of Lillie returning a young girl to her home and discovering how bad things are for the people in general. And of course, the chemistry between the lead actors was off the charts.

Add Ben Kingsley and you have the icing on the cake.

Highly recommended!

xx

*images and video not mine