Sentimental Drama and Züğürt Ağa

Sentimental Theatre is an 18th-century genre that is emerged from middle-class. It was started by newly emerging middle classes to representing themselves on the stage. In Sentimental Drama, tears and emotions are in the foreground. From Turkish movies, Züğürt Ağa (1985) can be given as an example as Yeşilçam movie directed by Nesli Çölgeçen to Sentimental Drama.

Züğürt Ağa is the landlord(Ağa) of a village named Haraptar. Because of the drought inthe village, the people in the village have to stop production. The people in distress steal the landlord’s products and sell them and move to the city. The Landlord who is left alone sells the arid village and goes to the city, but he cannot earn his livelihood. Everybody including his wife abandons him. The only one who stays with him is Kiraz, the new wife of his dead father. Kiraz is an innocent, loyal, and beautiful girl. He cannot help falling in love with her, but he cannot tell her since it is not ethical. Züğürt Ağa has the characteristics of Sentimentalism since the movie makes the audience laugh while making them emotional. So, Kiraz is heroine that is moral, innocent, beautiful but needs saving, hero is Züğürt Ağa, who is moral, acts in intuition, believes in justice. There are other characters such as villain, villain’s accomplice, who is usually serves comic relief, faithful servant who helps the hero uncover needed information; also servers a comic relief(remember the voting scene) also maidservant who is fun and loyal to the heroine. Moreover, The movie is about a middle-class village landlord.

Thus, Turkish Yeşilçam movies are similar to Sentimental Theatres. The audience both cry and laugh while watching the movie. Just like Sentimental Comedies, Yeşilçam movies are generally about middle-class families. Züğürt Ağa is a good example.