CHOLERA STREET

Officially it goes by Tayyare, but denizens call it Cholera Street, a crazy, smoke-filled, virtually lawless zone in a corner of Istanbul, where neighborhood strongmen keep the peace and a good knife-fighter is worth more than an entire police force. Here the harlots openly parade their charms, sneak thieves nab carpets by throwing cats, and a prciesly aimed razor blade can bring a fish dinner down from heaven. And it's in Cholera Street that Salih, the barber's son (who yearns to be anywhere but here), must make a stand against both a Jack-the-Ripper Style slasher stalking the night and an invading Boss and his posse of punks. And Salih must struggle alone since any group-citizens' movement is automatically condemned as “communism.” A sensation in its native land, CHOLERA STREET is like a Turkish Tarentino and then some. It's part urban folklore, part gritty gangster melodrama, and part pure opium-den dream, mixing raw shocks with alyricism reminiscent of John Woo at his giddiest, and a Rabelaisian gallery of grotesque characters spouting some of the most wildly unlikely dialogue ever subtitled.