While some countries have started vaccinating their population against COVID-19 and there seems to be a glimpse of an end to the worldwide pandemic, the majority of public life continues to be defined by the lockdown, with schools, shops and museums still closed. Apart from the financial factor, many people long for a way to be constructive outside their own home, meet others and simply enjoy a coffee in a nearby cafe, which is a feeling Turkish director Reha Erdem took as a foundation for his feature “Hey There!”, now exclusively streaming on MUBI. Especially in the field of culture, people long for a way to be productive again as the concept of home office does not work as well as it does in other professions, making it rather easy to for Erdem to find collaborators for his project.
As Istanbul is still in lockdown and many of its citizens are confined to their homes, Felek (Serkan Keskin) and his friend Kerim (Bülent Emin Yarar) come up with a scam to trick unsuspecting people and make a lot of money. In the disguise of a representative of a secret state department set on persecuting small crimes or shortcomings of people, Felek hacks into the computers of other people, threatening them with legal proceedings and public shame if they are not willing to admit to their crimes and, of course, transfer a large sum of money to the department’s bank account, which in truth belongs to Kerim. While Felek is skeptical at first about the scam, thinking it won’t work and people will become suspicious, after the first few sessions and the money starting to appear in Kerim’s ban account, he is convinced.
After a while, however, first signs of conflict start appearing in the relationship of Felek and Kerim, since the latter has stopped transferring his friend’s part of the money, finding increasingly ridiculous excuses for having forgotten to do so. At the same time, Felek has realized the benefits of the various interaction with others, as they provide also a means to interact with people, learn about their lives and secrets, and he even finds himself falling in love with Nurperi (Nihal Yalcin), a young woman who he was unable to trick with the scam. Eventually, the two start dreaming of the end of lockdown and a future together, with Felek deciding to make her a partner in the scam so that she receives the money instead of Kerim.
Through the increasing use of programs such as Zoom, Erdem’s viewer is more than familiar with the format of “Hey There!”, but also the various conflicts of the characters. Felek and Kerim, along with the various “victims” of their scam, share a common longing for a more profound interaction with another person, after having been restricted to predominantly look after themselves and stay away from others as far as possible due to the pandemic. Apart from various “home office”-sessions and the usual housework, their daily routine is also defined by growing boredom and loneliness, a means to escape the cocoon of their own homes, which, in this case, is provided by technology, even if it means falling for a more than obvious scam.
Even though the aforementioned aesthetics of “Hey There!” become tiresome after a while, Erdem’s feature makes up for these shortcomings with its performances and its episodic structure. With Felek’s and Kerim’s scam providing a kind of narrative framework, the former’s interaction with other people highlight the variety of a project such as “Hey There!” considering it blends elements of comedy, drama, romance and even some hints of musical. Each of the actors is convincing in their role of people craving for a chance to interact, some of them using the opportunity as a kind of therapy session, which becomes something of an obsession with Felek who, on more than one occasion, drops the act of the government representative and embraces the role the therapist. Given the variety of expression and interaction, the contrast of the deserted streets of the Turkish metropolis could not be more eye-opening, as a symbol for something we are all longing for by now.
“Hey There!” is a blend of comedy, drama, romance and even musical, whose episodic structure and great performances make for a rather entertaining experience. Reha Erdem utilizes the restrictions to the pandemic to tell various stories about people locked in their own homes and who are now longing for some kind of interaction, even if it takes place with scam artists like the two main protagonists. Even though its aesthetics may become tiresome after a while, there is no shortage of creativity, expression and a sheer lust for life in the various episodes and images in this feature.
