The year is 1888. A 7-year-old child was first seen running on a vast field to scare the crows off of the meadows of
Thessalonica, and then he falls from a tree while reaching out to a nightingale. Everything goes black. The child who falls from the tree is
Mustafa, who would have grown to become the founder of the Republic of Turkey and be given the surname Atatürk, that is, if he did not fall to his coma that day. The film fast-forwards to over a century later into the year 2007. Without Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey's history, no
War of Independence has been fought,
Ankara has not become the country's capital, and the country continues its existence as the
Ottoman Republic, ruled by the
Sultan Osman VII (
Ata Demirer), who has become little more than a
figurehead and a source of ridicule by foreign dignitaries, especially by the
United States. At first, he emerges from his palace as
Janissaries play a march for him. Outside the palace, several protesters who objected to foreign interference in Ottoman affairs were suppressed by the police. He then prays at a mosque, before the next scenes focus on his wife's shopping. The film then focuses on the various political intrigues of ruling an Ottoman Empire under American mandate, including scheming advisors; clashes between the modern, XXIth century Istanbul, and the old fashionned aestethics; and a love affair between the Sultan and an anti-occupation activist. For all of his bumbling antics, the Sultan was forced to abdicate for his failed administration, and was exiled. The scene shifts from the
Istanbul harbour back to the wheat fields of Thessalonica, as the boy Mustafa recovers from his coma. He gets up and runs off beating a can with a stick, as a voice-over of one of his future speeches plays in the background. ==Release==