Ay Lav Yu

One of the culturally richest regions of Turkey is the east and southeast, which includes the Mesopotamian Plain. The story of the film Ay Lav Yu takes place in Tinne, a village in a corner of this rich land. Tinne means "nonexistent" in Kurdish. Tinne is a village that the State has, knowingly or unknowingly, forgotten for years, a village that has gone unnoticed and been taken to be nonexistent. In the southeast of Turkey, in the middle of Mesopotamia, it lives out its fate. The vast majority of its population (just 80-90 people in all) is Kurdish, and some are Syriac. In Tinne there is no health clinic, no road, no school, no hospital, no mukhtar's office; in short, nothing at all. That is why it does not even appear on the map. Nobody even has a population registration. So officially, there is neither a Tinne nor a single person living there. Yet Yusuf Ağa and his family have lived on that land for over 100 years and want to open up to the state. But for years (perhaps 40 years) he has not received even a reply to any of the letters he has written. Just to exist, to be recognized, to be a nation and a homeland, or to have a homeland and an identity, he left his eldest son İbrahim, still a baby in swaddling clothes, in the courtyard of a university faculty. Everyone mocked Yusuf Ağa for leaving his son in the faculty courtyard rather than the mosque courtyard. But Yusuf Ağa had brought İbrahim into the world not so that he would sleep and grow up, but so that he would study and grow up. Priest Hanna comes to Yusuf's rescue. Passing by that day, he takes İbrahim and enters him in his own registry, so that he would have an identity, would exist, and when he grew up would make all of Tinne exist. That İbrahim is now 30 years old, has done his military service, finished university and is returning to the village. İbrahim is welcomed with great joy, hope, cheer and ululations. The one hope, the great pride of Tinne has arrived. Now Tinne will exist. İbrahim, however, is head over heels in love. Yusuf and his family are shocked. Because the girl he has fallen for is named Jessica. When they hear the girl's name, everyone's jaw drops. Jessica. Where is this Jessica from? İbrahim answers: Colorado! From this moment on, every moment is a surprise for both sides. Completely different cultures, completely different traditions, completely different worldviews and completely different civilizations. The young Kurd İbrahim tries to get his father Yusuf Ağa, who has two wives, his 6 siblings and his grandfather Ubeyd to adapt to the American Brown family. And the love of Jessica, who has Western parents and a brother, knows no obstacles. On one side is Tinne, which even the Turkish State does not recognize or know of and which is not even on the map. On the other is America, which holds half of the world map. Every minute and every second that follows is now a comedy.