2 Girls

Based on the best-selling Turkish novel by Perihan Magden of the same name, this film tells the story of "2 Girls" -- Behiye (Feride Cetin) and Handan (Vildan Atasever) -- new friends from very different social worlds. Behiye dwells in a poor, depressing, almost uninhabitable neighborhood, while Handan enjoys a posh, upper middle class life in Istanbul. But when they meet, they discover they have a common need and a shared goal. Handan's mother Leman (Hulya Avsar) is a beautiful woman, who has made her living from rich men ever since Handan's father abandoned them years before, emigrating to Australia. Handan longs to find her father. Behiye encourages Handan to run away to find him. To abandon home and everything that puts limitation on her life -- lifestyle, boyfriend at school, and even her mother Leman. She offers to run away with her, and Handan agrees. Behiye makes plans for their escape, only to discover a terrible truth about her friend. They clash and she feels diminished. Seemingly a typical drama, this film really looks at the contemporary tensions surfacing in Turkish society, that rapid change and modernization have wrought within the youth.