SYNOPSIS
FUNNY is an ensemble dark comedy set in Berlin. Opening on the urinals in the Grand Hotel Men’s room, the movie tells two separate stories intertwined by crossover characters.
The first of the multiple narratives revolves around JOHANN KREUZBERG, a tragic hero prone to depression and suicidal tendencies. JOHANN ventures forth in a desperate quest to re-unite with his estranged wife, AIDA, who has taken up residence at Berlin’s Grand Hotel. JOHANN is flat broke and at rock bottom. He has already suffered through a failed suicide attempt, which he unfortunately captured on his own home video, adding a healthy dose of humiliation to his already beat-down spirit. Since he has no money, he is forced to travel the streets of New York by foot to make his way to the Grand Hotel. Amidst his journey, JOHANN recalls the beginning of his relationship with AIDA (which takes place in the very same hotel) through flashback.
Upon his arrival, AIDA rejects JOHANN in final fashion by openly consorting with another man- a man with whom JOHANN took an awkward elevator ride. On his descent into the lobby, JOHANN encounters PITY, a naïve Greek fresh arrived to the big city. JOHANN and PITY share an instant attraction, but JOHANN, too crushed by recent events, ignores it but for giving PITY the flowers intended for AIDA. Distraught, JOHANN again turns to suicide. Again his attempt fails, but in the process unites him with OMAR, a 6 year old, autistic boy. OMAR possesses an inflatable sex doll modeled after MARLIYN MONROE and protects it with animal instinct. JOHANN empathizes with the man desperately clinging to a female and takes OMAR under his wing. The two reenter the hotel as Omar urgently needs to pee. Mean time AIDA dines in the hotel restaurant with ARMIN GLASSIERIE, a slick reality television producer that has cast AIDA in his program ‘Prince Charming’ with the intent of seducing her. ARMIN’s wife BLANCHE complicates the matter by choosing the Grand Hotel to meet an old friend, PITY, who is in town on business.
JOHANN and OMAR must suddenly run for their lives as two pursues them mysterious TWINS dressed themselves as MARLIYN MONROE. The chase-and-flee brings JOHANN and OMAR to the roof of the Grand Hotel where they discover PITY a second time. She has found her way to the roof’s edge following a particularly groping private ‘interview’ conducted by ARMIN. Ironically, this moment parallels that in which JOHANN met AIDA, only he was the one skirting suicide.
The TWINS burst onto the roof and spill blood in their pursuit of MARLIYN. During the showdown, the doll pops and plummets to the ground.
The sub-story of the film follows identical twin brothers and business partners MARC and ARC PORTER. The tandem own and operate ‘Double P Adult Novelties’, a sex shop and small time drug front for the Russian mafia. When dumb-ass brother MARC sells MARLIYN to a pathetic Syrian refugeé, MAHFOUZ, he unknowingly gives away an exceedingly expensive stash of smuggled drugs belonging to a vicious crime boss known as THE DENTIST. In dire fear for their lives, the twins launch a frantic endeavor to recollect MARLIYN hitting numerous obstacles and dead-end along the way. Meanwhile, MAHFOUZ’ son OMAR walks in on a graphic sexual encounter between MAHFOUZ and MARLIYN. The event triggers traumatic memories in OMAR of his witnessing his mother’s brutal rape and murder at the hands of ISIS militants. OMAR forcefully rescues the doll from the carnal embrace of his father, inadvertently igniting a fire that engulfs the house. Frightened and empowered, OMAR takes to the streets with his beloved MARLIYN. MARC and ARC finally catch up to MARLIYN and her child protector at the Grand Hotel. A dogged cat-and-mouse ensues and concludes on the roof high above Berlin.

THEMES: Several running themes expose themselves throughout the two stories, further tying the narratives together. The concepts of voyeurism, the objectification of women, and death as change provide common through lines for each individual chronicle. Throughout the script, many characters are filmed within the film. One of the initial scenes shows JOHANN attempting suicide while recording it on his camcorder, later TV news crews capture MAHFOUZ’ sad revelation of character following the burning of his home, and PITY confesses intimate thoughts and feelings during a reality TV interview. These scenes ask the question ‘When does voyeurism cross the line from fun and entertaining to sick and intrusive?’
Funny also explores the cultural notion of viewing women as objects. The two stories are intertwined by the MARLIYN MONROE sex doll, itself a feminized object. Beyond that, the use of MARLIYN MONROE (a universally accepted image of the apex female) speaks to the idea. The character BLANCHE is a kept trophy wife, while PITY is the focus of male conquest both pure and lascivious. Over the course of the movie, all action occurs in the pursuit of women. (JOHANN/AIDA, TWINS/MARLIYN, ARMIN/PITY)
Death, or the quest for, is seen in the film as a catalyst for change. In JOHANN’s tale, every major shift or reward occurs following an effort at taking his own life. At the start, JOHANN tries to shoot himself and the action begins. Later, he attempts to step in front of traffic and converges with OMAR. And in OMAR’s narrative, it’s the death of his mother that arrests his development and creates the need to rescue MARLIYN.

CHARACTERS
JOHANN KREUZBERG: The tragic hero of his story, JOHANN is a man left with nothing. He is broke. His wife has left him. JOHANN has hit rock bottom. JOHANN’s thoughts and action lead him to seek the ultimate relief of ending his own life. However, each attempt at suicide ironically sparks a new change and beginning.
JOHANN ventures forth in a desperate attempt to find his recently estranged wife, AIDA, who has taken up residence in the Grand Hotel. Once there, he is rejected and sent on his way. All is not lost as JOHANN connects intimately with PITY. Along his journey, JOHANN connects with OMAR and MARLIYN; thus catapulting him into the center of the plot. JOHANN discovers the meaning of his miserable life: “saving the last innocent adult”

OMAR: OMAR is an autistic child. Traumatized as a young boy while witnessing the brutal rape and murder of his mother, OMAR arrested his development at age 5. He again witnesses a diMARCrbing sex act involving his father, MAHFOUZ, and a blow-up doll replica of MARLIYN MONROE. OMAR takes the doll and flees his house, inadvertently igniting an inferno.
OMAR fixates on the doll as a mother figure and is determined to protect her with his life. The vicious pursuit of MARLIYN by others draws OMAR into a deadly conflict with other characters.

MARLIYN MONROE: Catalogue number MM 1830, the inflatable sex doll is the prize object sought out by every male character at some point in the story. Imported by THE DENTIST as an elaborate drug smuggle, MARLIYN is inadvertently sold to an Syrian refuge (MAHFOUZ) by twin porn storeowners MARC and ARC.
Action of the film focuses on the pursuit of the ultimate object of desire, the MARLIYN MONROE. All storylines eventually converge around this adult novelty.

ARMIN GLASSIERIE: Scumbag reality television Producer ARMIN GLASSIERIE uses the Grand Hotel as his personal love den. ARMIN habitually corrupts and seduces the contestants on his show, Prince Charming, in his suite at the hotel. On this particular evening, however, a wrench is thrown into his plan as his wife BLANCHE has made plans to meet a college friend at the same hotel.
ARMIN is the personification of voyeurism in the story and is unabashed in his shamelessness. His most recent pursuit is the innocent PITY, and runs into a stiff competition from the idealistic JOHANN.

BLANCHE GLASSIERIE: ARMIN GLASSIERIE’s trophy wife is blissfully numb to her husband’s infidelities. She lives a life of comfort and routine, accepting the creature comforts wealth brings her in the stead of romance and respect. BLANCHE stays with ARMIN because he amuses her with his antics and transparencies.
She represents the apathy that encourages exploitative behavior.

ARC: Co-owner of Double P Adult Novelties, ARC is the dominant identical twin of MARC. Both brothers split responsibilities in the store and a stiff cocaine habit. The “level-headed” twin, ARC panics when MARC reveals MARLIYN was sold instead of delivered to THE DENTIST. ARC initiates the pair’s desperate hunt for the doll.

MARC: Concerned more with his chemically enhanced epiphanies and fantasies, MARC sleepwalks through reality. Consequence and effect are meaningless to him as long as he can indulge in pleasures of the flesh and mind. It is MARC’s crazy idea to keep the doll for themselves instead of returning it to THE DENTIST.

THE DENTIST: Russian mafia crime boss and underworld boogeyman The Dentist is the catalyst of the script. The Dentist is infamous for his personal brand of dental torture and carries an air of grotesque intimidation. He brings about the story with his import of MARLIYN and thus the chain reaction of events that follow.
The Dentist looms like a deadly shadow over the TWINS’ fate and actions.

AIDA KAPOR: Separated from JOHANN, AIDA starts her life anew by returning to the same hotel her life with her ex-husband began. AIDA’s presence there draws JOHANN to the Grand Hotel and starts his complicated journey.
A former contestant on ARMIN GLASSIERIE’s ‘Prince Charming’, AIDA interrupts JOHANN’s initial attempt at suicide (flashback) when she escapes to the roof after being seduced by ARMIN.

PITY: A successful lawyer in New York on business, PITY arranges to reunite with her close college friend BLANCHE. Inconveniently, PITY bunks at the Grand Hotel and coordinates a dinner there with BLANCHE. While in the hotel, PITY meets JOHANN and sparks an interest in him.
AIDA used to be a ‘fragile flower of innocence’ raised in Turkey. She has come to Berlin as a contestant on ‘Prince Charming’. She stays at the Grand Hotel as a guest of the show, and more specifically ARMIN.

DIRECTOR’S APPROACH:
“co-incidances, are not just co-insidances but “also” the inducements…”
Preferances at the junctions of the forked roads of this garden called life leads us to our destinies. Those preferances ends with consequances and we call them coincidance. Every single co-incidance has its own and original cause and consequance. When a chain of causes results by a co-incidance, it is no more co-incidance but incidance. Then one can claim that incidances are consequances and consequances are not the endings but begginings of a new co-incidance. And we call this butterfly effect..

Aşkların ve ideallerin işgal altında olduğu metropol dünyasında, çağın hastalığı “sevgisizliğe” yakalanmış olduğunun farkına varıp paniğe kapılmış; hayatı, cinsel yolla bulaşan bir hastalık olarak tanımlayan ve yaşamın kenarında sallanırken tutunmak için yine aşkı seçen BOŞVERMIŞ ROMANTIK BIR ADAM…

Annesini kaybettiği gün dünyaya susan ve yıllar sonra içindeki bu boşluğu plastik bir kadında bulan ve kaybetmemek için yaşamını hiçe sayan KÜÇÜK BIR ÇOCUK…

“Kötülük”ün tek gerçeklik olduğunu savunan ve sahibi olduğu şöhretin gücünü kadın etine olan açlığını doyurmak için kullanan FIRSATÇI BIR MEDYACI…

Medyacı kocasının bütün yaptıklarına, “şehirli züppeler arasında” ondan daha iyisini bulamayacağı için iğrenerek de olsa katlanan seksi ve seksist GÜZEL BIR KADIN…

Ilk aşkının son aşkı olacağına yemin etmiş ve “belki bir gün” le başlayan cümlelerle yıllarca yolunu beklediği adamın ölüm haberini almış kırgın, YASLI BIR KADIN…

Taptığı tek Tanrısı “para” olan ve kaybettiği milyonlarca dolar değerindeki emanetinin peşine düşen yeraltı dünyasından ACIMASIZ BIR DIŞÇI…

Dişçi’nin emanetini kaybettikleri için “ağır ceza”dan kurtulamayacaklarını bilen ve bu nedenle yana yakıla Istanbul sokaklarını arşınlayan , ikisi de birbirinden salak IKIZ KARDEŞLER…

Bir Berlin gecesinde bir buçuk saat içinde birbirleriyle hiçbir bağlantıları olmayan insanların yolları yan yana dizildikleri psuvarlarda sessizce işerken kesişirse neler olabilir? Minik tesadüfler akıp giden hayatı değiştirebilir mi?

Öykümüz “rastlantı” olarak nitelediğimiz, ancak aslında yaşamımızın kilometre taşlarını oluşturan karşılaşmalara odaklanmaktadır. Rastlantı dediklerimiz rastlantı değil, hayatın sıradan bir rutinidir aslında. Algıda seçiciliğimiz onları karşımıza çıkmış birer rastlantı olarak adlandırır. Oysa onlar hemen her gün yanımızdan, sağımızdan, solumuzdan geçmişlerdir belki de..

FUNNY sadece sıradan bir öykü değildir. Erkek psikolojisindeki tamir olmaz çelişki “Oedipus Komplexi”ne daha önce hiçbir yerde örneği görülmemiş bir açıdan bakmaktadır… “Kutsal Anne” figürüyle, “Pornografi” figürünün hazin bir biçimde “kadın” cinsinde buluştuğunun farkına varışımız olacaktır…

FUNNY, çekim tekniği ve kurgusal anlatımıyla da farklılık yaratmayı hedeflemektedir. Film kahramanlarının her birinin “algı seçiciliği”nin farklı olmasından yola çıkılarak, farklı açı, objektif ve filtreler kullanılacak ve böylece her kahraman için farklı bir “bakış” oluşturulacaktır. Aynı olayın farklı açıları, flashbacklerle perdeye yansıyacak, izleyiciye diğer açıdan olayın algılanış biçimi ve o farklı açının yarattığı sonuçları görme şansı sunulacaktır.

Kurgusal anlatım itibariyle ise, yukarıda anlatılan, yolları çatallanan bahçede, seçilmemiş yoldan gidilseydi ne olurdu sorusunun cevabı aranacaktır. Bu amaca hizmet etmek üzere, rastlantılar oluşmadan önce, onları hazırlayan nedenlerin farklı açıları adım adım izlenebilir bir biçimde kurulacaktır.