A broke clerk vs. a sports star for a secretary's heart? Kemal Sunal's chaos wins every time.
Şaban, who works as a clerk in a factory, is madly in love with Bahar, who works as a secretary in the same factory and attends university thanks to the financial support of the famous oil tycoon Adnan Bıçakçı. However, Bahar has her eye on the famous athlete Erkan. After Adnan Bıçakçı reveals that Bahar is his granddaughter, she is kidnapped by gangsters. However, the only person who tries to rescue her is not her boyfriend Erkan, but Orta Direk Şaban.
Acting
Kemal Sunal's signature Şaban persona—clumsy, desperate, weirdly noble
Direction
Kartal Tibet's efficient 82-minute pacing built for pure entertainment
Writing
Sharp class satire disguised as broad romantic comedy
Director
Kartal Tibet
Kemal Sunal
Şaban
Bahar Öztan
Bahar
Reha Yurdakul
Şükrü
Dinçer Çekmez
Spor Hocası
Yalçın Tülpar
Erkan
Ergun Köknar
Adnan Biçakçi
Yavuzer Çetinkaya
Çete Reisi Çakal
Coşkun Göğen
Sinyor Lopez
Fatih Özses
Çete Elemanı
Hayri Caner
Kahveci
Renan Fosforoğlu
Gıyasettin Amca
Sırrı Elitaş
Adnan Bıçakçı'nın Adamı
Ajlan Aktuğ
Mahalleli
Celal Yonat
Celal
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was one of Kemal Sunal's many 'Şaban' films where he essentially played the same working-class everyman, building a franchise of personality before that was common in Turkish cinema.
The 'Orta Direk' (Middle Class/Middle Pillar) title refers to a specifically Turkish socioeconomic anxiety—the struggling salaried class caught between workers and wealthy, a recurring target of Yeşilçam satire.
TR
