You Me Lenin: A Tale of Ideology, Memory, and Mystery

Lenin’s body has been long gone. Decades have passed since Gorbachev trampled upon his and the Soviet Union’s legacy. Yet, much like Marx, Engels, Stalin, and Che, Lenin's ideology continues to be followed, sometimes weakly, sometimes powerfully, even in the smallest of towns. More than that, with the collapse of real socialism, capitalism has pressed harder upon the lives of the people, fueling curiosity even among those who have never learned about Lenin or the Soviet Union. Sometimes, history finds peculiar ways to reach people—perhaps in the form of a wooden Lenin statue washing ashore.

This last sentence is not just metaphorical; it actually happened. Screenwriters Barış Bıçakçı and Tufan Taştan take inspiration from a real event in 1993 when a Lenin statue, likely discarded from a town on the Black Sea coast, drifted to the shores of Akçakoca, creating excitement among the locals. They weave a fictional detective story around this historical moment, exploring the lingering presence of Lenin’s ideological ghost over a small town in Turkey.

The plot revolves around the disappearance of the Lenin statue, which was intended to be erected in the town square. The police investigation into its theft serves as a vehicle for the filmmakers to delve into broader themes. Of course, we all recognize the irony: despite Turkey’s strong anti-communist past, the remnants of the leftist movements from the '60s and '70s still quietly await a resurgence. The notion of placing a Lenin statue in a Turkish town square seems highly improbable, both today and in the early 1990s when the actual statue appeared. In the early 2000s, when a proposal was made to exhibit the original statue, AKP’s then-Foreign Minister Yaşar Yakış dismissed the idea as "inappropriate." Moreover, in reality, the theft of such a statue would likely be of little concern to the police.

This is where the film plays with time and space. It creates an ambiguous setting that feels like post-1980 coup Turkey but also like the final days of the USSR before its collapse. The Turkish bureaucracy, once entirely pro-American but still cautious not to provoke the Soviet Union, is depicted as outraged by the statue’s theft. This justifies the police’s fervor in solving the case. Yet, at the same time, the characters' dialogues reveal that the socialist experiment in Russia has already ended. The film also recreates the ideological tension of the '70s, when left-wing and right-wing factions violently clashed in Turkey. In this mysterious town, anti-communist vigilantes, leftist teachers, old revolutionaries resisting police interrogations, and detectives who record interrogations on outdated tape recorders while using modern smartphones all coexist—each seemingly transported from different historical contexts.

This layered approach creates a dreamlike sensation, as if we are tracing a message written on fogged-up glass. The imprints of history are blurred but still visible beneath the mist. This is how memory works in reality too. The film's timeline collapses various moments from Turkey’s leftist history into a single, overlapping experience. This fusion is fitting, as the trauma endured by the leftist movement due to state repression has left a lasting collective memory. The past is not forgotten—it still lingers. Take, for instance, the barber Ahmet, described as "tall" and "a good man," who one day is abducted and never seen again—a narrative eerily familiar to many in Turkey’s political history.

Cast and Crew

Directed by Tufan Taştan, You Me Lenin boasts a stellar cast including Barış Falay, Saygın Soysal, Melis Birkan, Serdar Orçin, Nur Sürer, Salih Kalyon, Hasibe Eren, Özgür Çevik, Şerif Erol, and Binnur Kaya. The film also features cameo appearances by renowned directors Özcan Alper, Pelin Esmer, Emin Alper, Çiğdem Vitrinel, and Vuslat Saraçoğlu.

The film’s music, composed by Barış Diri, includes a song adapted from Edip Cansever’s poem Mendilimde Kan Sesleri (The Sound of Blood on My Handkerchief), performed by the legendary Seyyal Taner.

You Me Lenin is not merely a political film; it is a meditation on memory, ideology, and the passage of time. By blending history with fiction, it reflects on how political ghosts continue to shape our present, proving that even a discarded statue can reignite old questions and debates.