ALL-IN

By Volkan ÜCE

CAT&DOCS - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 2021

Two shy young men start to work in an all-inclusive hotel. A new, absurd world opens up to them. Colourful swimsuits, an abundance of food and the management’s demands ensure they will never be the same again.

Festivals
& Awards

CPH:DOX 2021
Next Wave Competition
Hot Docs 2021
World Showcase
    • Year of production
    • 2021
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • BELGIUM, FRANCE, NETHERLANDS
    • Duration
    • 80 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Volkan ÜCE
    • Producer(s)
    • Magalie DIERICK (CASSETTE FOR TIMESCAPES)
    • Synopsis
    • At the start of the summer season Ismail and Hakan start working in Nashira Resort, a gigantic all-inclusive hotel at the Turkish Riviera. Ismail is 18 and dropped out of school to earn money for his family. He dreams of working as a hairdresser, but is employed as a kitchen porter at the hotel. Hakan is 25 and the youngest of 12 children. He quit his studies and hopes to overcome his social anxiety in the hotel. He will work as a lifeguard at the aquapark of the hotel. Both have come to the hotel business to move ahead in life and to learn English.
      At first both young men are very shy and avoid all contact with the hotel guests. They have learned to be respectful to others and they understand their position. They observe the colourful swimsuits, the unemptied plates, the different ways of addressing other people, and gradually discover the sorts of opportunities that come with them.
      As the friendship between Ismail and Hakan grows stronger, it becomes clear how different they are. Watching the guests from behind his buffet, Ismail’s appetite to discover the Western world only seems to increase. But Hakan struggles to be ‘the nobody’ the hotel business demands him to be. In vain, he tries to discuss Pushkin and Dostoyevsky with the Russian tourists. Is it at all possible to set your identity aside for the sake of money? And who can be an example to whom?
      By following Ismail and Hakan during 2 summers in the hotel, ALL-IN explores the loss of innocence against the backdrop of a fading European dream. Initial kindness turns into indifference as Ismail and Hakan’s initiation into the absurd world of Western tourism soon leads them to ask: which dreams are really worth aspiring to?