10 Days of a Good Man Plot Summary
New Turkish film, 10 Days of a Good Man, is an intense story about an investigator called Sadik. He’s tasked with finding a missing boy called Tevfik. Even though the focus on the mystery is central, Sadik’s own struggles and his wanting to make amends also finds a place in the narrative.
At almost 2 hours long, the film fills up its cinematic universe with interesting characters in equally bizarre situations. Sadik travels from one end of the city to the other in search of Tevfik.
Sadik is a former lawyer turned investigator. He lives alone in a decrypted apartment. Seval, the sweet-hearted prostitute neighbour, is the only person he has a real connection with.
Maide, his former friend and partner at a big law firm, hires his services to find her babysitter Yeter’s young son, Tevfik. As he begins the investigation, Sadik discovers Tevfik is a wanted man. Each new avenue he explores in his search gobbles him with money to deliver Tevfik.
Amidst all of this, his personal life goes through a big transformation when his ex-wife, Rezzan, returns to him with a morbid request that sends Sadik into déjà vu la la land.
Who is Cemile Meran and what is her condition?
Cemile is a former stage actress renowned for her acting skills. She is a dear friend of Sadik’s and lives alone in her apartment. She has a neurological condition where she cannot remember most things for more than a few days.
That does not affect the strong memories that she had in her life like how her dog followed Sadik home one night or her yesteryear glory as an actress. It somewhat suffocates her and ironically keeps her alive as well. She becomes a pivotal plan of Sadik’s final plan to crack the mystery and also accompanies Fatma and Sadik to Eskisehir.
Why did Sadik go to jail?
Sadik had gone to jail in Rezzan’s place. She was his wife at the time and was apprehended for malpractice in one of the cases she handled. The reason why Sadik decided to go was twofold. He loved Rezzan more than himself.
We saw evidence of that in the present when Sadik would still have dreams about being on a boat with her in his magical tropical island. But the more pressing reason was that she was pregnant. They were going to name their child Riza. Sadik was happy about this news. In the present, he’s a shadow of the man he was.
But before Sadik could come out, Rezzan miscarried. She did not wait for him either and instead, went on to marry Arif, a wealthy man and a friend of Maide’s. Sadik also saw this move from Maide, a friend he knew from his college days, as a betrayal.
He felt that Maide sided with Arif and Rezzan in the whole incident and even had shady dealings with Kaan Holdings, a corporation that was involved in Tevfik’s disappearance.
Who is Sir and why is he looking for Tevfik?
Sir is a powerful, local gangster, he used the services of Tevfik for pleasure. Sadik found videos on Tevfik’s phone that confirmed Sir was homosexual and occasionally made Tevfik dress up as a woman and had sex with him. But the reason he was looking for Tevfik was not that.
Money from his safe was stolen and a number of his vintage cars were missing. He suspected Tevfik of committing the crime but he did not know that his bodyguard Hamza was also involved. If it were not for Sadik, Sir could have never cracked the case and found his money. That also explains why he was so grateful to Sadik and why he granted him “one wish” at the end of the film.
What happened at the Thursday night check-up parties?
The main location involved in the Thursday night shenanigans was the Tani Medical Centre on Hale Street. This was the place where Sadik first followed Ahmet to. He got in on the premise that Ahmet had sent him. Sadik changed the name of Seval in his contacts to Lieutenant Sevket and cleverly asked Seval to text him “I am on my way”.
This ensured that when Sadik was caught, which he was expecting, he would have a lifeline and save himself. It worked as Ahmet’s goons did not kill Sadik when they saw the text and Sadik’s card with Sevkat’s information was cross-checked by Ahmet’s girlfriend.
TMC was a one-stop shop for all the vices in the city. The medical centre is a front for all sorts of illegal activities like trafficking and drugs. Tevfik joined them a while back and quickly rose through the ranks.
He was a formidable taskmaster and had a great instinct for their shady businesses. He quickly became a regular and took the girls to their customers with the help of Cevdat Koru, the chief security officer of Kaan Holdings, in his black sedan. But one day, he disappeared with one of Ahmet’s merchandise and Ahmet could not find Cevdet either.
How does Hatice/Pinat help Sadik in cracking the mystery?
Hatice was Tevfik’s sister. Although that was her name, she wanted people to call her Pinat. That was the name she wanted to embrace due to the fact that she felt rotten in her original identity as Tevfik sold her as one of his “merchandise”. That derailed her life and made her a bitter person.
She first helped Sadik with Tevfik’s phone. She demanded 20,000 lire from Sadik but gave him his first breath trough in the case. Without the phone, Sadik could have never found out about Cevdat Koru or the Kaan twins and their bizarre rituals.
It was Hatice who sent Sadik two numbers from Yeter’s phone that called her in the last three days. The numbers explained why Yeter had suddenly stopped looking for her son Tevfik.
Why did Sadik threaten Rezzan and Arif?
This is the reason why Sadik had changed entirely as a human being. Rezzan was shocked when Sadik revealed that he recorded Arif and Rezzan’s confession about the malpractice issue.
This would have ensured that Rezzan went to jail and Sadik got to keep the money Arif was willing to pay him to take the fall for Rezzan. She could not believe that Sadik was capable of all this and rued the loss of her previously “good-hearted and simple” husband. But she did not realize that the version of Sadik she loved was the disposable simpleton that benefited her.
She used Sadik the first time she committed fraud. But Sadik was not about to fall for her deviousness again. Rezzan’s nerve to ask Sadik to do the same thing from seven years ago showed how empty, disregarding, and selfish Rezzan really was. Sadik knew that she was not pregnant the second time she came to ask him to go to jail for her.
This scene was the icing on the cake as far as Sadik’s personal arch is concerned. He truly showed he had to become “an evil man” to ensure justice. The new Sadik did not want to take anyone’s nonsense and live life on his own terms.
Decoding Tevfik’s brilliant and devious masterplan
The ending of 10 Days of a Good Man delivers a thrilling affair. Given all the painstaking build-up, we wanted answers about how Tevfik disappeared and his motives behind it – and we certainly got exactly that.
Sadik proposed to Fatma (Seval) and she accepted it. They were engaged to be married but Sadik suddenly had a plan. He asked Meral to call Kadriye, the wife of Cevdat Koru, as Cevdat’s secret lover to lure her into the house. He hid in Meral’s apartment and waited for Kadriye to arrive.
She came with Tevfik and Hamza. Sadik’s suspicions were proven right. He subdued Hamza and locked him in the room to interrogate the other two. Tevfik then started narrating the entire episode, before Sadik let Kadriye go.
Tevfik recorded the twins killing the merchandise in their weird ritual. Cevdat and his guys were tasked to clean it up. But Cevdat left loose ends. He kept the blade they used. Tevfik killed Cevdat to keep the blackmail money he got from the twins for himself. He got through to Cevdat through Kadriye. She put sedatives in Cevdat’s drink and he died in a road accident.
Kadriye got the house and money to give the blade back to Tahsin, who came to the house to drop off the deed. Cevdat was Kaan’s employee that’s why he knew the twins won’t mess with Kadriye. Ahmet was killed by Hamza because Sadik was getting too close to solving Tevfik’s disappearance. Tevfik blackmailed Hamza as he betrayed Sir. Yeter’s mother gave it away to Sadik when she asked him to stop looking for Tevfik.
He knew Tevfik had told Yeter to stop looking for him because of how desperate she was, how could she stop so easily? Sadik holds him at gunpoint and messages the twins. Tevfik is delivered to them. Sadik gets the money from them. The twins will now take Tevfik. Nuri, Tahsin’s associate, tries to warn his colleagues about Sadik’s location so that he cannot get away with the money.
Sadik parks Hamza’s car in the woods to avoid being detected. He calls Sir and gives him the money from the safe and car invoices. He also gives Hamza’s car keys, who stole from Sir. The big man offers Sadik one wish. Sadik gives the address of the twins to get Sir to kill them. Sir burns their house.
Tevfik sold Pinat to Macit, Maide’s husband. Sadik promises to deal with the problem for Pinat and she gave him the password to Tevfik’s secret vault. Macit knew Cevdat from before. He was his gambling partner and Maide was Cevdet’s attorney. Macit got Cevdet the job at Kaan. Sit was Macit who introduced Tevfik to Cevdet and started all this debauchery.
Arif and Rezzan meet Sadik. He accepts their offer but gets them to double it. But first, he wants to listen to what crime they committed. He records their confessions takes the money and runs away. He asks Arif to go to jail for Rezzan but he absconds and abandons Rezzan.
Sadik also knows she is not pregnant and she’s stunned. He walks away and decides to go with Fatma and Meral. He leaves the house and changes his name to Adil. We see his coat hanging in the apartment he has left behind.
Read More: 10 Days of a Good Man Movie Review
Hey Richard,
This is not a review. This is an ending explainer for the readers to revisit the plot and the ending. We have a separate review for the film which is way more succinct and talks about the merits and demerits of the film. Thanks for making the time and visiting our website!
Arnav
This review rambles and should be more succinct