Paper Lives (2021)

The Turkish drama Paper Lives (2021) is a Netflix Original Film that centers around Mehmet (Çagatay Ulusoy) the guy who runs the local waste collection unit in his small, rundown Turkish town. Eking out a living collecting paper waste, Mehmet is a favorite among the local homeless population, particularly the homeless teens, having once been one himself. The local homeless kids look up to him as an example of how they can escape their poverty and make something of themselves one day, without realizing that Mehmet himself is deeply in debt to some bad people and his job doesn't really help him pay the bills. Nevertheless, he's an affable and jovial presence in the neighborhood, always looking to do the right thing. That's when a young boy named Ali (Emir Ali Dogrul) enters his life. At first Mehmet becomes hell bent on finding Ali's family and returning their lost child to them, but the longer and harder they look, the more obvious it becomes to Mehmet that the boy has been abandoned. Could Mehmet have finally found something in his life worth fighting for, or is he destined to forever be the screw up everyone has always assumed he was? While there's no nudity to speak of in the flick, there is a scene 37 minutes in where Çagatay Ulusoy goes shirtless in a Turkish bath while getting himself and his young friend all cleaned up! Throw in some bonus shirtlessness from Ersin Arici and some uncredited hunks and you've got yourself the makings of a pretty damn good time!