Fazil Say is worth getting to know: The chill Turkish pianist can improvise his way across a keyboard like Keith Jarrett, and while many classical musicians dabble in composition, Say consistently gets his work played before packed crowds. Director Courkamp’s first film, Fazil Say: Alla Turca, dutifully presents the eminently likable musician in intimate conversation and performance. Yet it’s hard to ignore the overreaching narrative elements and visual schlock that saddle this documentary.

Say’s piano is set up in the open-air palace of the Marmara Esma Sultan overlooking the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, the kind of ostentatious travel-brochure setting that made David Brent’s corny music video of “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” on the British version of The Office a hilarious satire.

One particular scene attempts spontaneity but comes off as laughably scripted: Say and Turkish pop singer Sertab Erener discuss an upcoming collaboration, when her phone goes off to the tune of Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca.” Say spins around to face the piano and strikes up a jazzy, virtuosic take on the sonata movement; Erener joins in. The duet’s brilliant, but it ain’t impromptu.

It’s a sight to see the large-scale orchestral and choral performance of Say’s somewhat bombastic oratorio Nazim in the ancient amphitheater at Aspendos, but the spectacle reminds us of the pompous Yanni Live at the Acropolis. There’s a thin line between wonderment and kitsch, and Courkamp often crosses it. Musical biopics are better served when filmmakers present their subjects as skilled craftsmen, not demigods.