Quiet and unassuming, Turkish director Özcan Alper’s directorial debut evokes a deeply-ingrained melancholia within the dank autumnal landscape of the Black Sea eastern hinterlands.
On his release after 10 years as a political prisoner, Yusuf (Onur Saylak), in poor health, returns to the family home where his mother lives alone in the beautiful but isolated landscapes inland from the Black Sea. Unable to find any true sense of belonging, travelling between home and the nearest town, a relationship develops between Yusuf and Eka, a Georgian sex worker (Megi Kobaladze).
Two lost, lonely souls searching – for understanding, for knowledge, for personal identity. Sense of home – the land, the sea, the people – is explored in its natural and unassuming beauty in a lament where so little happens but so much takes place.
Rating: 68%
Director: Özcan Alper (Future Lasts Forever, Memories of the Wind)
Writer: Özcan Alper (Future Lasts Forever, Memories of the Wind)
Main cast: Onur Saylak (Daha, TV’s Wounded Love), Megi Kobaladze (Wet Sand, Inhale-Exhale), Serkan Keskin (The Wild Pear Tree, Butterflies)
An Opinion or Two 