Abluka - Jeder misstraut jedem

Saw this film at TIFF a few nights ago and it certainly made an impression on me. The lines between nightmare and reality blurred over the course of the protagonist's descent into paranoia. Set in a war torn ghetto of a militarized Istanbul the film builds suspense from the mystery resulting in leaving several key questions about the characters and their past unanswered. This makes the ambiguity of the characters' increasing agitation and delusion. My friend who accompanied me to the theatre was quite negative following the screening, questioning "What am I supposed to take away from this that I can use?". I honestly didn't have an answer for him, but if you're looking for a tight psychological drama I would certainly recommend this film.

Some of the best film achievements have come and will come from places which are under social and political pressure and are being created by film directors who are deeply involved in the life of their countries and have both the talent to make cinematographic art out of their questions and fears, and the courage to make films that reflect their concerns and reach their own audiences as well as the international ones. "Abluka" (Frenzy) which is only the second film of director Emin Alper was released in 2015, one year before the failed coup and the political actions that followed it in Turkey. It presents a deeply disturbing and dystopian view of the realities of a country hit by terrorism and answering it with the means of force. Hard to say if this is the reality of today or a projection in the future, but after all there are many people who consider the world we live in with its violence, terrorism, repression a dystopian version of the world we used to know and live in ten or twenty years ago, and maybe here we see (or dream as in a nightmare) a cautionary version of the world of tomorrow.

The lead characters of the film live in a miserable slum in the outskirts of a big Turkish city, a typical incubator of violence and terror. We see in the background the shining towers of a modern city and do hear the explosions of the terror attacks that hit it but the life of the two heroes are obviously buried in poverty. They are in a figurative and non-figurative manner the scavengers of their world, performing some of the unwanted jobs that support the system: the older brother just released from prison collects garbage and is a police informer, the youngest one kills stray dogs. A third brother had disappeared suddenly from their lives a decade ago. They try to adapt and do their best to survive, but they have a hard time communicating, even with each other, and the pressure of the world around overwhelms them. The sliding slope of their lives seems inevitable.

The story plays permanently with the balance between sanity and insanity, between reality and and the nightmares of the two heroes. From some point ahead it becomes unclear if what we see on screen is reality, or the nightmares of the two brothers, or maybe the life around became one big nightmare. The wonderful acting of Mehmet Özgür and Berkay Ates, makes us share their fears and claustrophobia. The situations the two find themselves are difficult but are not their fault, and actually, if we try to understand their personal perspectives, each of them makes sense. They try to do their best to play inside the system while keeping their human feelings. So, if the two characters behave rationally maybe the insanity belongs to the world that surrounds them? the world that surrounds us? This film with its grim vision and the tragic fate of its heroes is not easy to watch, but it is true and impressing, the work of a talented film maker.

Jail and sack fear process curvaceously Two different branch of the story merge at the end so we understand significantly. But for the processing of the characters anxiety, I think some of the scenes are unnecessarily long. Although certain police scenes could have shot better but maybe this nonprofessional feature especially selected for the dystopic property. We watch an open-ended final. these hallucinations are real or these are the indirect result of the authority. This is not certain. Up to you.

Also increasing of the mystery gradually through final this is nice feature.

Mehmet Özgür's acting is perfect. I think the movie deserve 7 points but for this reason I give 8 points.

Armored vehicles rumble through the outskirts of Istanbul and shatter windows of cinder block homes as they pass, bombs explode in the night, trash fires burn, attack helicopters roam the skies and soldiers with machine guns shout at checkpoints. After twenty years in prison this is the environment that Kadir enters. His parole is granted on the condition that he become an informant for the police. Thus Kadir begins to gather clues about terrorist activities from trash bins, a woman's muffled scream in the darkness and a lone motorcycle fleeing from authorities. Kadir's brother Ahmet lives in the same area. Ahmet was never in prison and yet his existence is just as bleak as that of his brother. Ahmet hunts stray dogs for a bounty and leaves poison for them, or anything else that might chance across it, in the streets.

and people, like the stray dogs, are cast with suspicion and hunted down. This is the world of Ahmet and Kadir. In such darkness, mistrust and chaos their enemies are not just those around them, but also themselves.

While the film is fiction, it mirrors the real situation in Turkey. "Everyone is sitting in their holes and sniping at each other," said the director "and the neighborhood and its people are caught in the crossfire." This film about the Turkish underground is tense, dark and brooding. There are multiple conflicts going on and fear, distrust and conspiracy-thinking are rampant. The director wisely lets the audience determine what is real and what is not. The images are gloomy yet luminous in what they reveal about human nature. I wish the director was able to use sound and music as well as the images. The film is the winner of a jury prize in Venice. Four and a half of five stars. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015.