Barda

When the crime happened in a descent neighborhood of the capital city of Turkey, i was a university student in Ankara. We were all shocked, i remember the exact place of the crime. Years later, the movie came out. The true story is even worse than portrayed on the film. Brief, it is one of the best movie of turkish cinema history. I highly advise you to watch it, but be prepared for anxiety, violence and stress, like in Gaspar Nohe's Irreversable. The actors are well known turkish artists, mostly coming from drama theater and drama education.

The 2nd movie is not as good as the 1st one. It's a bad remake, very violent but rather empty and amateurish compared to this one. But still watchable.

Hard to abide the realism of this striking movie...

Not the blood and the excess violence but the pure reality of - how anybody do something like that to other- caused some of the audience leave the movie in the first half.

We have seen these kinds of headlines everyday in the third pages of newspapers (maybe not as barbaric as this) and get used to these kinds of savagery news. But to see this realism in a well-played and directed movie shocked the most movie goers.

These kinds of things is happening all around the world and makes the victims' whole life non-tolerable.

Thanks to Serdar Akar for his plain directing and also would like congratulate Serdar Orcin for his great play as a psychopath. One of my best in Turkish movies.

The film is also known for its 'Haneke' style. It has very striking and realistic scenes that are not uncommon in Turkish cinema. However, I don't think such a film is for the benefit of society, and it's nothing new to discover cinematically. Some of you may find me ruthless with points, but as a Turk, I think movies like this are not appropriate.

The film must have a value that it will add to the person, it must be an emotion. At some points in the movie, an attempt was made to shed light on the inner world of the characters, especially for Selim, whom we see as the leader of the gang. However, I don't think this is fully achievable. A little more discussion would have been nice. I don't want to give spoilers. Yes, the acting etc are good, but I find it weak in terms of subject and scenario.

This movie depicts human relations.It shows the inevitable gaps between people and like the movie "Babel" it also shows how important communication is; because most of the things throughout the movie happen because of lack of communication. It also questions the judicial system in Turkey. People don't understand each other and in fact sometimes they don't want to. Most of the people evaluate others with the things they own, they wear or with their occupations. As if the Social status of a person has become the criterion of being a human. I mean if your social status is low, you are not respected, you are accepted as a "non-human" You see what one can do when he has nothing to lose. "It's only after you lose everything that you are free to do anything" (quote from fight club) Selim and his gang have nothing to lose, so they are free -actually they think they are free to do anything; because what else they can lose? People's non-existing respect? Money? What? The answer is nothing. You can't lose what you don't have. Torturing is their self-masturbation, destruction is their revenge. Yet this is questionable: "Do we have the right to take justice into our hands." Nothing is unreal in the movie. Loved it

Turkish cinema is constantly maturing. This is one of the best explorations of the social divide and culture of envy present in modern Turkey. Inevitable comparisons are made to works of Haneke, particularly to Funny Games. The film does not have the virtuosity of Haneke, but it also does not have Haneke's patronising, barely disguised sermons against bourgeoisie. The middle class young people are not hedonistic, divorced from reality buffheads. They exist within a different reality from the nether class hoons that invade their world. Some left-leaning Turkish viewers that would like to see any city-dwelling Turk from a non-working class background as vermin will not be pleased. However, social strata in Turkey is not black and white anymore - if it ever were...

It won't be a spoiler to state that the violent scenes are difficult to watch and some might find those out of place in a film that is decidedly anti-violence. To me, the uber-realism of those scenes carried the subtext of the film: Do not kid yourself. Violence is ugly, brutal and it never leads to anything positive. There is no justification for it.

Thanks to the viewer that had recognized the directors at the end of the film. I would have missed that message if it weren't for him/her. Not that it would have made any difference to my assessment.