Love, Spells and All That

I don't understand what people didn't liked about this movie. Good acting, good script, striking long shots. What do you want more? I hope it's not because of people acting homophobic in 2020. It was genuinely a good movie for my taste. I really like long dialogue's in a movie. Why should it only work on Woody Allen, this is a good example too.

The script felt more like a cross-section that quickly told something than a stunning life story. There were no stereotypes in the film, which was an aspect I liked. The beauty of the islands was captured from every angle. I felt like I saw down there or something. It wasn't bad.

What a brilliant film from Turkey. Beautifully shot, very well enacted, the film stands out as much for its narrative as its aesthetics. The cats, the bougainvillea, the quiet island, the wind gently swaying the branches - everything is so poetic and will stay in my mind forever.

The Turkish film ASK BÜYÜ VS (2019) was shown in the U. S. with the translated title Love, Spells and All That. (I think the title trivializes the movie. The film is serious, not whimsical.) The writer and director was Ümit Ünal.

Twenty years after separating from the one true lesbian love of her life, Ece Dizdar arrives back on a small Turkish island. She finds her former lover, played by Selen Uçer. Ece has moved on. She's now highly educated and sophisticated. Selen hasn't moved on--she lives a marginal existence with a male partner.

Twenty years earlier, Selen bought a love potion that she hoped would bring Ece back. Now that Ece is, indeed, back, Selen doesn't want to leave the island to begin a new life. That's where the love potion part of the plot arises--the potion has to be undone.

This was a beautiful movie about love lost and--possibly--regained after 20 years. It was shown virtually by Rochester's great ImageOut LGBT Film Festival.

The movie would work better on the large screen--the setting is beautiful. However, it worked well enough on the small screen for me to recommend it. The film has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.8. I thought it was much better than that and rated it 9.

I loooooooove this movie. The actors are convincing and fantastic, the story is compelling, and everything is wrapped in palpable chemistry and magic. Despite the low budget (and it appears to have been super low), it's a romantic gem of second chances that totally cast a spell over me.