This is a fine film, solidly acted across the board, which introduces us to village life in Turkey's northern mountains. Shots of wilderness and village settings are great and, while not that much actually happens, the plot and the main character's plight, continue to grip the viewer throughout.
What's different here is the extraordinary Sibel, mute because of a childhood illness, she communicates via an ancient whistling language (originally evolved to allow farmers to 'talk' over very long distances) now spoken and understood by only a few. Because of her disability, she is treated somewhere between a child, not required to cover her head (presumably because no man will want her) and a man, allowed to go freely around the village, fields and forest, carrying her rifle. Her attitudes are interesting - she fearlessly takes on an unknown male assailant, but makes no resistance when the older women of the village attack her. Even more interesting (and producing perhaps the best performance of the film) is the attitude of her conflicted father, the local mayor. Sibel provides him with the domestic support, cooking and cleaning, that any widower expects of his daughter in this society, but also with the companionship usually provided by a son as the two go hunting together and he declares with pride that she knows the forest better than any local man. At some deeper level he understands that not only disabled people are abused by this culture, but, through Sibel, that women are too. Even in his position of power though, he is unable to change anything.
The script is a bit less reliable - for example it's not believable that the prissy younger sister would have the courage, let alone the skills required to track Sibel into the deep forest undetected. But the upbeat ending is fine. This is not victim-feminism, but presents a character able, despite a wobble or two, to function well despite all the odds stacked against her by both her disability and the chauvinist society she lives in.
