Baglilik Asli

Asli is a professionally ambitious young woman. And a new mother! She lives with her husband and her newborn daughter in a gorgeous apartment in a very high profile suburb of Istanbul. Her relationship with the young, simple and of a lower class origin woman and new mother as well who does the babysitting for her baby while she goes for her career, will help her cope and reconciliate with her own past as an abadoned child and her present as a mother herself.

A deeply moving masterpiece is the least i can say to describe the incredible emotional power of this film of the great Semih Kaplanoglu. In an unbelievable magical way the story unfolds the sentimental process within Asli through the incidents that occur between her, the babysitter and the baby itself which make her gradually see that things are not black and white and that understanding should prevail when it comes to judging about things around motherhood, a task that as it's finally clear to her, takes an auful lot of commitment and sacrifice.

The story flows in a most simple and unpretentious way, everything is portraited as convincing as in a documentary. It does not demand or tries to provoke any tears, yet the shocks and waves of emotion it brings are enormous just because of this. In other words, unlike most drama films "Baglilik Asli" just tells a simple story and let tears roll down the face just because this simple story is as deeply, sincerely and purely human as it gets!

This is a profound psychological study of mother-child relationship told in the perfect pace that keeps you glued to the screen. The way Kaplanoglu subtly orchestrates various emotions churning through the actors and thus the audience is simply beyond words!

The performance of the lead actress was incredible. The direction and editing were insanely good. This was a transporting experience. Highly recommended. Note that I am not a Turkish speaker, so watched a version with subtitles. Nothing lost in translation -- still an emotional tour de force.

This review is being written since an obvious interpretation of the film, hasn't even been mentioned anywhere. Unlike most holly/euro flicks, which either are hopelessly apathetic or toxically individualistic/inhman, as well as literal without any connection to reality, or obviously propagandist/racist, this film from the Turkish master, who seem very much like the reticent Kieslovski or Terrence Malick, is a minimalist bomb, on an insanely relevant subject, modernity v tradition. The key here is the approach to the subject. Non-judgemental and very understanding, and absolutely no motives to favour either. Such refreshing and rare honesty, at a time when any intelligent person has to be utterly cynical about what perversity is being peddled through films and media. The answer to the clash, which is not just between modernity and traditions, but also between civilizations, the neo-colonial western hegemon, monstrously waiting to penetrate all corners of the planet to overpower and homogenise by wiping out the diverse traditional societies, and traditional societies with diverse cultures resisting the neo-colonial forces at their gates. The answer is obvious, but the way it comes about is miraculous and exquisite, and deeply human. The human condition in this asymmetric cultural conflict, is sensitively shown. It is deeply against the prevailing eurocentric oppression and their dead-in-the-soul values they promote, which probably explains why a DVD of the film is nowhere to be seen. If anyone wants to see whether art is transformative, watch this. And of course, check out Lav Diaz after this.

Although modern life imposes different roles on women, being a mother, giving birth to a baby and raising it is a woman's most important victory. The pleasure of this success cannot be given to any man. The movie is very successful, its current IMDB rating does not do it justice.