Sonbahar

"You know, you seem like you don't live in the present. It's like you've walked off the pages of a Russian novel. Yusuf, you know what I've been thinking? I wish I could leave everything behind and set off on a long journey with you."

Another piece of wonderful minimalist cinema (i'm nothing if not consistent) this time from a Turkish filmmaker making his debut feature. Yusuf, a political prisoner, is released from jail on health grounds and returns to the tiny village community he grew up in.

As you might expect from that premise this is a film with a political message which is at times forced upon the viewer, a distraction from the contemplative mood of the piece as Yusuf comes to terms with everything he gave up for his ideals, his new found freedom, his mortality and his struggle to reintegrate with village life.

Packed with beautiful vistas and long moody takes without dialogue it is the use of ambient noise, or at times a lack of, that most impressed and so the occasionally invasive use of melodramatic music only served to irritate rather than accentuate the moment.

The sub story of his connection with a young boy and a prostitute are pretty standard narrative devices but never feel arbitrary, which in itself is impressive but the emotional arc they guide you through places them as some of the more impressive uses of the trope I have seen.

Quality low budget world cinema from a strong new voice worth keeping an eye on.

I saw this film at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the audience was ecstatic. Fans of Bela Tarr will appreciate the scenes with no dialog, but which still deliver more information than a babbling script could have delivered about a troubled political prisoner and a conflicted nation in a confused world. The cinematography, from the "central chair" in the home to the snowy mountains of northern Turkey were amazing. One issue that I wish that I had looked at before seeing the film was the history of Turkish/Russian relations. This is a major theme. In a similar vein for those of us who have read and loved the novels of Orhan Pamuk, we westerners learn something very important about a vibrant but conflicted country. I gave this 9 stars based on content first, with cinematography a very close second. The lead actor is incredible and this is a new director to be watched.

Honestly, I cannot find fault with this movie. If you are a fan of fast-pace,thrilling and noisy Hollywood movies or any other foreign films that are obsessed with the portrayal of sex, then you should not even bother to comment on this movie. Also, if you want to compare this film to Tarkovsky, you are ruining the name of this Turkish director. Tarkovsky's film is like watching the paint dry without any real substance, but this film is a whole level above the self-indulgent art films with ridiculously long shots that offer no meaning. The feeling of the protagonist blends perfectly with the wonderful portrayal of nature and meticulously handled cinematography to create a deeply satisfying feeling that one can rarely get from performing most of the activities in our lives. This movie succeeds on many levels, whether it be symbolical, existential and emotional level. It totally rivets the audience as we watch every sequence of the character's life unfold and are absorbed into the authentic, life-like mood of the Autumn. It is a truly enjoyable and profound experience. Because of this movie, i will be a loyal fan of the Turkish cinema for many years to come. Not only the movie shows what a real movie should be like, it can also be seen as a book of wisdom that reveals eternal truth or problems that are hidden in human lives.

A poet says 'To one thing on the earth my heart burns for / those who passed away in the spring of their life'. And it is Autumn: Sonbahar which in Turkish means the last spring. Ozcan Alper's debut is about the evils the seasons do against the political prisoner Yusuf who was released for health reasons. Because of his socialist convictions he spent the spring-time of his life in prison. He comes back to his hometown. His mother takes care of him. He meets a Georgian girl and they fell in love. She suffers from the post-socialist conditions in her native country and is left with no other option than prostitute. Two victims of the same ideology, two lonely and tortured souls find a sheltering love in each other. But Yusuf's days are countable! Shot in beautiful locations in the Black Sea region which is also my hometown, the visuals of AUTUMN are simply magic and breath-taking. The Black Sea is the heart and inner world of Yusuf. Black Sea is an angry and rough, undulated sea. It is a rebellious sea as you'll see in one of the most beautiful scenes of the film where Yusuf walks over the sea on the small breakwater. The film has a sad end, the characters fall aside like Autumn leaves.. What else to say: the film is a beauty like a black pearl! It was also a box-office success in Turkey for an art-house film. Just see the film to discover more! 8 out of 10...

Özcan Alper made his feature debut with this long, lyrical and somewhat languid little production that won him best director awards at the Tbilisi and Sofia International Film Festival and marked him out as a director who is going places fast, even if his film is not.

Onur Saylak stars as Yusuf a Turkish dissident released after surviving ten years in one of the country's notorious F type prisons to return to his Black Sea coast home with his health broken and his ideology lost only to run into the ephemeral Megi Kobaladze as Eka a despondent Georgian prostitute incredulous that anyone would expend the best years of their life on a fruitless quest for socialism.

The film maker displays a distinct penchant for classic Russian cinema and literature and unfolds at an excruciatingly slow pace, with the main character actually stopping at one point to watch a slug crawl by, which allows for plenty of long scenic but ultimately unfulfilling shots of the gorgeous Trabzon countryside and little else.

This place is just another prison.