Sen Aydinlatirsin Geceyi

We just saw this movie at Cinequest 2014 in San Jose, California. It's a difficult movie and will be impenetrable for many. It seems to take place in a very Earth-like town but there are multiple moons in the sky and many residents have special powers. However, the residents all have Earth-like woes. The main character, Cemal, has a lot of woes. His mother and siblings died long ago in a fire. He lives with his dad and the two work in a barber shop. Cemal can see through and walk through walls but he spends most of his time in the movie wondering why he exists (and whether we exist at all) and what would have happened if we'd never existed.

As a result of Cemal living mostly in his own head, he has a series of misadventures over the period of a few weeks. The movie explains some but mostly it leaves you to fill in the gaps.

This movie is a visual poem on existence. The movie's title is a line in one of Shakespeare's sonnets, which starts:

"How can I then return in happy plight, That am debarred the benefit of rest? When day's oppression is not eas'd by night, But day by night and night by day oppress'd."

The sonnet plays a minor role in the movie, but those four lines from The Bard's poem explain the movie's nearly unexplainable plot.

This movie will be much easier to assimilate for people with a science fiction bent.

This is a very special movie, truly not for everyone.

The director have an amazing imagination and surprises the viewer with countless visual effects.

The soundtrack plays an important role in building the final product.

A must see.

I must watch...a hidden jewel.

It may be hard to access since it has not been widely released but if you somehow see it in a local festival don't hesitate to buy a ticket. I feel lucky to be one of the minority who was able to watch it thanks to "Baska Sinema" in İstanbul.

I am a big fantasy science fiction fan. I was surprised to see that most of the characters in the movie have special powers but this not a superhero movie. The film is about ordinary people with superhuman powers who live in a small town and live their standard, boring lives. They are all extremely naive and even the most extraordinary incidents and behaviors are being easily accepted by the townspeople.

I think this is all I can say without giving any spoilers but I know that I left the theater with a smiling face and a broken hard at the same time.

If you want to watch an extraordinary and amusing film, don't miss it.

This one had a high rating so i was expecting it's good but it was even better than i expected. Of course, it's not for anyone. It works at many levels, one might think this is surreal and bizarre, but i think it's multilayered. It's more of symbolic/allegorical than surreal. There is depth here, it's a meaningful movie, daring and provocative. At times, it was even brilliant, i stood in awe watching some amazing scenes. It's obviously that the director & writer of this movie is intellectual but this is not some kind of artsy and pretentious movie. There is a strong fantasy element but simultaneously, it's grounded in reality.

A fragile and deeply flawed person and the struggles he faces in his life, after a tragic incident occured. A village so real and so magical simultaneously. Acts of violence, acts of love, tragedy and hope, mistakes and forgiveness.

Be patient at the beginning, this didn't start great but it was getting better by the minute.

A great (comedy?)/drama/fantasy movie.

This is certainly not an easy film. With a metaphorical language that often borders on surrealism, the viewer is faced with a permanent challenge to distinguish the real from the figurative, or even imaginary, although in the end, the essential message of the film is transparent, with relative clarity.

There is a violent denunciation of a hypocritical and sexist morality, which attacks women's sexual freedom. Men abuse their power, to use women sexually and then repudiate them, due to the alleged indignity of behavior, for which they were mainly responsible.

All this is presented with great creative freedom, fantasy and emphasis on violence, used deliberately to symbolize the violence that Turkish sexist society exerts on women, especially in smaller and traditional towns.

Eloquent but difficult. It is certainly not a film for all tastes, even the most cultivated.