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 debut movie at the last Black Nights FF in Tallinn. It has very strong political stance and very lyrical visual narration. Also good acting and good script is supporting this narrative. Onur Saylak in leading role is performing a great acting with a minimalistic warm and sincere play. Film tells the story of a political prisoner who has been suffered by the inhuman conditions of F-type jails. He has been released on the health ground, back to the hometown which is located in East Black Sea Region and tried to adopt to daily life again.The most impressive part of the story is his meeting with a young Georgian women who earns her life from prostitution.Their relation provides an opportunity to the audience to compare the dreams, frustrations and the pains of two people which one of them is spent his ten years in prison because of his socialist ideology and the other suffers from aftereffects of same ideology. It is a good example of New Turkish Cinema of 2000s like "My Marlon and Brando" and "Summer Book". I gave 8 this movie and strongly recommend to everyone who likes art-house movie with humanistic discourse.

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.

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.

before to start this movie,i heard lots of good comment about it.and also the people said that the theme is really good.it also contains politics,lazish culture-especially lazish language- and the others.

the movie was started about some politic issues that this topic was used lots of times in Turkish cinema.there was no diversification.yes maybe the movie is only about that but it s not so strong in the movie finally.

first there were not so much people.the movie was turning around a couple of people.yes sometimes it can be advantage but it just made me bored in this movie.because the tempo of the movie was slow and so depressive.

second some part of the movie looked like they just put it for the landscape.it s truth that the landscape is perfect but the connection was lost sometimes.

the good things were the lazish dialogs,the relationship between yusuf and "scarlet woman" and the great -and sad- ending