Peri: Agzi Olmayan Kiz

The feature that caught my attention the most about "Peri: The Girl with No Mouth" was its originality. While Western cinemas repeat themselves - not to exhaustion, but to the point of disgust (the eternal recycling of superheroes suggests a superlative creative crisis), the cinemas of Asia, Latin America and Africa possess an inexhaustible wealth, from very rich cultures, that do not wallow in war, extermination, greed and plunder, which are exalted by the descendants of those who came and decimated America.

Loosely based on the graphic novel «Perihan» by Turkish writer and director Cem Özüduru, this film is the hallucinatory journey of four children, victims of "The Corporation" during an epidemic (the film was made in 2019), who help each other with the healthy senses that they have and that the others lack: one who does not have a nose, another without ears, one who has no eyes and the only girl in the group who has no mouth called Perihan or Peri, which means Fairy. Through this character, there is also an ingenious and creative way to show a proactive, upright, shrewd, intelligent, and creative pre-adolescent woman, without resorting to political correctness or gender discourse, although one of the three children sometimes gets a little out of hand when interacting with her...

Without excessive special effects and remarkable art direction (sets, decors, and props), «Peri: The Girl with No Mouth» tells a story of the Apocalypse of our days, lived all over the world, in which the group flees from three soldiers who want to seize the girl. It is a journey full of surprises and it is a learning process, in which the children are forced to defend their lives in the same violent way that they try to exterminate them.

«Peri» and the French independent film «Travels Inside Foreign Heads» --a vibrant science-fiction drama by Antonio Amaral-- are two of my best film experiences of 2022 so far. Both are outstanding samples of fantasy cinema, with social content and renovating ideology.

I suffered through the two hours of it, fuming. This is a kids movie without a saving grace. There's no moral to the story or anything to learn from it that usually goes with all the dreadfully annoying stuff aimed at children.

The kids just walk from one place to the other, sometimes the bad guys pop out and do their bad guy stuff, kids move on, baddies appear, kids move on, and so on until the end. There is no character development, no specific goals (besides survival) throughout most of the film. And even when one goal (reaching to one specific destination) presents itself, they decide not to pursue it but wait around because the baddies have to show up at the critical moment, and even though we have nothing better to do we should wait for them just in case.

We learn nothing from the film except how not to make a film. The kids might be satisfied just watching bunch of other kids walking around in the woods, but I'm not. That's not what makes a good film.

I'm not even going to discuss the logic behind casting a fat boy (besides comic relief) who's supposed to have been living in the woods, scavenging for food, without managing to lose weight. Or the blind kid's ability to walk like a normal person (in the woods and on the rough terrain), or his need to decorate his staff (which he does not know to use) or having a pair of nice clean glasses or how quickly the girl forgets witnessing the murder of his father and etc etc.

Though it was painful to watch, there was no gain. The film's not entirely braindead but I wouldn't recommend it if your brain still functions. However as the film might contain scenes that can be scarier for younger kids, I can't recommend it even for ten year olds.

This movie sets up a fun, mysterious and sometimes scary post apocalyptic atmosphere. The look and feel of the movie is unique and consistent from the wardrobe to the music. The kids are adorable and very talented. Well worth a watch.

I watched the movie in IF Istanbul. First of all director Can Evrenol sets up a great post apocalyptic world despite its low budget. The acting is decent. If you are bored of usual post-apocalyptic movies you may find this interesting.