Kasaba

This movie tries to question the world that lies beyond the borders of our town. The story takes place in a town that is far away from the developed world. Also, the natural conditions make life harder. The characters of the movie are the members of a large family who live in this town. They come together for harvesting season and also they begin to talk about their lives. Nearly half of the movie passes by these conversations and discussions. These long discussions slows down the tempo of the movie but the town, conversations, the characters are so real.

I can tell you this movie with 3 words. natural, poetic and amateur.

No need to talk about the story as there are many sentences around, this film is very good for me as long as i can see all from the eyes of the children, the rest, really i did not get any slightest feeling, the conversations are so poor that you do your best to stay concentrated & awake (especially if you watch it at night) actually i stopped watching it in the middle, but the next day i wanted to finish because i tried to persuade myself that i had watched it wrong :) the film is unique in Turkish cinema, and because of that i put it in a different place, i must congratulate NBC (the director) because of his serving that kind of out-of-line film in our history, but that cannot make it a good film alone... apart from my mostly negative comments above, the class scene (at the beginning where the boy enters class with snow all around his body and what happens after..) is very effective, i like it very much when i first saw the class scene on youtube, that i wanted to watch the film immediately, another thing is that i liked the dream scenes, so simple but so innocent, for my part, NBC has a very powerful photographer eye, but when you make all film full of that kind of scenes you make it rather slower and sometimes unavoidably boring, and he must definitely write more effective sentences, really they never grab me, its like a very beautiful and extraordinary girl but talking like my grandmom, to sum up the case, its a very extraordinary film but without something to go back and re-watch (except class scene)on the other hand i appreciate this film very much because it is not made for making money, otherwise it would have been less boring and probably NBC would have chosen some other cast out of his family members, he seems to made it for himself.

This is a very fresh and unusual film that explores the experiences of two children in a small rural town in Turkey in a slow and stylized manner. It seems to encapsulate the experiences of one year into a day, with the morning and school set in the winter, the journey home in the spring, and the evening in the summer/autumn, giving the film a very different feel to it. It possesses a dream like quality, even at times blending dreams with reality.

Despite occasional spots where the camera movement is not very smooth, certainly a problem of the budget, etc., the cinematography is fresh and beautiful, very artistic. In fact, the focus on the senses and how the characters see and feel everything is one of the great strengths of this film, such as when the children are picking fruit in a cemetery and the wind picks up, blowing through the forest, or when their older cousin is loafing around at a fair.

There is no real "plot" with nothing to address and nothing in particular happening, etc., but that is not important here. The film does a great job at achieving its apparent purpose of presenting a thoughtful, sensitive, beautiful, even poetic image of these kids' normal experiences during a finite period of time.

The acting on the whole is very good. This is particularly true at the meal/fireside of the family in the woods, where the people roast maize/corn and children doze off listening to grandparents, parents, and cousin tell stories, argue, etc., in a very realistic manner that grips the viewer despite the slow pace and lack of any real event.

One of the main problems with the film is that there are some gaps or missing elements in the screenplay/development. An example is the introduction of the older cousin into the film in the first part. We see him, but have no idea who he is. how he relates to the two children, what he is doing there, etc. In fact, at first it almost seems like he is reminiscing and that the scenes of childhood are his memories. Similarly, the scenes of him at the fair are visually interesting and beautiful, but their value is hindered by the fact that the viewer has no idea what the point of this portion is, what is going on, or who this guy is. I found that this hampered the beginning and made it slightly confusing, so one didn't understand the value of it.

Another slight problem is that some shots seem to last a little too long for no real reason. This overall makes sense throughout the movie, considering its slow, dreamlike pace and emphasis on senses. However, sometimes, as when the camera sits on the kids' father as he thinks in the house near the end, it lasts too long without any apparent point artistically, etc. This is not too common, though.

In the end, this is a slightly flawed, but creative, contemplative, and beautiful film. It is not, however, a film for those demanding a real "plot" or action, etc.

The first scenes that take place in a classroom were the best scenes i think in the movie. Especially higly realistic atmosphere makes you feel that you are with the characters and you are like one of the characters. Animals and people are coherent with the mother nature and Ceylan shows us the most primitive way. Images are perfect but also dialogues are too. When i watch speeches in the woods at night took me to my childhood and i believe the parents talkings never change at any time. We understand from the parents boys do not please their life and this incompatibility feeling keeps going during the story.