abbashawk

Martin Sulik's Gypsy is loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. The film carries the familiar plot to a rambling gypsy village. Since it's 21st century and the people have more important troubles than honor and throne like unemployment, open and vulgar discrimination, the basic tension is not constructed on the play's revenge theme. It is about a young boy who tries to do the right thing for his family and for himself after the death of his father and the marriage of his mother to his uncle. Sulik's characters are by no means heroic or theatrical, they are ordinary people who want to stay alive in a world of poverty, unemployment and discrimination. They are gypsies who are living on ram-shackled houses or huts, most of them do not have a proper job, stealing seems to be main area of business. This does not affect their mood though, they do not like the cheerful and bizarre gypsy characters of Emir Kusturica films but they also like to sing and dance. Although you feel the agony of poverty and deprivation in every frame of the film, Sulik masterfully portrays a colorful and lively village with its all living souls. He also gives a crucial role to the surreal images, which is a distinctive aspect of his narration style. Although it seems harsh and bitter from time to time, Gypsy is a beautifully photographed impressive and moving picture.

Anayurt Oteli is based on a novel by an Turkish author, Yusuf Atilgan. It tells the dilemma of a hotel receptionist, Zebercet, who is locked in to his workplace –he is the only employer of the establishment except a cleaning lady- and gradually becomes an obsessed loner with his lack of communication with any other human beings and shows an inclination toward sexual deviation. By this film, the late Turkish director Omer Kavur produced a very successful literary adaption which is so rare in Turkish cinema. The film is not only providing a thoroughly examination of a very bizarre character, but also brilliantly portrays a Turkish small town with its historical buildings, marketplaces, coffeehouses, pubs, courtrooms, barber shops, train stations, movie theaters along with an emphasis on the basic routines such as Friday prayers, local administration announcements heard from street loudspeakers, cockfights and so on. The hotel building also plays a major part in the film and can be easily considered as one of the film characters. The film was made in the late 1980s, but luckily time was not being so harsh on it. If anyone is interested with the higher limits of the Turkish cinema, I'm sure this is one of the films that should be revisited.

The director of Inland, Tariq Tequia seems to be a man who does not like to rush anything. In Inland, he tells the story of Malek, a sad and lonesome topographer, in a very slow and peacefully manner. Therefore, the film-goers who expect action in every scene may just omit this title. The hero of the film is divorced from his wife for the reasons that we do not know, spends his days in his cabin without any human contact.When an old friend asks him to work on an area where the former topographers was killed by the reactionary forces, he obediently accepts and goes to work over there. After a certain development, the film becomes a non-classical road movie, considerably different from anything that Hollywood can create on this particular genre. The film also gives us an idea about the actions of intelligentsia of a developing country who are extremely busy on discussing and seems to be do nothing other than that. The same is also true for the law-enforcement units, they are also unproductive and unreliable.

Inland is a difficult movie, viewers must be patient, but if you can have the gift of patience, then probably you may enjoy the movie. Tariq Tequia is a director from the school of Bresson and Tarkovsky. The future films of him will tell us if he is able to earn his diploma or not.