Viagem ao Sol

This movie starts in Istanbul and ends near Northern Iraq. In between, a young Turkish man traverses more than 1,000 KMs, first driving a stolen pickup truck, then riding on a minibus and a train. All along, he is dragging a wooden coffin holding the dead body of a friend.

The early setup in Istanbul develops along the protagonist's relations with a young woman and with a political refugee from the Kurdish southeast who later ends up in the coffin. A story of innocent love is presented between the hero and his girlfriend. As he ends up being tossed across the political and ethnic fault lines in the social mix of Istanbul, she is one of the very few people who choose to stand by him.

I found the story very realistic without being glib about the social life and the political issues it brings to the screen.

Ex-architect Yesim Ustaoglu was inspired to make this film after reading newspaper articles about Kurdish villages laid waste in southeastern Turkey. Given the level of censorship she faced, this lyrical, deceptively simple tale about love, loss, and identity (brilliantly shot by Kieslowski's old cameraman Jacek Petrycki) is all the more courageous. The story starts with two outsiders, Mehmet and Berzan, meeting in Istanbul, where both are eking out an existence in the face of police oppression. When Berzan is killed, Mehmet embarks on an epic journey across country to return his body to his home village. Ustaoglu is never didactic. Instead, she shows the bafflement and yearning of the young friends as they struggle to make sense of their predicament.

This a beautiful movie with a moral and humane view that rises above the political. It shows how human interactions can be deep and independent of the political. The picture reveals a sensitive vision expressed with mature skill. The construction and cinematography are superb.

This is a very good movie with a simple story but lyrical and poetic cinematography. The scenes both in the cities and the countryside are beautiful. Some Turkish commentators who disliked the movie are simply blinded by their extreme nationalism and unwillingness to admit that Kurds were -and still are- oppressed in Turkey. Do they deny that the Kurdish language was forbidden in Turkey until just a few years ago? They should just read Amnesty International's description of Turkey's justice system and mistreatment of prisoners. Of course, they also deny that their ancestors committed Genocide against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire in 1915. If Turkey wants to join the EU, the young generation must first join twenty-first century and stop behaving like their ancestors. They must face history and come to terms with it. They must stop imprisoning journalists and others for "insulting Turkishness" simply by speaking out. It would also be nice if they stopped assassinating journalists and priests. Enjoy this very worthwhile movie, then read more about this region's history and make up your own mind.

this is really an amazing movie that left me stunned for a long time. Ustaoglu has made a film of a pure essence that rely heavy on the visuals and grabs itself deeply in your heart. Like Silent Hill or Apocalyse Now it shows shots that burn into your brain and remain there long after. Beside this it delivers insights in the nature of human existence and his place in the universe. For Journey to the sun not the people in itself generate hate, exclusion and violence but all prevailing power structures that suck up a whole state like a sponge. Mehmet, one of the protagonists, goes on a journey that brings him to the root of humanity and the meaning of life. This movie demonstrates the importance of friendship and solidarity beyond and above all walls of hate and malice, and how paper thin is the line between unlimited humanity and border generating, infamous barbarity.