Aller vers le soleil

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 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.

We as the Turkish audience, were able to see the movie in our theaters by March 2000. The film is about what most of us ignore to see, or ignore to show in Turkey. It has a documentary aspect, the amateur actors and the real location shots increases the honesty and realism in the film.

Without sloganized dialogues or manipulatng plot it is a story of a journey through Turkey's wounds...

I teach Turkish language and culture at the undergraduate level here in Washington, mostly for Corporate and US government employees being posted to Turkey.

This is the most beautifully shot and elegant piece of Turkish cinema to date and an excellent introduction to Turkey.

I notice one or two right wing nationalists calling it propaganda comparing it to Midnight Express. That sentiment is by people who simply can't stand anything but a glowing picture of the government.

Highly recommended for anyone considering learning more about our culture.

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.