User reviews

I saw this debut movie at the last Black Nights FF in Tallinn. It has very strong political stance and very lyrical visual narration. Also good acting and good script is supporting this narrative. Onur Saylak in leading role is performing a great acting with a minimalistic warm and sincere play. Film tells the story of a political prisoner who has been suffered by the inhuman conditions of F-type jails. He has been released on the health ground, back to the hometown which is located in East Black Sea Region and tried to adopt to daily life again.The most impressive part of the story is his meeting with a young Georgian women who earns her life from prostitution.Their relation provides an opportunity to the audience to compare the dreams, frustrations and the pains of two people which one of them is spent his ten years in prison because of his socialist ideology and the other suffers from aftereffects of same ideology. It is a good example of New Turkish Cinema of 2000s like "My Marlon and Brando" and "Summer Book". I gave 8 this movie and strongly recommend to everyone who likes art-house movie with humanistic discourse.

I saw this film at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the audience was ecstatic. Fans of Bela Tarr will appreciate the scenes with no dialog, but which still deliver more information than a babbling script could have delivered about a troubled political prisoner and a conflicted nation in a confused world. The cinematography, from the "central chair" in the home to the snowy mountains of northern Turkey were amazing. One issue that I wish that I had looked at before seeing the film was the history of Turkish/Russian relations. This is a major theme. In a similar vein for those of us who have read and loved the novels of Orhan Pamuk, we westerners learn something very important about a vibrant but conflicted country. I gave this 9 stars based on content first, with cinematography a very close second. The lead actor is incredible and this is a new director to be watched.

A poet says 'To one thing on the earth my heart burns for / those who passed away in the spring of their life'. And it is Autumn: Sonbahar which in Turkish means the last spring. Ozcan Alper's debut is about the evils the seasons do against the political prisoner Yusuf who was released for health reasons. Because of his socialist convictions he spent the spring-time of his life in prison. He comes back to his hometown. His mother takes care of him. He meets a Georgian girl and they fell in love. She suffers from the post-socialist conditions in her native country and is left with no other option than prostitute. Two victims of the same ideology, two lonely and tortured souls find a sheltering love in each other. But Yusuf's days are countable! Shot in beautiful locations in the Black Sea region which is also my hometown, the visuals of AUTUMN are simply magic and breath-taking. The Black Sea is the heart and inner world of Yusuf. Black Sea is an angry and rough, undulated sea. It is a rebellious sea as you'll see in one of the most beautiful scenes of the film where Yusuf walks over the sea on the small breakwater. The film has a sad end, the characters fall aside like Autumn leaves.. What else to say: the film is a beauty like a black pearl! It was also a box-office success in Turkey for an art-house film. Just see the film to discover more! 8 out of 10...

this film is under the influence of ceylan work, characters that are outside of society, filmed in idyllic locations, with a lot of non narrative shots of nature, slow pace until the eventual downfall of the central character.I don't know if Turkish directors discovered existentialist approach in cinema 40 years later but those works are compelling.They really promote their country with beautiful photography and sometimes story becomes secondary, personally i started to wish visiting turkey!People who like images like me will always search of films that celebrate mise en scene.The political aspect of those films (ceylan, ustaoglu)seems to me little under developed or if you wish undermined from the tribulations of the characters, still people who take cinema more seriously than entertainment must see that body of work.

Honestly, I cannot find fault with this movie. If you are a fan of fast-pace,thrilling and noisy Hollywood movies or any other foreign films that are obsessed with the portrayal of sex, then you should not even bother to comment on this movie. Also, if you want to compare this film to Tarkovsky, you are ruining the name of this Turkish director. Tarkovsky's film is like watching the paint dry without any real substance, but this film is a whole level above the self-indulgent art films with ridiculously long shots that offer no meaning. The feeling of the protagonist blends perfectly with the wonderful portrayal of nature and meticulously handled cinematography to create a deeply satisfying feeling that one can rarely get from performing most of the activities in our lives. This movie succeeds on many levels, whether it be symbolical, existential and emotional level. It totally rivets the audience as we watch every sequence of the character's life unfold and are absorbed into the authentic, life-like mood of the Autumn. It is a truly enjoyable and profound experience. Because of this movie, i will be a loyal fan of the Turkish cinema for many years to come. Not only the movie shows what a real movie should be like, it can also be seen as a book of wisdom that reveals eternal truth or problems that are hidden in human lives.

before to start this movie,i heard lots of good comment about it.and also the people said that the theme is really good.it also contains politics,lazish culture-especially lazish language- and the others.

the movie was started about some politic issues that this topic was used lots of times in Turkish cinema.there was no diversification.yes maybe the movie is only about that but it s not so strong in the movie finally.

first there were not so much people.the movie was turning around a couple of people.yes sometimes it can be advantage but it just made me bored in this movie.because the tempo of the movie was slow and so depressive.

second some part of the movie looked like they just put it for the landscape.it s truth that the landscape is perfect but the connection was lost sometimes.

the good things were the lazish dialogs,the relationship between yusuf and "scarlet woman" and the great -and sad- ending

"You know, you seem like you don't live in the present. It's like you've walked off the pages of a Russian novel. Yusuf, you know what I've been thinking? I wish I could leave everything behind and set off on a long journey with you."

Another piece of wonderful minimalist cinema (i'm nothing if not consistent) this time from a Turkish filmmaker making his debut feature. Yusuf, a political prisoner, is released from jail on health grounds and returns to the tiny village community he grew up in.

As you might expect from that premise this is a film with a political message which is at times forced upon the viewer, a distraction from the contemplative mood of the piece as Yusuf comes to terms with everything he gave up for his ideals, his new found freedom, his mortality and his struggle to reintegrate with village life.

Packed with beautiful vistas and long moody takes without dialogue it is the use of ambient noise, or at times a lack of, that most impressed and so the occasionally invasive use of melodramatic music only served to irritate rather than accentuate the moment.

The sub story of his connection with a young boy and a prostitute are pretty standard narrative devices but never feel arbitrary, which in itself is impressive but the emotional arc they guide you through places them as some of the more impressive uses of the trope I have seen.

Quality low budget world cinema from a strong new voice worth keeping an eye on.

Özcan Alper made his feature debut with this long, lyrical and somewhat languid little production that won him best director awards at the Tbilisi and Sofia International Film Festival and marked him out as a director who is going places fast, even if his film is not.

Onur Saylak stars as Yusuf a Turkish dissident released after surviving ten years in one of the country's notorious F type prisons to return to his Black Sea coast home with his health broken and his ideology lost only to run into the ephemeral Megi Kobaladze as Eka a despondent Georgian prostitute incredulous that anyone would expend the best years of their life on a fruitless quest for socialism.

The film maker displays a distinct penchant for classic Russian cinema and literature and unfolds at an excruciatingly slow pace, with the main character actually stopping at one point to watch a slug crawl by, which allows for plenty of long scenic but ultimately unfulfilling shots of the gorgeous Trabzon countryside and little else.

This place is just another prison.

Sonbahar represents a realm that metaphorically speaking belongs to silence. Yousuf seems to have that depth with which he can journey from speech to whisper to silence.This film took sadness to a height what I have rarely witnessed in films. The Russian hooker, who is a very young mother too, says to Yousuf, "You know, you seem like you don't live in the present. ... It's like you've walked off the pages of a Russian novel." Exactly that is the point. Everything is past for Yousuf -- even his sadness too -- which is now blank because, as Michail says, everything has gone -- even socialism. Now their girls become hookers. Yousuf remains in the past, he is past everything -- even pains and all. The young boy whom he tries to teach rejects him too. All the memories of university jail and all come like scattered pictures. And that exactly is the depth of blankness depicted in this film. The sad hooker goes away. Only waves rise and fall -- rise and fall -- and everything ends with a death -- a procession of death walking through the valleys. And one thing to say, the eaarlier review by 'eray-basma' mentioned that Sonbahar tries to be like Tarkovsky. I do not know why she/he said it. But, on my part I can say, for more than the last four decades Tarkovsky is like a god to me, both Tarkovsky and his poet father are like a milestone to me in human culture. But not a single time I remembered him during the movie. When it is only sadness and sadness -- the sadness becomes blank and all pervading. Sonbahar is that. Salute to the director.

The characters are clearly under-developed, it would've added more depth to the film if there were more conversations, decent ones, and if the stimulating of the memories of prison wasn't through news materials. For more over all the film was a satisfying experience and I'm giving it 9 mainly for the great cinematography.

Damn, it ends like a Russian novel too. The lonely silhouette against the troubled sea, the emptiness, the hopelessness, the sadness, the cold.

Another Turkish movie set in a small village in the mountains where time stood still and people live at their own pace, in stark contrast to city people. I always love seeing those houses, the interiors, the simple people, the daily chores, the mountains, the rivers, the fog, the rain, the greenery all around. These tend to be slow, contemplative movies but I wouldn't mind watching them cause it reminds me of my childhood in a sense and of simpler times.

There's nothing simple about Yusuf's situation. His ideals have been dashed, his health is shot, his life is uncertain, his future as foggy as the mornings to which he wakes up every day. He's also got some PTSD from jail and who knows what else is going on in his head. And what is the use after all. His friend Mikhail is a mirror of what his life could have been in the village. Then a woman comes into his life, cause there's always a woman in movies. But there's a lot more behind Yusuf's dark eyes. Surprisingly it's also a political movie to a small extent. But the ending is open cause how else could you end this pile-up on poor Yusuf...

The writer & director tries to make a movie like Andrei Tarkovsky or Nuri Bilge Ceylan. But the film contains very few things to say, very few things to show. That's why it is very slow. In the movie characters are so bored that, they don't even talk. There is only 2 beautiful photographic scenes, but it does not worth to be bored for 90 minutes. I have read the comments about Sonbahar (Autumn) in IMDb before I watch it, but I can not see any political views in the movie. The main character was in jail for his political activities, but the film starts after he was set free and there are no political views or arguments in the film. I cannot say a film is political, when it contains criticism of the system/government only in 2 or 3 dialogs.