Set in the rain-washed streets of an Izmir winter, KOKSUZ (NOBODY'S HOME) focuses on the life of single mother Nurcan (Lale Basar) faced with the responsibility of looking after three children - thirty- two-year-old Feride (Ahu Turkpence), seventeen-year-old Ilker (Savas Alp Basar), and the youngest daughter Ozge (Melis Ebeler). She finds the job almost impossible: Ilker keeps quitting the house and staying at a friend's; Feride yearns to escape; while Ozge tries her best to remain loyal. The only way Nurcan can cope is to clean her apartment every day; her obsession becomes almost all-consuming as she claims to have always too much to do.
Deniz Akcay's film offers a relentlessly unsentimental take on her material. There is no real possibility of resolution: Nurcan will always remain imprisoned by her circumstances, while the offspring have to try to cope as best they can. Feride looks for a way out through betrothal to Gulaga (Sevkan Serinkaya), but Nurcan thoroughly disapproves. Ilker tries to act tough by smoking pot and making love to his best friend's mother; but in truth he is looking for some kind of a role-model. The sequence where he breaks down and cries on his grandmother's (Mihriban Er's) knee is particularly affecting.
The film is deliberately shot in washed-out colors, reflecting the grayness of the characters' existence. Traditionally speaking, Izmir is known as a sun-drenched city, the gateway to Aegean holiday resorts such as Kusadasi and Foca. Akcay sets the action during midwinter, when the streets are drenched with rain, the skies gray, the buildings towering threateningly over the characters. The city is an oppressive presence, especially for Nurcan as she ventures tentatively outside and takes the ferry across the bay.
KOLSUZ is a modest feature, shot on a low budget, but Akcay has a good grasp of characterization and dramatic conflict in sequences shot through the shot/reverse shot strategy. Definitely worth a watch.
