criterionforum.org

Times and Winds

Although it's been on the festival circuit for two years now, Erdem's film, which won awards at the 2006 Istanbul Film Festival, is now being released in the UK on 29/8, and I gather it's already had a US release in January.

Sight and Sound wrote a very favourable feature in this month's issue (alas, not publicly available on their website), suggesting Erdem will be just as significant a name in world cinema as the two current Turkish film makers making waves (Akin, Ceylan).

Quick plot synopsis: In a small village in the mountains overlooking the sea the people struggle to survive on a daily survival basis. The live in a primitive way and they live according to the rhythm of the earth, air and water, day and night and seasons. The daily time is divided into five parts by the sound of the call to prayer and through history they have lived in the same way. Childhood is difficult and a father typically has a preference of one son over the other. Ömer, the son of the Imam, is such a victim of his father's dislike and he wishes for the death of his father. When his wish is not granted he begins to look for ways to kill him as a twelve year old boy might think of with his friend Yakup. Yakup seeing his father sexually interested in his teacher also develops a hatred of his father in the same way and as the children grow up they are riddled between guilt and love and hate for their fathers.

Sounds very promising.

This is one of the worst films I saw last year. Arvo Pärt's score initially feels impressive but quickly turns into an overbearing, overblown abomination. I almost walked out after 1 hour. The story itself involves a trivial and mildly irritating melodrama. I believe I would have enjoyed it more if the music were completely removed.

Zedz obviously likes it way more than I do.

I was scratching my head at your psychic abilities for a moment there, but I think I mentioned it in the last years' films thread, right? I loved the style and look of it, not so concerned about the story, and I guess you have to swallow the Part score whole or you'll choke on it - not an unusual problem for contemporary films with big, intrusive scores.

I certainly liked it a lot more than Akin's contrived and heavy-handed Edge of Heaven, but I seem to be in a tiny minority in that regard.

zedz wrote:I was scratching my head at your psychic abilities for a moment there, but I think I mentioned it in the last years' films thread, right? I loved the style and look of it, not so concerned about the story, and I guess you have to swallow the Part score whole or you'll choke on it - not an unusual problem for contemporary films with big, intrusive scores.

I certainly liked it a lot more than Akin's contrived and heavy-handed Edge of Heaven, but I seem to be in a tiny minority in that regard.

I also like Erdem's style and approach, especially in Bes Vakit and also Hayat Var. I'm with you, I enjoyed it far more than Edge of Heaven. I don't actually think Edge of Heaven is that good, and it is one of the weaker Turkish films I have seen. I'm quite a fan of Turkish cinema, and much prefer Semih Kaplanoglu, Ceylan, Erdem, Özcan Alper, Yesim Ustaoglu, and several others, to the work of Akin. But I guess Akin and his films don't really fit into completely Turkish.

Quite a few Turkish directors like the ones I mention have common things in the way they shoot and film being atmospheric, dark, slow, depressive, and contemplative with little dialogue. It is perfect for my tastes

Have you seen Hayat Var? I think I enjoyed it more than Bes Vakit, and I had really high hopes for it, and usually that only leads to dissapointment, but Hayat pleasantly surprised me. This one has stuck with me for a long time since I viewed it.

The critical adoration of Edge of Heaven is confounding to me. It's just another in a long line of "web-of-life" films, and unlike Elise Nakhnikian, I don't think the film's use of the network narrative is all that much more engrossing or innovative than something like Babel.

I'll happily hop in for the Edge of Heaven bashing. Yes, if a comparison has to be drawn, then Times and Winds is extremely watchable. Zedz you are hardly in a minority, at least from my perspective...