Nihal Koldaş

Onur is sacked from his job as manager of a pharmaceutical company. He’s not too bothered about being unemployed, but the same cannot be said of his wife Bahar. Onur doesn’t listen to her and becomes indifferent not only to her anxieties but also to the world around him. He’d rather be surrounded by more zebras. A drama with dashes of absurd comedy about events that are no laughing matter: a personal crisis that impacts their marriage.

This 2015 documentary by Amine Mestari delves deep into Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s film MUSTANG, featuring extensive interviews with the director and cast, as well as exploring the film in the context of the politically volatile situation in Turkey.

A reclusive woman in her thirties leads a life frozen in time in a cave-like room. In her rare trips to the city, she chats with an oarswoman haunted by the devils. She searches for her twin sister in unfrequented corners of the city. In this journey in which time and space are out of joint, a same dream is recounted time after time.

Nesrin is an urban, middle-class woman recovering from a divorce. She’s quit her office job, abandoned her house in Istanbul, and come to the village house of her deceased grandmother to finish a novel and live out her childhood dream of being a writer. When her conservative and increasingly unhinged mother turns up uninvited and refuses to leave, Nesrin’s writing stalls and her fantasies of village life turn bitter as the two are forced to confront the darker corners of each other’s inner worlds.

In a Turkish village, five orphaned sisters live under strict rule while members of their family prepare their arranged marriages.

A man lives alone in Istanbul. He makes a living doing odd jobs for several people, but dreams of being a singer.

Fatma is around 50, a housewife with six children. She lives in Vienna but grew up in Turkey and clings stubbornly to the traditions and values of the old country. Ayse is 19, and the film begins with her wedding in rural Turkey, to Fatma’s son Hasan. However, when the family takes Ayse to Vienna this is revealed as a c harade… for Ayse is to be the kuma (second wife) of Fatma’s husband Mustafa.

A middle class young man rebels against his father’s brutish authority and seeks a rough romance with a woman of ethnic minority. Yuce’s moral tale draws from the example of today’s Turkish youth and the timeless shadow of fathers over sons.

Seniha lives with her brother Halit and his wife Mükerrem. When Nüzhet, the handsome son of the richest family in town, sets his eyes on the married Mükerrem, she is at first disgusted with Nüzhet’s overt sexual innuendo. However, it isn’t long before Mükerrem yields to her lust and thus they embark on an affair. When Seniha finally reveals her sister-in-law’s un-virtuousness to her brother, Seniha has no idea what the consequences will be and how cruelly her destiny will change.

Isa is blamed for a robbery. He is badly beaten and given twenty four hours to return the money. Instead of finding the money, Isa finds a gun.

Yusuf is released from prison after serving a ten year sentence. He is scared of life outside as he goes to an address given to him by another prisoner.