User Reviews

This drama, written and directed by Pelin Esmer, offers up some very stark realism in the Turkish mountains.

Olgun Simsek gives a strong performance, as Rihat, a carpenter by trade, but who has chosen to take a new job, in virtual isolation at a mountainside watchtower. We learn eventually that he is a spotter there for the Forestry Service, to observe and report forest fires that may spring up. You can tell he's holding inside lots of anguish and rage , but we won't learn till about 2/3rds of the way into the film what has happened to cause this.

Nilay Erdonmez is equally effective here as Seher, a young woman who has taken a job as a bus hostess and has secured a room at a remote bus terminal not far from Rihat's watchtower. We learn rather early on that she suddenly left Bolu University, where she was studying literature, and was living with her uncle while a student there.

However, Seher has her own anguish, as she's become impregnated by her uncle and is well along in her pregnancy. She suddenly gets labor pains and has to give birth in the basement of the bus terminal, in a scene that is very difficult to watch. She's so distraught and upset by the whole affair that she tries to abandon the baby boy by the roadside.

Nihat, who has been at the bus depot getting supplies and tea, sees what is happening and tries to help her, offering her temporary shelter at the watchtower. This is what I would call the heart of the movie, as these two troubled souls try and cope with their own harsh realities.

The viewer I felt here is offered distinct reality often with the cast so natural it's as if they're not even acting. Also, the cinematography is often quite startling and awesome.

Although this is definitely not a feel-good movie and can be difficult to watch, the main story is quite intriguing and powerful and it certainly maintained my interest as I wanted to know how it would conclude. I thought Turkish writer and director Esmer presented this drama well and I will be interested to see what her future films present.

I liked the thoughtful pace of the film and its well done production on a low budget. There is dry humor here and there. The portrayal of roles in a patriarchal society is well done. The interactions between bus owner and employees are simple yet very telling.

The character of Seher as written is problematic from my American perspective, but I think it may represent the confused feminism of a society still bound to patriarchal religion and family structures. It seemed to answer a long-asked question in my mind about intelligent and well educated women in Islamic societies. Seher should know better about pregnancy and the consequences, but does not. She should have addressed her pregnancy earlier, but did not. She is an immobilized conformist.

Nihat, the watcher, seems to represent the angry conformist, who is awakened by the losses he has suffered yet is still trapped in a male society without true compassion. He is frustratingly well played by Olgun Simsek.

The ending seemed less profound than expedient. These lives were made pointless by the characters' inability to see beyond the horizons offered by culture and tradition. I am not sure this was the point of the film, but it certainly left me with that impression.

The Watchtower is the second feature by Pelin Esmer who has already established herself with first documentary "Oyun" ("The Play") and her debut feature "10 to 11". "10 to 11" sounded so much like a documentary film that you can say 'The Watchtower' can be regarded as her debut feature. The Watchtower tells the story of Nihat(Olgun Simsek) and Seher ( Nilay Erdonmez). Nihat works as a sentinel at a remote forest fire tower. On a fire lookout tower, his only duty is to search for wildfires. All alone in the wilderness, the only people he can communicate are the other guards who keep their colleagues posted on the intercom. Normally, the guards are changed at regular intervals so that they can get down into the town and buy stuff. When his boss can't find anyone to help Nihat out, he bears his confinement with patience. He even seems to enjoy the moments of solitude. The small building he lives, located on the edge of a high vantage point does not only maximize the viewing distance he has but also his need for the utter seclusion of the countryside. While the other guards talk about their families on the intercom, he doesn't really partake.Through his limited talks with the other guards over the intercom we learn that he blames himself for causing the death of his wife and kid in a traffic accident.Self-reproach and dejection apparently drove him further from the regular human contact, and in proportion to the amount of conscience he had by nature,he had become more and more aloof. For that matter ,Seher,who happens to work in the rural bus station where Nihat eats out and buys his stuff.,sounds like a God-sent refreshing spirit.She's actually the only one Nihat practically tries to communicate.

The solitude, the escape from something you can't just run away is actually what Seher is seeking too. She used to be a university student who lodged in her uncle's house and apparently she has been raped by her uncle. She's carrying a baby that she doesn't really want. She has nowhere to go and that remote rural bus station is just giving her some time. Both Nihat and Seher do actually run away from their past. The very past they run away from is actually what makes their story collide.

They live in a traditionalist society where there are clear-cut gender roles. In the very society which prevent women from controlling their own fertility, where sex is a taboo, where there are still honour-killings, there also child brides who are married off to guys old enough to be their grandfathers, there are incestuous rapes which are consistently covered up and there is also polygyny which is regarded as 'relatively normal.' In that sense, Esmer's minimalist movie is a slap in the face of hypocrisy. Beneath the serene beauty of idyllic forests Nihat works in, lurks a nightmare that a young woman has had to live. With scanty dialogue but brilliant acting, the actors make you feel that. They make you feel that this time Pelin Esmer made something more than a documentary. As a viewer you really feel that in spite of the slow pace of the movie. Even if you don't indulge in movies shot in long takes at a leisurely pace, in long periods of silence you feel that this film has actually so much tell. Right at that moment, you meet the ultimate dénouement which could have been expressed as a final brief scene, a bit of narration, or a short bit of action and even some talk but no our two magnificent actors talk to each other. In two minutes they say to each other more than they have ever talked in an entire movie. To justify her actions, Seher blames Nihat for killing his wife and child, for something probably he has never forgiven himself. Then you just ask yourself 'Have I been time-travelled from a minimalist artsy film into a mainstream movie?' Fortunately the movie ends and leaves you lingering there with your question.

The story of THE WATCHTOWER is a compelling one: Nihat (Olgun Simsek) takes over as a guard in a lonely watch-tower in Central Anatolia, living entirely alone except for occasional communication via radio with his fellow-guards. He has lost his wife and child in an accident and shuns company as a result. Seher (Nilay Erdonmez) has taken a job as a "hostess" with a small bus company; it soon becomes clear that she has abandoned her life as a student. She has been raped by her uncle, and is now pregnant, even though she dare not tell anyone. Eventually she has the baby in a lonely room and abandons it in the bus station forecourt. Nihat and Seher are brought together as Nihat rescues the baby and takes Seher in; however, the two of them find it difficult, almost impossible to get along. As two of life's misfits, they prefer solitude, with the power of self-determination. In structural terms, however, THE WATCHTOWER is a bit of a mish-mash; it begins with the kind of long, lingering shots of a landscape with one character moving within the frame characteristic of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's films; it subsequently includes the kind of interior shots with washed-out colors reminiscent of Zeki Demirkubuz; and ends with a melodramatic plot straight out of Atif Yilmaz's SELVI BOYLUM AL YAZMALIM (1978), the classic love-story starring Turkan Soray. The ending is a total cop-out, as it shows Nihat looking out into the desolate landscape, while not telling us anything about Seher. While being an admirer of Esmer's previous work, I have to say that THE WATCHTOWER is is perhaps her least satisfying effort.

When the film started, with protagonist Nihat slowly making his way to the remote outpost as a guard, part of a forest fire monitoring team, I wasn't sure what I was into. However, as the film progressed the plot became clear - two people, Nihat the widower and Seher, a young woman trying to hide an unwanted pregnancy, crossed their paths in the remote, mountainous part of Turkey. Both wanted to get away from the rest of the world to get over a personal trauma. The misty scenery was beautiful to look at, the acting was solid, and a child-birth scene was so realistic it became disturbing.

In my view 'Watchtower' is at par with 'Once Upon a Time in Anatolia' in terms of what contemporary Turkish cinema has to offer. Both were great films. And they played a key role in converting me to a fan of Turkish cinema. I highly recommend this film to anyone who seeks an intelligent drama, one without a big budget, CGI effects, violence or sex.

Turkish writer director Pelin Esmer as won many awards for this compelling film that deals with the results of trauma on the psyches and souls of two people whose lives have been jolted by trauma. With a very small cast, minimal dialogue from the two main characters, and a supporting ensemble offering realistic interpretations of the people outside the lives of the main characters, coupled with stunning photography of the Mountains of Turkey, this film leaves an indelible mark on the viewer.

In contemporary Turkey we meet Nihat (Olgun Simsek), a quiet man suffering form the accidental loss of his wife and child in an accident in which he was the sole survivor. He exits the mainstream by becoming an isolated lookout fireguard in a watchtower in the mountains of Turkey. We also meet a beautiful but troubled young Seher (Nilay Erdonmez) who is in college but has taken on a job as a tour bus hostess, living in a crude bus station belonging to her uncle. We gradually learn that she is pregnant (morning sickness and enlarging girth), a fact she finally confesses to her poor but proud mother (Laçin Ceylan) and father (Riza Akin) who are shocked by her deed. Seher distances herself further and eventually gives unattended birth to the child that resulted from a rape by her uncle. Seher cannot accept her fate, hides the newborn boy in the trash bin and sets out on foot to separate herself from everyone. Nihat, whom Seher has met while waitressing in the bus station, rescues her, takes her and the baby he has discovered to his tower where he nurtures them, encouraging Seher to breastfeed her own child. The interpersonal relationship between these two deeply bruised people and how they cope concludes this deeply moving film.

In the hands of less talented actors this story would not gel, but the director and his gifted actors create a memorable, important film. In Turkish with English subtitles. Anther remarkable addition to the library of FilmMovement.