User Reviews

I remember the old ones when I'm forgetting the new ones. Well that hit me pretty hard and then I started to cry. How can you cage a wild bird? That man was woking up every day and he was seeing his gardens. And then one day they moved to an apartment which only has a balcone. It was meaningful

This is to tell a story of a few people along the recent history of Turkey. The main story is that of Turkey. I will try to match the film to the recent national history. As the near history of Turkey is marked with upheaval created by the separatist kurds and the migration to big cities and the migration from the east regions.

This is a film written, directed and played by Yilmaz Erdogan, himself from Hakkari, the utmost southeastern point of Turkey populated with the Kurds, second big ethnic group after the Turks . The movie is more or less about his hometown and the near history of Turkey.

Erdogan, starts with untouched village which even do not know shampoo, and depict picturesque views of the region which resemble Switzerland or Austria to some extend. This is to somehow imply that this region could be another "Switzerland", because of its mountains and so on. Hence, the protagonist dreams to make a cable car (telepherique) to easily climb to the mountains, like the ones in Europe.

Antalya, is a Mediterranean city populated with Turks. It used to be famous for its Agriculture and sea as well. Basically these two cities, Hakari and Antalya share many commons. As in the movie, the Urbanised young and agri-engineer from turkic Antalya fall in love with daughters and propose marriages, the father considers inappropriate and refuses because of cultural reasons, mentioning that it is clear as you did not understand at the first instant. This is to symbolize the two different ethnicities who live in Turkey. The mayor is very stubborn, as the kurds are known for, even not to tolerate a single indigene sour apple in the garden. Indeed, this sour apple will later blossom in the gardens of Antalya which further symbolizes that indeed (kurdish) daughters could blossom in the other culture (among turks).

Turning back to the movie, the big love story symbolize that the two parts, the kurds and turks, have much to offer each other and make the picture complete.

But, the history will not continue as such and the societies will not be able to take the necessary actions, and the young lovers would not be able to step out and pursue their fate. At the moment when the new elections are taking place and the radio tells about the news of first instances of the violent clashes, the family leave for Antalya without clear reasons . Indeed, in the recent history of Turkey, the pkk rebelling and the migration took place at the same period (70-90s), and without too much correlation (for example the black sea region too migrated to Istanbul, which is not directly related to pkk upraising).

The picturesque nature will disappear and the migration will take out the mind and souls of people and put them in real dementia. The director Erdogan focuses on his town and people,which could also imply that he totally projects on the Kurds with their mistakes and shortcomings as far the near history is considered.

The young boy Ozgur, because of leftist demonstrations in the University campus is deprived of his diploma and therefore destined to work as a farm worker in the gardens of Antalya. His lover will tell him, "of course you can grab an apple with the said permission". Which could symbolize that most of these people now work in the seasonal farms of Antalya. It could also imply that the Kurds could talk about their problems and cultural issues though a talk process.

I guess the director Erdogan wanted to finish this general bitter story with a serendipity type sweet ending just to leave a taste of hope on our tongue, which makes indeed.