Kar ve Ayi

A beautifully haunting film that blends atmospheric mystery with subtle social commentary against an ecological backdrop. Set in a remote, snow-covered Turkish town, the film captures the quiet tension of isolation through stunning cinematography and a slow-burning narrative. Merve Dizdar shines as Asli, a young nurse whose arrival stirs hidden fears and suspicions within the community. Ergun's restrained direction allows the story to unfold with poetic stillness, revealing how fear and tradition can blur the line between myth and reality. It's a quietly powerful film that lingers long after the snow has settled.

A nurse goes to work in a remote Turkish village where a man stalks her and another goes missing.

The story I suppose is okay, it's the slow and ponderous way it is carried out that is not. There's a lot of time nothing is happening but you don't want to fast forward in case you miss something. Also the subtitles were very obviously not an accurate translation so that didn't help.

The lead actress has a very expressive face and did well with the role she had, and indeed there was some decent acting from a few others too. But not near enough to lift the film beyond a rating of 5.

I liked that there wasn't any awful score or crashing soundtrack to the film and the sounds of winter were not overdone.

There's obviously some moral tales woven into this, but they're lost a little by the ponderous pace and slew of non-meaningful scenes.

A movie that you watched in one breath and stays in your mind for days afterwards.

Strong script, great acting.

Although the story starts with a single girl than it covers a town while taking you to a tour about the behavior of the community.

You feel the cold, you feel the storm, you feel the solitude. You feel the power of a girl with her own ethos and her own manifest to the universe. Movie puts you in a town alone and makes you think about your loneliness.

Again and again strong script, wonderfull wiev, great acting.

Hard to guess if the bear is really exist or is it just your imagination.

A bear, awakened early from hibernation and hungry, stalks the snow-covered forest of a remote and tiny mountain town. At the same time a young nurse, Asli, arrives in the village to start a new life. There is a man in her way at every turn. Three men figure prominently on the list of the most threatening to her independence. Hasan is the conservative town drunk who hates bears almost as much as he hates women. Samet, a kind mountain man and protector of wildlife, is Hasan's opposite. However, in his obsession with Asli he might be the more dangerous of the two men. The third main male obstacle in Asli's life is her father who doubts and seeks to control her from afar. Asli tries to find her own path through the woods full of dangerous beasts, human and animal.

Cut down the sacred tree and spirit of nature, states a Turkish legend, and nature will have its revenge somehow. In this ancient story it is a bear that becomes the agent of vengeance. The bear is what the villagers fear most. Yet there is a wild animal inside each person's heart which is something more potent and formidable.

Director Selcen Ergun's debut feature provides compelling and moving messages about human attempts to control nature, romance, wildlife, and women. "It is how I feel as a woman in the world," Ergun said at the film's world premiere in Toronto. A woman attempting to find her way in a misogynistic world, where even kindhearted and well-meaning men might lead women astray from being who they are. Ambient sounds of wind and crackling fires combine with stirring, sparse music. The ending is profoundly emotional and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Ergun meditates on a time when the winter will cease and the world will just let women and nature be.

Snow And The Bear is definitely an adult mystery and more of an art film than a run of the mill drama.

It is beautifully shot and has the lonely and cold atmosphere of a snowey mountain range in the middle of nowwhere which perfectly compliments the solemn story that unfolds.

Its ultimately a mystery about the culture of people living outside of modern civilisation and how an outsider comes to know a different type of existence that is more elemental and closer to nature.

This is a film about lonliness, the wilderness, and how human beings relate to and impact the natural world.

It is also a melancholic tale of self discovery.

It is a well paced, finely told mystery drama. It's in Turkish with subtitles, but I didn't mind that. Personally I enjoyed this film and I hope you will too. :-)