Voyage vers le soleil

this is really an amazing movie that left me stunned for a long time. Ustaoglu has made a film of a pure essence that rely heavy on the visuals and grabs itself deeply in your heart. Like Silent Hill or Apocalyse Now it shows shots that burn into your brain and remain there long after. Beside this it delivers insights in the nature of human existence and his place in the universe. For Journey to the sun not the people in itself generate hate, exclusion and violence but all prevailing power structures that suck up a whole state like a sponge. Mehmet, one of the protagonists, goes on a journey that brings him to the root of humanity and the meaning of life. This movie demonstrates the importance of friendship and solidarity beyond and above all walls of hate and malice, and how paper thin is the line between unlimited humanity and border generating, infamous barbarity.

This movie starts in Istanbul and ends near Northern Iraq. In between, a young Turkish man traverses more than 1,000 KMs, first driving a stolen pickup truck, then riding on a minibus and a train. All along, he is dragging a wooden coffin holding the dead body of a friend.

The early setup in Istanbul develops along the protagonist's relations with a young woman and with a political refugee from the Kurdish southeast who later ends up in the coffin. A story of innocent love is presented between the hero and his girlfriend. As he ends up being tossed across the political and ethnic fault lines in the social mix of Istanbul, she is one of the very few people who choose to stand by him.

I found the story very realistic without being glib about the social life and the political issues it brings to the screen.

I teach Turkish language and culture at the undergraduate level here in Washington, mostly for Corporate and US government employees being posted to Turkey.

This is the most beautifully shot and elegant piece of Turkish cinema to date and an excellent introduction to Turkey.

I notice one or two right wing nationalists calling it propaganda comparing it to Midnight Express. That sentiment is by people who simply can't stand anything but a glowing picture of the government.

Highly recommended for anyone considering learning more about our culture.

Ex-architect Yesim Ustaoglu was inspired to make this film after reading newspaper articles about Kurdish villages laid waste in southeastern Turkey. Given the level of censorship she faced, this lyrical, deceptively simple tale about love, loss, and identity (brilliantly shot by Kieslowski's old cameraman Jacek Petrycki) is all the more courageous. The story starts with two outsiders, Mehmet and Berzan, meeting in Istanbul, where both are eking out an existence in the face of police oppression. When Berzan is killed, Mehmet embarks on an epic journey across country to return his body to his home village. Ustaoglu is never didactic. Instead, she shows the bafflement and yearning of the young friends as they struggle to make sense of their predicament.

Probably the best aspect of the movie is the cinematography. The scenes of Istanbul and south-eastern Turkey are magical. Another aspect that appealed to me is that although the film is obviously political, it does not present the situation in any direct way. The main characters are simple, apolitical characters whose lives become affected by the political events around them. By keeping the story focused on the immediate situation of the main characters, the background politics are all the more powerful because the director does not directly espouse or preach on behalf of any one point of view. It makes the viewer want to learn more about the complex nature of the Kurdish issue in Turkey.