This is a debut feature length documentary by 33-year-old Pelin Esmer, a Turkish student of sociology that was shown at the recently concluded Dubai International Film Festival. Pelin captures the dream and persistence of a group of village women in the Taurus mountains who stage and act in play as a symbol of expressing their creative urges to communicate to the larger village community. It is a woman's film about women. It captures faithfully the reactions of the male community and the anxieties of the women who act both the male and female roles that portray realistic situations they have endured in the past.
This is not a unique experiment. A brilliant French woman director Ariane Mnouchkine did a similar experiment way back in 1974 for a fascinating documentary called "1789." For Ariane, too, it was a debut. Only Ariane's product was far superior.
Why do I find Pelin's documentary strange? For a purist, the documentary camera ought to capture candid material. While Pelin's film captures the mood and the aspirations of the village women, I cannot but feel that I am watching a staged enactment off-stage where the women have been coached to say what they say. The documentation lacks the feel of an impromptu reaction. The whole film seems to have been planned meticulously and then recorded. Finally, it is not the women who write the script, but a male educationist who puts the play together. The director of the play is never identified--only the lead motivator is.
While Pelin has made a film that is interesting, I would be cautious about deciding how much of the document is candid and how much is staged.
