Sonbahar represents a realm that metaphorically speaking belongs to silence. Yousuf seems to have that depth with which he can journey from speech to whisper to silence.This film took sadness to a height what I have rarely witnessed in films. The Russian hooker, who is a very young mother too, says to Yousuf, "You know, you seem like you don't live in the present. ... It's like you've walked off the pages of a Russian novel." Exactly that is the point. Everything is past for Yousuf -- even his sadness too -- which is now blank because, as Michail says, everything has gone -- even socialism. Now their girls become hookers. Yousuf remains in the past, he is past everything -- even pains and all. The young boy whom he tries to teach rejects him too. All the memories of university jail and all come like scattered pictures. And that exactly is the depth of blankness depicted in this film. The sad hooker goes away. Only waves rise and fall -- rise and fall -- and everything ends with a death -- a procession of death walking through the valleys.
And one thing to say, the eaarlier review by 'eray-basma' mentioned that Sonbahar tries to be like Tarkovsky. I do not know why she/he said it. But, on my part I can say, for more than the last four decades Tarkovsky is like a god to me, both Tarkovsky and his poet father are like a milestone to me in human culture. But not a single time I remembered him during the movie. When it is only sadness and sadness -- the sadness becomes blank and all pervading. Sonbahar is that. Salute to the director.
