Review of Topragin Çocuklari

The Village Institutes (Koy Enstituleri) were set up in the mid- twentieth century to provide basic education for Turkish villagers in farming, industry, culture and literacy. Based on the communal model, they were the kind of places where everyone worked for one another under the tutelage of the teachers (ogretmen). However the scheme attracted considerable criticism, especially from those sectors of Turkish society who were interested in sustaining the political status quo - the hierarchical model dating back to the Ottoman period. They considered the Village Institutes to be hotbeds of communism, dedicated to overthrowing the state, Ali Adnan Ozgur's film tells the story of one such institute, and how it tries to survive repeated attacks from the local military commandant (Bertan Dirikolu) and his village acolytes. The teacher Kemal (Erkan Can) is arrested for peddling allegedly subversive material, and taken to court in Ankara on a trumped-up charge. The film shows how the members of the Institute work for one another, as well as taking care of a local gypsy girl (Muge Boz), who is wanted by the local villagers in the belief that she and her grandmother have been responsible for an outbreak of malaria. It is no coincidence that TOPRAGIN COCUKLARI should have been released in 2012: director Ozgur is clearly interested in making a comment on the shortcomings of contemporary Turkish society - especially the education system, where there are insufficient teachers and learners seldom have the chance to develop thinking abilities for themselves. The film contains a rather spurious love-story between Cevher (Ukuk Bayraktar) and Aybike (Turku Turan) that provides the pretext for a tragic denouement, but it is nonetheless a sincere attempt to remind audiences of an important aspect of Turkish history.