genghis_khan

Nefes is first of its kind in Turkey. Through the eyes of a small brigade of soldiers stationed at the border, the film examines the armed conflict that has been going on for more than 30 years in south-eastern Turkey.

Filmed on the high mountains of southern Turkey, the landscape provides a stunning and poetic backdrop. The seclusion, hardship and the tragedy these people had to endure is central to the story.

The film has its minor flaws but nevertheless it is effective in putting the audience in the shoes of these soldiers. And it is specifically significant to the Turkish citizens; for they will have a chance to truly empathize with those who rendered services in the region.

What happened in Normandy? What happened in Stalingrad? Was it all an international conspiracy? The kind of film that makes you suspicious if Nazis had actually won the war. Makes you paranoid. There are even excerpts from a Nazi propaganda footage in it of the Katyn massacre. How convenient? How convenient indeed.

It is allegorical. It is avant-garde. Its artistic value is relative to taste and my opinion, which is of course inherently subjective, is this is as much artistic as Salvador Dali's bottom.

We get the analogy. It is not what you would call subtle. The men and boys lured into the Karl Marx boat full of sweets. The rich defiling the innocent and pure. A man reborn covered in urine and feces (the kind of image that will stay with you for a very long time).

Of course you may want to watch it. The way you may want to watch a snuff film. Of course you may like this. The way you may like watching a man shoot himself.