Ulak

I am pretty sure Chagan Irmak was aware of the fact that the movie is completely different than what people was expecting. He is brave enough to discuss the issues like freedom of speech, military coups in his movies explicitly. But this time, he was indirect and he makes people to think. In most of the Turkish movies, it is a tradition to give the message in a direct way. But this makes Ulak special .. Irmak breaks those traditions. The photography, costumes are were great. Throughout the movie, I tried where/when the story takes place. What is their religion? I liked that disturbance in my mind. which make me to think and I enjoyed my mind trip!

Another masterpiece from the one of most intellectual and creative directors of Turkey. Story is also by Irmak.

1- The incredible soundtracks that takes you away is by E.Reboutsika who won the World Soundtrack Award in 2006 by another Irmak movie "Babam ve Oglum" (My Father and My Son) 2- Cetin Tekindor presents one of the best actings I've ever seen. He paralyses the audience. Especially, the scene he begins to cry when he finishes his story and the children are talking about the Messenger they dream of.. 3- Story is very allegoric. No time and no place. And the presentation of this story is very original, since there are parts like "Dream of Ferhat", "Reality of Zekeriya", "Book of Mehmet" 4- Although lots of messages are given, the most emphasized is "The one who knows but keeps silence is as much guilty as the one who commits." In fact it seems to refer to the Military Regime started in 1980 and to the society that did not want to talk about it for years. Not only that, but also every society that stay silent against the evil kind. 5- The end is much more original. Story ends with "Dream of Saffet", which means it is your turn to dream about the end.

This film definitely has its own way of telling a story. While watching, it gives you the feeling of listening to a fairy tale, which I haven't felt for many years. I must admit that the film has religious implications, because of the story in the background, but they are not necessarily negative criticisms. By choosing children as the main audience in the "messiah story", this film separates itself from any other religious-story-telling films or books. The costumes, acting and conversations all have that fairy tale style as a whole. I see "hope" as the main theme of this film as "even an unrealistic hope can change people's lives". Please don't watch and judge this movie with your or others belief-defending opinions. It just shows the power of imagination. Also it is a good and a different step for Turkish cinema.

the atmosphere. the architecture. the emotion. the words who becomes pillars. the image of wise story teller. and the magic in a not comfortable manner. a film who could be window to memories. or rediscover of pure story, from classic Oriental recipes. but, step by step, scene by scene, you discover it be more than charming introduction in mythical universe. but a parable who remains the perfect manner to describe the present as just one of forms of past. the expectation. the force of dream. the fear. and the curiosity. the challenge. and the bitter words. and, sure, the large slices of silence. a film who is more a window to a lost world than a fairy tale's exposure. because it reminds the roots of the life. and the importance of its values.

First of all I'm really happy to see that Turkish cinema has reached international standards in terms of technical features of film making. The movie "Ulak" has very decent camera work, lighting, costumes and scene creation. Almost half of the movie is shot in the night and everything is well done. We can see every bit of the scene yet we're convinced that it's dark. This is not we're used to see is Turkish film making.

Now let's come the movie itself. I'd never seen a Cagan IRMAK(the director) movie before. I did not have any expectations actually. I was very much neutral. After watching the movie I questioned myself and thought about it over and over but I could not figure out what all it was about! There is a promising story but it is very vague. One can get different messages from it or not. Neither I can say who the people are in the movie nor what the era it is they live in. It looks like they are one of the Turkish tribes before Ottoman Empire living in southern parts of Anatolia. But no one can say it is for sure. So, place, characters and the time is not so clear to the audience. Therefore we cannot know what to expect or how to interpret the story.

And my last but not least complaint is, and I think this is the biggest problem of Turkish Cinema, the movie looks much more like a theater play than a cinema movie. Let me say why; most of the cast is coming from theater origin yet this is the least important cause of the problem. It doesn't feel like "Cinema" because it's shot in almost three places, a hand build village stage, a barn yard and some very short outside shots. Acting can be considered quite well if they were on the stage of the theater, in front of the audience. But the acting is much more dramatic than it should. One might say it's epic, but I could not see where the saga is.

So, our directors are so keen to shot sagas and tales but before that they ought to learn how to tell a story on the big screen in a solid manner. But of course, they need to have a solid story and scenario beforehand.