Beyond the Hill

As the debut feature of Emin Alper's dense, dominant, and politically charged cinema, Beyond the Hill is a carefully crafted film that is well-directed for a first effort, even if it bears a few production shortcomings. Sharing thematic parallels with the director's later works (excluding A Tale of Three Sisters), the film portrays how the order of a farmer and his family is disturbed by an unseen "other." The enemy, in truth, does not reside within their home, but is a paranoid specter they imagine waiting "beyond the hill."

The second act feels a little rushed; had the film been given more time to breathe and the finale handled with greater restraint, its cohesion might have been even stronger. The uneasy atmosphere of the steppe and the occasional use of horror elements add a distinctive flavor to the film.

With Beyond the Hill, Alper makes a confident debut that lays the groundwork for both his recurring themes and his cinematic language, a clear sign of the tone his later films would carry.

It is an interesting movie that shows very well how Turkish people feel to live in this land. I think this is because of the education system, politicians and media in Turkey. They want us to have fears for "those people beyond the hill". They want us to hate "those people beyond the hill". They want us to kill "those people beyond the hill". Of course this is a generalization but it fits for a lot of people who lives in Turkey.

I don't agree with people who thinks that this movie is slow or boring. (If you want, you can always watch an action movie or something.) It helps you to think what is next, but you never know everything at the moment.

Set in a wild, isolated landscape, TEPENIN ARDI tells a simple tale of a warring family trying to sustain a rural existence yet perpetually threatened by the presence of nomads "beyond the hill" (hence the film's title). I learn from one of the other reviews that director Emin Alper describes the film as an allegory of the contemporary Republic of Turkey and its fear of invasion from (unidentified) neighbors. If this is the case, then I would also observe that, internally speaking, the Republic is in dire straits. The family in this film seem incapable of relating to one another: patriarch Faik (Tamer Levent) believes that son Nusret (Reha Ozcan) had been a failure, while Mehmet (Mehmet Ozgur) reluctantly acquiesces to Faik's orders. Youngster Zafer (Berk Hakman) is tormented by dreams; and frequently goes off on his own, while Meryem (Banu Fotocan) fetches and carries for everyone. Alper's film seems more interested in depicting internal strife rather than being concerned with outside threats. While the film has plenty to say in thematic terms, its cinematic style is wearyingly evocative of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, with plenty of long shots (and characters moving side to side within the frame, rendering it a very flat piece of work), minimal soundtrack and few direct close-ups on the actors. Although only ninety minutes long, the narrative comes to a virtual standstill on occasions.

An allegorical Turkish drama where a retired forester and his visiting family become increasingly paranoid about unseen nomads "beyond the hill," revealing tensions and the creation of an "enemy".

An overrated movie. Even if there is a political message about making enemy within the movie, I could not see more than that. A cheap production and not enjoyable to watch.

The film tells usabout the creation of enemies and by the way this is excatly how politicians make enemies. And then people start believing that there is an enemy and they canalize all their hatred to there. Modern societies need that. Just turn on your TV and look at the news all the politicians have someone to hate. and they make people hate them too.