Beyond the Hill

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.

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.

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.

Emin Alper's Beyond the Hill is a master class in film making and in particular the use of sound in movies. With a soundtrack composed of only natural sounds found in nature and without any music (except at the very last scene) Alper manages to build unbearable tension.

A small landowner has punished some people living beyond a hill whose goats were grazing in his land by taking one of their goats and killing it to make a feast for his son and grand sons who are visiting him. Will those people now take revenge and what form would that be? From the moment the landowner's family arrive Alper builds up the tension expertly and manages to maintain this tension throughout the film.

In the Q&A after the screening Alper confirmed that his film is a political allegory about Turkey and its neighbors. In parts it is reminiscent of Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and clearly Emin Alper is a name to watch out for.

I was lucky enough to catch this at this years International Berlin Festival. The director was realistic about the eventual outcome of the movie I suppose, but still the fact he made this movie is something that should be celebrated. It's a really remarkable movie, with standout performances by the cast. And while it does revolve around violence, none is actually really shown.

Which makes the whole thing even more intriguing and more arresting at the same time. Human interactions are the main course, with our instincts, drives and fears being dissected very slowly and for all to see. You can see things coming, but it seems to be impossible to stop them. It's in our nature. While this is a pessimistic view of things (or at least my interpretation of it), this is an amazing movie, that I cannot recommend highly enough!