Lawbolisted Powerful

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

lepetitemre *** This review may contain spoilers ***Winner of the prestigious Golden Bear at the 1964 Berlin International Film Festival, Metin Erksan's wallop of a melodrama follows the machinations of an independently selfish tobacco farmer who builds a dam to prevent water from flowing downhill to his neighbors' crops. Alongside this tale of soul-devouring competition is one of overheated desire, as a love triangle develops between the farmer, his more decent brother, and the beautiful villager the latter takes as his bride. A benchmark of Turkish cinema, this is a visceral, informatively shot and vibrantly acted depiction of the horrors of greed.

zetes A Turkish classic, but, I must say, I kind of hated it. It's obnoxiously loud, with every line being shouted or screamed, and the characters are either hopelessly dumb or mustache-twirlingly evil (literally: the villain twirls his mustache). The story concerns two brothers, Osman and Hasan, who own a primo piece of land with a natural spring flowing from it. The spring, which flows down to other farms, has always been a communal water source, but Osman, the elder brother, figures that he can become the most powerful landowner around if he dams it up and keeps it all for himself. Hasan objects, but, being the younger sibling (he seems to be in maybe his late 20s at the youngest, with his brother a good decade older maybe), he goes along with it. Early in the film, Hasan becomes a newlywed, marrying Bahar. Osman is a widower, and he takes an unhealthy interest in Bahar. After a tragic encounter with some rebellious neighbors, Osman convinces Hasan to take the jail sentence for him. Up to this point I can see that, yeah, in this culture the younger brother might defer to the elder in most cases, but it strikes me as unbelievable that Hasan, who, in any real world scenario, had to have noticed his brother making eyes at his wife, would agree to leave her alone with him for years at a time. The whole movie just bugged me on a couple of levels. The cinematography was really nice.

fgfbach before i watched, I had not expected such a gripping and fascinating film, i think its because we all (Turks) are used to watching funny village films with full of comedy where we burst into laugh even one kills another but this film shows us the dark side of village people with their great will to stay alive while trying to get the water (or any other) they need for their districts. usually village people (still, but especially in 1960s) are supposed to be uneducated and carrying gun with them in case there's an attack from other village people, in that case we should not be criticizing why the man does not agree to give water to all his neighbours, its very normal if we consider not everyone has the same brain cells, that is as normal as why there was world wars before. We cannot ask why for this film and for these times because simply there are no rules and the most brave with a gun in hand may grab all and dominate all. I have 2 things in mind, the musics are very interesting, because if there is no action you hear traditional Turkish tunes, with "saz" (a stringed Turkish instrument) but when there is action, you hear something like Bach with harpiscord, that is realllyyy interesting for me to hear this instrument in a Turkish Village film :)) the second thing is that was it necessary to kill those animals ? i think no, the director (metin erksan) could have made it possible easily if he wanted to. Anyway, its a must watch film, not only because it won the first golden bear from Turkey, but, also because probably it deserved. you might like the film very much or you might hate i don't know, but you will not get bored that's a guarantee... (try the new edited version in u-tube, its really great and as if it was shot 10 years ago)

Polaris_DiB Make no mistake about it--in the foreseeable future, this story will be reenacted on the global scale. The War over Water is coming, probably in the next couple of generations.That said, the analogy may not exactly match in terms of how it proceed, partly because I fail to see why the younger brother actually listened to his elder after he (the elder) proved to be completely insane and power hungry and was obviously a lech from frame one. But perhaps the Turkish family operates so strictly in general, I have to admit I know little about their culture.In the meantime, be prepared for a descent into insanity as things go quickly, quickly awry--and the camera angles with it. There's some beautiful imagery and set-ups here that send the themes into way more effectiveness than the actual character motivations do.--PolarisDiB