Autumn - Sonbahar

I think Autumn-Sonbahar is the first genuinely Turkish film that I've watched (all the other ones were the German Turkish films by Fatih Akin).
I have to acknowledge that it didn't live up to my initial expectations. I'd read an interesting review that made me think of a more social, political story. There's a political component, but a soft one, as the whole film itself. What I mean with a "soft film" is that it's pretty slow, with very few dialogs, and with an a linear plot.

Yes, all this said, it could seem like I would not recommend this film, but in fact I do, at least if you're into finding out how this world works, breaths and stinks.
It opens a small window (sure the 90 minutes of filming could have been leveraged better to show a more complete picture) to an area of this planet that may be pretty unknown to many of us.

• Did you know that there are left wing political prisoners in Turkey?


• Did you know that after the fall of the Eastern Block, the economical situation of most of the former Soviet Republics is such that for some women (I know this is common in rural Ukraine, Moldava...) the best option is working as prostitutes in a country that our little Western brains would tend to consider less wealthy (Turkey)


• Did you know thatNorth East Turkey, on the Black Sea coast, is an stunning area with very heavy rainfall and mountains rising above 3000 meters rather close to the sea? Yes, if you live in Green "Spain", sure it rings a bell. In fact, in this area you can find Hórreos that are terribly similar to Asturian ones.

Just those things aforementioned are enough to make this film an interesting way to spend your time before going to sleep. Moreover, there are some additional points that sure I'll remember from this film:

• The absence of sex. I mean, a story about a prostitute... well, in a Western film you would expect all sort of nudity and sex on display. Maybe this is the main cultural difference that we can perceive throughout the film between Western Europe and Turkey, and I'm not judging here, indeed I'm not much sure of which approach to "public sexuality" I prefer. In this "distant" society, a prostitute wears rather more modest than the average teenager here... so the only sex-nudity in the film is a beutiful scene with the two main characters sharing their bed in fetal position.


• The sequence when the beautiful Georgian female character leaves the library after having purchased a book and the owner says "even their hookers are well educated"...


• When the beautiful Georgian woman says to the Turkish idealist "you spent the best years of your life in jail because you wanted socialism, are you crazy?"

Definitely, a rather appropiate film for those that like me have completely lost all their former political ideals... Time devours beauty, idealism and ourselves...