Ulak (2008)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Çagan Irmak

Writer:

Çagan Irmak (writer)

Release Date:

25 January 2008 (Turkey)

Cast

Melis Birkan	...	Emine
Feride Çetin
Yetkin Dikinciler
Hümeyra
Cemal Hunal	...	Ulak Ibrahim
Serif Sezer	...	Esma
Çetin Tekindor	...	Zekeriya
Omer Husnu Turat	...	Musa
Atakan Yagiz	...	Ferhat

Also Known As:

The Messenger (International: English title)

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

Turkey

Language:

Turkish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Filming Locations:

Ayvalik, Turkey

Company:

Avsar Film

Why and why?

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.