Sacrificing the Self

Review on Semih Kaplanoglu’s ‘Yumurta’

A film structured on a loose storyline that has a running time of an hour and a half does not appear to offer much by way of a spellbinding cinematic effect. Yes, we want frames to get married to one another and lead a logical narrative life from the moment a film starts to the moment it dissolves. In the theatre, we are all Aristotelian subjects waiting for the moment when our intense and complex emotions are purged out to achieve spectators’ orgasm nicknamed catharsis. But trying his best to release the philosophy of his filmmaking from the clutches of the standard Aristotelian framework, Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu relies more on exploiting the cinematic possibility of time than on whirling us around a logical plot.

As for most spectators, time having been spent in the theatre is the time passed. But for Kaplanoglu, time is so sacred that it is not supposed to be ‘pass’ively spent. He says: ‘I would like to mention the concept of time which differentiates our civilization from others and proves to be essential for cinema. Time is something that gives us the opportunity to meet the Almighty God five times a day, thus testifies for us. Isn’t it also true that time is either a part of the divinity and infinity? Our time is not limited with this world. Our time is coming from the Lord and will return to Him. How much our perception and imagination is reflected on the silver screen? How much accurate or truthful it could be even if the film language established on a western perception of time tries to tell our stories? One of the identifying features of our films is the time concept they create which also makes the abovementioned divine opportunities felt. We need to contemplate on it, I believe.’ (Interview with Semih Kaplanoglu, http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/02/07/semih-kaplanog…).

Kaplanoglu’s Yusuf trilogy such as ‘Yumurta (Egg), Sut (Milk) and Bal (Honey) is a telling example of packing frames so as to create space for spectators to contemplate, not just watch.

In Yumurta Yusuf (See credit n cast below), whose presence weaves the narrative structure of all films in the trilogy, comes back to his village to take part in his mother’s funeral. He is a revered poet and is settled in the city. He comes back to the awareness that his mother had tided over her loneliness with the love and care of Ayela, a young relative of theirs. Yusuf does not have so many of his childhood memories left with him that he even does not correctly identify Ayela at first sight. Ayela tells him that before she dies; his mother informed her that Ysusuf should make a sacrifice for her. The film does not tell, but it rather prompts us to discover, what this sacrifice is meant for. At first, Yusuf’s reaction to his mother’s wish was indifference bordering a tad on refusal. But Ayla insists. Despite his desire to go back to the city sooner or later, Yusuf decides to become obliged to his departed mother.

The film is all about how Yusuf’s reluctant and modernized urban self finds tune and rhythm in his own abandoned self, aided by Ayla and her humble, easy-going pace of life. By portraying her as a student who wants to come through her exam and to migrate to one of the cities for further education-much to her lover’s dismay, Ayla reveals herself to us what Yusuf has been. Yusuf appears more or less a type. The pace of an enticing consumer culture, of which education itself is a part, is such that it is the sought-after destination. And Yusuf is someone who had already reached that destination. But in a rare-from the spectators’ perspective-but deft-from the director’s viewpoint-meeting of circumstances, the two Turkish selves meet and silently discourse on what they are.

Does the sacrifice in the movie mean Yusuf’s own sacrifice of his former self? Is that the answer of the question that Yusuf asks towards the end?

Credit n cast

Directed by: Semih Kaplanoglu
Produced by: Semih Kaplanoglu(producer) Lilette Botasi(associate producer)

Review on Semih Kaplanoglu’s ‘Yumurta’

A film structured on a loose storyline that has a running time of an hour and a half does not appear to offer much by way of a spellbinding cinematic effect. Yes, we want frames to get married to one another and lead a logical narrative life from the moment a film starts to the moment it dissolves. In the theatre, we are all Aristotelian subjects waiting for the moment when our intense and complex emotions are purged out to achieve spectators’ orgasm nicknamed catharsis. But trying his best to release the philosophy of his filmmaking from the clutches of the standard Aristotelian framework, Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu relies more on exploiting the cinematic possibility of time than on whirling us around a logical plot.

As for most spectators, time having been spent in the theatre is the time passed. But for Kaplanoglu, time is so sacred that it is not supposed to be ‘pass’ively spent. He says: ‘I would like to mention the concept of time which differentiates our civilization from others and proves to be essential for cinema. Time is something that gives us the opportunity to meet the Almighty God five times a day, thus testifies for us. Isn’t it also true that time is either a part of the divinity and infinity? Our time is not limited with this world. Our time is coming from the Lord and will return to Him. How much our perception and imagination is reflected on the silver screen? How much accurate or truthful it could be even if the film language established on a western perception of time tries to tell our stories? One of the identifying features of our films is the time concept they create which also makes the abovementioned divine opportunities felt. We need to contemplate on it, I believe.’ (Interview with Semih Kaplanoglu, http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/02/07/semih-kaplanog…).

Kaplanoglu’s Yusuf trilogy such as ‘Yumurta (Egg), Sut (Milk) and Bal (Honey) is a telling example of packing frames so as to create space for spectators to contemplate, not just watch.

In Yumurta Yusuf (See credit n cast below), whose presence weaves the narrative structure of all films in the trilogy, comes back to his village to take part in his mother’s funeral. He is a revered poet and is settled in the city. He comes back to the awareness that his mother had tided over her loneliness with the love and care of Ayela, a young relative of theirs. Yusuf does not have so many of his childhood memories left with him that he even does not correctly identify Ayela at first sight. Ayela tells him that before she dies; his mother informed her that Ysusuf should make a sacrifice for her. The film does not tell, but it rather prompts us to discover, what this sacrifice is meant for. At first, Yusuf’s reaction to his mother’s wish was indifference bordering a tad on refusal. But Ayla insists. Despite his desire to go back to the city sooner or later, Yusuf decides to become obliged to his departed mother.

The film is all about how Yusuf’s reluctant and modernized urban self finds tune and rhythm in his own abandoned self, aided by Ayla and her humble, easy-going pace of life. By portraying her as a student who wants to come through her exam and to migrate to one of the cities for further education-much to her lover’s dismay, Ayla reveals herself to us what Yusuf has been. Yusuf appears more or less a type. The pace of an enticing consumer culture, of which education itself is a part, is such that it is the sought-after destination. And Yusuf is someone who had already reached that destination. But in a rare-from the spectators’ perspective-but deft-from the director’s viewpoint-meeting of circumstances, the two Turkish selves meet and silently discourse on what they are.

Does the sacrifice in the movie mean Yusuf’s own sacrifice of his former self? Is that the answer of the question that Yusuf asks towards the end?

Credit n cast

Directed by: Semih Kaplanoglu
Produced by: Semih Kaplanoglu(producer) Lilette Botasi(associate producer)
Writing credits: Semih Kaplanoglu, Orçun Köksal  
Main Cast: Nejat Isler (Yusuf), Saadet Aksoy (Ayla)

: Semih Kaplanoglu, Orçun Köksal  
Main Cast: Nejat Isler (Yusuf), Saadet Aksoy (Ayla)

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