Innocence

Turkish filmmaker Zeki Demirkubuz exploded onto the international scene with this extraordinary sophomore feature which won him a legion of admirers, and detractors, across Turkey as well as top prizes at the Antalya Golden Orange and Adana Golden Boll International Film Festivals and inspired a prequel a decade on.

Güven Kiraç puts in a wonderfully nuanced performance as the painfully lost sole at the centre of this narrative with powerful support from Derya Alabora and Haluk Bilginer, who both won Golden Orange awards for their performances, and the young Melis Tuna who gives a pitch perfect debut performance.

The contemporary director has a curious fascination with the sort of characters so often sidelined by Turkish filmmakers eager to show their country at its best and this comes through in his use of language, somewhat lost in subtitle translation, and the carefully woven back-story, which inspired a prequel, that drive this compelling film forward.

Let's get out of this place.

You can see and feel life throughout the film with the help of players. All three have their choices for life, which they can fight for. And their choices bring them together in a strange world. Absolutely a wonderful story about pure feelings and life.

Probably one of the most depressing and strongest movie ever. But very enchanting scenario and poetic expression. That's where unrequited love would drift the man's life to rueful & how a man could have turned to be totally loser. Even for Haluk Bilginer's tirade-like dialog only , while sitting on the grass field at 42 min., it'd worth to watch. Theatrical acts, deeply heart-touching theme. Don't miss it. 9 of 10. After 6 years of this movie, director Zeki Demirkubuz, deeply impressed by Dostoyevski and Albert Camus' works, has directed a movie named Kader 'Fate' on 2006 which expresses the beginning of the story..I suggest you to watch both movie in a row..

Innocence is a different Turkish film as it does not rely much on a visual style which is found in other Turkish films which have made their mark on international film festival scene. In this film, director Zeki Demirkubuz has filmed the tragic lives of ordinary people who don't have much left in their midst to improve their situation. In cinema, it is often shown that a character X leaves a place Y in order to go to Z. It is Yusuf, a main protagonist who experiences something similar as he is not able to finish his journey. However, he does not feel disappointed as he gets to learn that he has been useful to some people in his life. Innocence starts with a very unusual request made by an innocent man who has been released from prison. It is from that moment that the film creates its impact by depicting how Yusuf's life would change when he is going to come across vulnerable characters from small Turkish towns where life seems to have stopped for good. Lastly, viewers get to learn that Zeki Demirkubuz takes his cinema seriously as his film is a nice tribute to richness of Turkish cinema which is welcomed by this film's different characters when they sit quietly to watch classics of Turkish cinema on television.

Demirkubuz seems like being aware of the place of gates in life. We all open and close many doors throughout our lives. 'Masumiyet' begins with an appearance of the manager's gate and we see Guven Kirac who offers a satisfactory performance. And 'Kader' is closed with a half-open door where Bekir grasps that 'this is his destiny'. It is impossible for Bekir to close the door opened by Ugur on the day at the carpet store.

The audience may capture many details based on 'gates'. Now I want to talk about the spectacular preaching of Ugur with which she takes our breath for a while. At the motel room, Ugur warns Yusuf about the destiny waiting for him. But as Bekir does, Yusuf ignores this warning because he is already taken over by love.

See this movie, then 'Kader' (or the reverse if you like a chronological telling).