Strong debut feature from Turkish writer/director Serhat Karaaslan, a psychological & societal study told thru the eyes of a new prison guard whose duties censoring inmates’ letters (coming and going) leads to obsessive behavior toward the wife of one of the men after he finds a photograph of her in an envelope. Berkay Ates, in an award-winning, quietly off-kilter turn, as transparent in his guilty conscience as a Raskolnikov, is the guard whose initial interest in the wife (the striking Saadet Aksoy) is poised between protection (something truly is wrong in her relationship with her incarcerated husband and at home with her father-in-law) and old-fashioned stalking. Ates even manages to get a nurse he’s met in a writing class and whom he ought to be dating, to accompany him on a bold house visit to confirm suspicions. Social reticence and the trapped wife’s subservient position add frustration to the situation. And when the guard finagles duty to oversee a conjugal visit between prisoners & wives, something’s bound to give. At times, the guard’s naiveté feels a bit of a stretch for someone in his 30s with a bit of grey in his hair, even if he is still living at home with a nosy, overprotective mom; while the relationship with the career-oriented nurse he forces to come with him as he spies on his beloved, needs more attention. But then, Ates’ unusually expressive eyes tell us all that’s missing. Vagaries of film production in Turkey seem to have left Karaaslan stuck making short subjects, but he obviously has a lot more to offer.
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