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Thursday, November 17, 2022

IKI SAFAK ARASINDA / BETWEEN TWO DAWNS (2021)

From Turkey, a modest but impressive debut for writer/director Selman Nacar.  Deceptively simple, it largely holds to unadorned DOGME filmmaking principles on its story about avoidable & unavoidable consequences after an industrial accident at a textile factory.  You expect a lot of the yin and yang tropes that follow (inevitable accident or possible safety code violations; looking the other way on a rush job at the factory or worker’s fault; a cover up by the owners about equipment problems or a worker with a history of drinking?).  On-going backstories over family relationships come into play, especially for the manager’s kid brother (second son of the plant owner) who’s due that night to formally meet the parents of the woman he’s all but engaged to.   And when he tries to do the right thing by all parties, lies are uncovered and he’ll learn more than he’d like to know about his place in the family hierarchy as ‘second son,’ less backup scion than expendable commodity.  Thoughtfully somber and deliberately paced, you only realize how much has been packed into the straightforward narrative when you look back.  Impressive stuff.  Perfectly cast; dismayingly believable.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK/SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Technically & structurally, Nacar has a lot of Asghar Farhadi in his cinematic DNA.  Best known for A SEPARATION/’11, try his excellent followup, THE PAST/’14.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/11/le-passe-past-2014.html   Thematically, it’s more what James Gray (WE OWN THE NIGHT/’07; THE YARDS/’00) thinks he’s doing.

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