Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

PASSED BY CENSOR / GÖRÜLMÜSTÜR (2019)

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.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Check it out FREE on modestly advertiser supported TUBI.

No comments: