I watched Uzak İhtimal (Wrong Rosary) yesterday. It is the first feature of Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun and I think that it really deserves good criticism. Actually, I liked it since I’m an emotional one and I liked to see different kind of naïve love stories as a narrative. To feel naivety of love always makes me think deeper for the existence of love especially if there is any kind of spirituality in it. Anyway, here is the plot of it for who doesn’t know: Musa, coming from Beypazarı, is a muezzin at a mosque in İstanbul; he moves to apartment where Clara, the Catholic Nurse, leaves in. Musa also works for bibliopole Yakup and he falls in love with Clara. Then, new dynamics are learned and suprises arise. Yes, like you see nothing special for this story and also there are clichés. There are a man and a woman who lead to story. It is a naïve, simple and average unfinished love story. Thus, the preferred meaning (if it exists) can be this: A Muslim man falls in love with a Catholic woman. (Yes, it can be radical for some “others”) There can be other meanings and the movie can be analyzes from other aspects by considering what kind of person Musa is. How is it possible to save from (pre)judges and then fall in love with a Catholic? Or, is the love just about to be man and woman and their (luckily) encountering in any single moment? Or, is it their destiny and does God examine them in order to see their attitudes toward their encountering? Or, we can ask that should religion keep people out of humanitarian love? Since some regards religion as a thing that whatever meaning they add in, they can ask: if Musa is a “real” Muslim how is it possible to ignore the women’s religion that he falls in love with? (but can we label people like they are “real” Muslim or not?)
Anyway, the questions can be increased. What I’d like talk about is technical side of this movie. At first, I really thank to Nuri Bilge Ceylan, I really don’t know what we would do without him… Thanks to him since he is the one leading to Turkish Cinema. Yes, Semih Kaplanoğlu, Reha Erdem, Zeki Demirkubuz, Yeşim Ustaoğlu and all other best do exist even Ceylan doesn’t exist… But he breaks new ground for real. In recent times, whatever I perceive/watch/see like I watch a shot from Ceylan. People imitate him. Thus, after this kind of pampering of him (as a matter of fact, I don’t think he needs it, but anyway) I’d like to pass Uzak İhtimal to compare its some parts with Ceylan and others.
The first familiar shot that I know its technique from Nuri Bilge is that voice comes from next shot but we still see the present shot, or namely there is contrast between audio and image. Consider İklimler, when we saw İsa and Bahar on the beach, there was a moment that Isa was talking with himself about their separation and we see Bahar’s swimming but then when he continued to talk, we were aware that Bahar has came and she has already been there when Isa lied back. However, in İklimler, that audio and image contrast (I don’t know how it is called) is really adorable and it is different from the one in Uzak İhtimal. However, in Uzak İhtimal we see that the director tries to make this kind of transition from one scene to another. Also, the color of scenes of Uzak İhtimal again reminds me techniques of Ceylan, and yes Uzak İhtimal imitates İklimler in some sense. Yes, it reminds me cinema of Ceylan. That is why I see Nuri Bilge Ceylan effect in Uzak İhtimal.
The second thing about Uzak İhtimal which leads to think us the gaze of Demirkubuz is choice of charecters. As we know that Demirkubuz is a good observer of society, he knows what happens in the lower class of it and he reflects it to his cinema. Thus, when I see Musa’s relationship with the relative of him and aim of Musa’s relative, I think that the men came from Bekir’s territory. (Yes, Bekir in both sense; Bekir in Masumiyet and Kader) I mean the director treats as he is one of the observer of society like Demirkubuz (in reality, the relative of Musa looks like Bekir in Kader)
Also, there is small performance of ablution of Musa, after I see it I really think that the best instance of this ritual was performed by Erkan Can in Takva. However, the protagonist, Musa could stay hard for this performance.
By the way, the movie called “Wrong Rosary” which is Yanlış Tesbih in Turkish. When you see the scene causes this title, you understand why they’ve chosen it; it is so ironic and funny. I congratulate them.
Like we know some expressions of Nuri Bilge, we understand that some films are made for festivals. In addition to that, some films are made by knowing what the jury of festival would like to see. Maybe, Uzak İhtimal is a collage of the late Turkish movie style which brings festival awards and thus that explains why it won awards in Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Maybe, it is better to thank to Tarkovsky and Angelopoulos for being an inspiration to Nuri Bilge. Anyway, if you like to naivety, minimalism, and purity of love (or, as a matter of fact, if you think that the naïve or pure love exists) or regard life as a harmonic unity with its chaos and if you want to see a part of this unity on screen, you can watch Uzak İhtimal.
Also, you can watch it even to see ending part.
Last comment: Since we live in Turkey, we don’t ignore the socio-political issues. If we think from all aspect, I’m sure that we can interpret this movie by saying that “yes, there is a dialogue issue in it”. Turkey becomes a “moderate” religious country like they want. Nonetheless, it is not about film itself, don’t take my comment seriously and enjoy the naivety of love.
It is just stream of thought thanks to space in our blog.
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