Seaburners ein Film von Melisa Önel mit Mira Furlan, Timuçin Esen. Inhaltsangabe: Hamit wohnt in einem armen Dorf nahe Istanbul. Jeden Tag pendelt er. Seaburners Trailer. Ein Film von Melisa Önel mit Hakan Karsak, Mira Furlan, Timuçin Esen, Selen Uçer, Sanem Oge, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Uzunyilmaz Ali und Edanur Tekin.
Eine winterlich raue Szenerie an der türkischen Schwarzmeerküste. Denise, eine Botanikerin aus dem Ausland, hat es zu Forschungszwecken hierher verschlagen.
Feride Çiçekoğlu
Stoisch stapft sie durch kniehohes Wasser zu dem abgelegenen Ort, an dem sie lokale Pflanzen züchtet. Genauso unbeirrt und furchtlos sucht sie nachts die einsam gelegene Hütte auf, in der sie sich mit ihrem Liebhaber Hamit trifft. Der ist ein Habenichts, den lediglich ein gescheiterter Versuch, eine Existenz im Ausland aufzubauen, in dieser desolaten Gegend hält. Und die Beziehung zu Denise. Ein Dilemma – denn Hamit muss vor ihr verbergen, dass er als Menschenschmuggler davon lebt, anderen zur Flucht nach Europa zu verhelfen; Denise jedoch ist sein rätselhaftes Verhalten leid. Als sie in ihre Heimat zurückbeordert wird und ein Auftrag Hamits aus dem Ruder läuft, trifft er eine Entscheidung, die in einer Katastrophe endet.
Elliptisch und nicht linear erzählt, belässt Melisa Önels eindringliches Debüt vieles im Dunklen – im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes. Den beeindruckenden, düsteren Bildern entspricht eine wenig hoffnungsvolle und solidarische Welt, in der ein innerer Zustand der Unbehaustheit vorherrscht.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014) Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is like a lovely film from the silent era, superbly crafted with today’s technology. Not that the film lacks a wonderful musical score or witty dialogue (there is plenty of both), but its narrative logic is reminiscent of classics from the pre-sound period. That is to say, some characters are distinctive figures with strong physical presence (they can be thought of as cartoon characters in the best sense of the word) even if they are not fully developed individuals, and the fast-paced story is told in a highly visual manner. Anderson is well-known for the exquisite (and sometimes exhausting) design of his films and The Grand Budapest Hotel is no exception; all the memorable scenes are skillfully choreographed, with impressive attention spent on even the most minute details. While thematic concerns seem secondary, it is easy to note that Anderson is very fond of the graceful old times.
Erdem Helvacioğlu
Melisa Önel
The story is framed by multiple narrators, each going further back in time to tell us the (mis)adventures that occur more than eighty years ago. The sadness caused by the passing of time and a desire to return to the beloved past are also conveyed through a series of cinematic references, with the ones to Ernst Lubitsch being chief among them.
In fact, the film’s relentless pace and chaotic humor somehow work against it in this regard. Anderson does not attempt to create (or sustain) the strong sense of melancholy his themes demand. That is also because the jokes get surprisingly violent (even gory) at times, diminishing the overall elegance of the film a bit. But the film’s sheer creativeness, its ambitious mise-en-scène, and the joyful-yet-sad tone of the story more than make up for these minor issues.
Jack (Edward Berger, 2014) The work of the Dardenne Brothers will definitely be mentioned by many when talking about Jack, Edward Berger’s sensitive and kinetic competition entry in Berlin. Not only because the film follows its protagonist very closely with a hand-held camera and presents a socially conscious character portrait with unexpected intimacy, but also because it is structured much like an action film. What I mean by action here is the physicality and urgency of the filmmaking rather than a large-scale, fast-paced spectacle. When Jack is trying to find his loving but irresponsible mother, he runs around the whole city, survives a dangerous attack in a forest, breaks into car parks to find shelter and does many other physically demanding things of a similar nature. That is a particularly important point because the film plays out as an unsentimental tale of survival as opposed to a too-emotional or exploitative take on familial ties. With amazing performances enhancing the sense of realism, Jack never becomes melodramatic or sentimental thanks to its focus on its leading character’s efforts to keep going rather than his obvious struggles. Berger’s film lacks the precision that distinguishes the work of the Dardenne Brothers: Jack gets repetitive at times and could have benefitted from tighter editing.