This one falls into that darker corner of gay cinema. There was real potential buried in here, but the execution feels so flat that at points it plays out more like a filmed stage play than an actual movie. It's a dark psychological drama built around a street hustler confessing to a brutal, confusing murder of his own lover. Black and white flashback sequences do a solid job laying out the details of what happened, but the real focus stays on the dialogue and the writing itself. Right at the start, a young hustler has already killed his male lover Claude. Three days go by before he calls the police to turn himself in for the murder. But instead of just reporting it somewhere ordinary, he actually summons the police and the local press directly into a judge's private chambers. Yves has keys to the place, which tracks given what he does for a living, but having the press waiting right outside makes the whole scene look like some elaborate blackmail scheme against the judge. The ...
Sinan & Selma are a couple, who are happy on surface. She is a doctor treating refugees and he works in a shipping industry undergoing major changes. Their son, teenage 17 year old Umut, is a intelligent and loves water polo hoping to get scholarship out of it to go to US for further studies. We are clearly not told but both parents are probably having affairs, they are both indifferent to one another but its their son Umut that keeps them together. One day Umut comes to help a young boy being bullied and beaten up. One of his teammate takes a photo of the moment compassionate Umut is comforting the young man, cradling his face. It looks as if the two will kiss. Rumours soon swirl around the pool. And every time he is asked if he is gay, he blankly refuses to answer saying it I son one's business. He refuses to dignify the question with an answer. Before you know Umut is ostracised. The torment and harassment get worse, turning physical in the pool. Our protagonist receives abusive texts at all hours and is pushed into the deep end mentally. One day he disappears and more than two weeks later, the parents and team mates still don't know what came of Umut.
The is a very subtle yet a very emotional and sensitive story. You are immediately drawn into lives of these three people and it feels as if you are a viewer to someone's real life unfolding in front of you. Its interesting that we are just shown their life in surface. Its none of our business, as an audience , to know whether they are having an affair or not. In fact we can't even say whether Umut is gay or not. The point here is why is it so important for society and the people to label anyone. How and why does it matter of anyone is gay or not gay. Umut is tortured mentally by constant bully but he never gives into the pressure of answering the question. Maybe because he doesn't know it himself. This is not a film for everyone, and as I said before its not strictly an LGBT film, but having said that I think this is a very good film with some beautiful story, acting and direction. The actors are very believable as a family. Go for it, if slow burn sensitive, open ended films are your scene. I quite enjoyed it actually. (7/10)
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