Known for Acting
A triptych of literary adaptations explores past, present and future in rural Turkey. “Düne Özlem” (from Hulki Aktunç’s Bir Yergöstericinin Hayatı): A once-famed traveling critic returns after years to the cinema that launched his career—and finds it unrecognizably transformed. “Bugüne Özlem” (from Kemal Tahir’s Arabacı): A horse-drawn cart driver picks up two stranger women en route to a village—unaware they intend to marry him off to their spinster relative. “Yarına Özlem” (from Zeyyat Selimoğlu’s Bıldırcınlar): An old captain haunted by a fatal shipwreck readies quail-hunting with his grandson, even as his daughter-in-law waits in vain for her migrant husband to return from Germany. Each segment poignantly probes longing— for what was, what is, and what might yet come.
A contractor from the countryside who rises to become mayor is drawn into a conflict with his election advisor, with whom he is having an affair.
The police question Cemile, a young girl who was taken to the hospital with injuries and found to have alcohol and drugs in her blood, as well as evidence of rape, but they do not believe her. There is insufficient evidence and no witnesses. The person who reported the incident is nowhere to be found, and Cemile is accused of prostitution. Prosecutor Yalçın shares the same opinion as Commissioner Mahmut. Everyone who attended the party at the house where the incident took place and where Cemile went with her fiancé Sedat is questioned. They all say that Cemile came of her own free will. Cemile identifies them, but due to lack of evidence, all suspects are released.