The Announcement

Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun's film takes place in the last days of May 1963. Four former soldiers purged from the army are assigned to the Istanbul side of a coup attempt beginning that night in Ankara: they are to read the declaration on Istanbul Radio. The film does not tell the coup as an action picture. The four men wander through the night, wait, go to the wrong place and manage nothing on time. The narrative leaves the fact that history could be made on a night this inept somewhere between comedy and tragedy. The screenplay was written with Ercan Kesal. The cinematography consists almost entirely of static shots; the camera does not enter the event but watches from a distance. The film won the special jury prize in the Horizons section at Venice. Who it's for: those who like Turkish independent cinema and measured formal work. Who it's not for: viewers without the historical background; the film uses the 1963 attempt without explaining it.