Behzat Ç.: I Buried You in My Heart

In Ankara, relatives of retired police officers are being killed. The murders resemble one another and what they have in common is not the victims' past but their relatives'. When Behzat opens the file he finds the retired officers' records have been erased. Somebody inside the institution does not want that past opened. The subject is not a serial killer but an institution able to destroy its own records. Behzat is dealing with two sides at once: the person committing the murders and the superiors trying to close the file. What the series has said from the start continues here; the real obstacle comes from inside, not outside. The form is familiar from the show but slightly widened for cinema. Ankara in winter, long scenes in cars and clipped speech are the same; the framing and the night work are more ambitious than television. The source is Emrah Serbes's novel Son Hafriyat. Serbes wrote the series and his books supplied its material, and this film rests on one of them. It is the first Behzat Ç. feature and was released on 28 October 2011 while the show was still on air. Erdal Beşikçioğlu plays Behzat. Serdar Akar directs. Who it is for: viewers who have watched the series and like Turkish crime drama. Who it is not for: anyone entering here; the characters are not introduced and the relationships are assumed.