A Night in Four Parts

Ali Kemal Güven's 2022 Turkish film follows two former schoolmates meeting at a table in Beyoğlu after years apart. Emir Can and Yusuf Efe have built different lives; one is married with a child and the other is not. As the night goes on the conversation moves somewhere else. The film proceeds in a single location and almost in real time. The drinking table itself sets the structure; the distant politeness of the opening dissolves and what was never said comes out. The subject is that closeness between men cannot be named. Neither has a language for it, and the film shows that absence as a loss. Ahmet Rıfat Şungar leads. Who it's for: those who like Turkish independent cinema and single-location drama. Who it's not for: viewers waiting for event; the film is a conversation at one table from beginning to end.