The Mountain

Oguz, from Istanbul, chooses to serve although he could have paid the exemption, and Bedir, a difficult soldier constantly at odds with his commanders, end up in the same unit. When a small team sent to repair a communications antenna walks into an ambush, the film becomes a survival story. Alper Caglar shot it for an extremely small sum, in the region of one hundred and seventy thousand lira, and it became a reference point for the limits of independent production in Turkey. The technical constraint shows in the image, while the care taken over military detail sets it apart. Its sequel became a far larger box office success. Who it is for: viewers curious about Turkish war cinema and low-budget independent production. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the political context to be argued, since the film keeps everything inside the unit.