Dry Summer

A village in the Aegean. A spring rises on the land of Osman and his brother Hasan. Osman claims the source is on his ground and cuts the water off; the fields of the villagers below dry out. The village objects, a case is brought, and Osman wins. Hasan is uneasy about it but cannot stand against his brother. Hasan is newly married and happy with his wife Bahar. A man dies in a fight and Osman tells his brother to take the blame. Hasan goes to prison. Osman is left behind, and after a while he tells Bahar that his brother has died. Metin Erksan directs. Erol Taş plays Osman, Ulvi Doğan plays Hasan and Hülya Koçyiğit plays Bahar. The source is Necati Cumalı's story. It is a Turkish production. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1964; it was the first Turkish film to take the top prize at a major international festival. Getting it out of the country was not straightforward; because of censorship and official obstacles a print was taken abroad and reached the festival that way. It was Hülya Koçyiğit's first film. The matter it treats is property; water, land and a woman are spoken of in the same language inside the narrative, and the film does that deliberately. The character Erol Taş plays is among the most cited roles in Turkish cinema. The photography and the parched landscape work inside the narrative; the drought is a mechanism rather than a background. Its limit is the watching; the narrative is hard, the woman's position heavy, and the ending merciless. Who it is for: viewers who like the classics of Turkish cinema and social realist drama. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, some scenes uncomfortable, and there is no hope.