Dragon Trap

Bodies are being found in Istanbul. What the dead have in common is this: all were convicted of abusing children and released under an amnesty. Abbas from the murder squad and his chief Celal take the case. The evidence points to Ensar, a man just back from military service. As the investigation proceeds the two policemen's own pasts come into it and who did what grows unclear. Uğur Yücel directs and plays Abbas. Kenan İmirzalıoğlu plays Celal and Nejat İşler plays Ensar, with Berrak Tüzünataç, Ceyda Düvenci and Sırrı Süreyya Önder in the cast. The question is whether punishment answers anything. The narrative does not vindicate the killer and does not defend the order it sets against him either; the argument about the amnesty is directly its ground. Uğur Yücel is known as an actor and this is his second film as a director. The visual language is dark and the city is deliberately shown as cold; Istanbul carries no picturesque image. Nejat İşler's performance was the most discussed thing about it. Its limit is structure; the balance between the crime plot and the character strands does not hold everywhere, and the ending leans on a section of explanation. Who it is for: viewers who follow Turkish crime films and hard drama. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the violence is direct, and the narrative scatters in the second half.