Sister Fahriye

In 1940s Istanbul, Fahriye, admired from a distance by every child in the neighbourhood, lives unseen. Muhsin, the young man across the street, is in love with her; she chooses someone else and marries. Marriage cuts her off from the neighbourhood, and when she returns everything has changed. The film is not interested in love. It is interested in the gaze a neighbourhood fixes on a woman: whatever Fahriye does, she is looked at first and talked about after, and the verdict always belongs to others. Her inability to make her own voice heard is placed at the centre. The form is period production: old Istanbul streets, wooden houses, children's games and 1940s dress. The camera keeps its distance and stays gentle. Yavuz Turgul directed. The starting point is Ahmet Muhip Dıranas's poem of the same name, and the film opens the poem's neighbourhood image out into a drama. Müjde Ar plays Fahriye, in one of the most remembered roles of her career. Who it is for: viewers who like Turkish period films of the eighties and Müjde Ar. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a fast-moving story. The film is slow and most of its secondary characters amount to a single trait.