Burning Days

A film set in a town in Anatolia. Emre is appointed prosecutor in Yanıklar. The town has a water problem; as the groundwater is drawn off the earth gives way and sinkholes open. The mayor, Selim, wants to be re-elected and keeps the question of the wells closed. Emre meets a file as soon as he starts and begins asking questions. At first the town receives him well: an invitation to a hunt, a dinner, plenty of drink. Something happens at the end of that night and the next morning everyone tells it differently. Emre is not sure of what he remembers. From there the film becomes a narrative of pressure. His relationship with Murat, who publishes a local paper, becomes a subject of gossip, and the gossip turns into a weapon against him. What the narrative is interested in is not the crime but how a community protects its own order: who is silenced, who is protected, and whom the truth serves. Selahattin Paşalı plays Emre and Ekin Koç plays Murat. Erol Babaoğlu, Selin Yeninci and Hatice Aslan are in the cast. Emin Alper directed. The film was shown in the Un Certain Regard section at the 75th Cannes Film Festival and won the European Film Academy award for best editing. A strong production for anyone who likes political tension and stories of the provinces. Before you watch, know this: the film shows the mechanics of a mob directly and its register is suffocating.