The Breath

There is a relay station high in the mountains of the southeast. A small unit is sent there to guard it. The surroundings are empty, the nearest settlement far off, and communication poor. The soldiers spend their days waiting: watch, meals, the radio and talk among themselves. At a certain point it becomes clear that an attack on the station is being prepared. Reinforcement is far away and will take time. What is left is the position and the ammunition. Levent Semerci directs. Mete Horozoğlu and İlker Kızmaz are in the cast. The second half is given almost entirely to a single engagement and proceeds close to real time. The combat scenes rest on explosives and sound design; a battle sequence on this scale had rarely been attempted in Turkish cinema until then. The narrative builds no political frame; the subject is directly what the unit went through that night. The first half is given to introducing the soldiers and stays inside a formula. It was a large commercial success in Turkey and among the most watched domestic films of the period. Its limit is point of view; the narrative is built from one side and the other side is not given a face. Who it is for: people who watch war films and technically dense combat sequences. Who it is not for: the violence is explicit and continuous, the characters are types, and the narrative is emotionally directive.