A Long Story

Osman Sınav's 2012 film adapts Mustafa Kutlu's story of the same name. Beginning at a railway station and ending at one, it tells through a child's eyes the journey of a man forced to keep moving because of his political views, and of his family. In each town the father sets up a business, becomes known, and then has to leave again. At the centre is a question of belonging: for the child of a family that keeps moving, no such thing as a home town ever forms. The father played by Kenan İmirzalıoğlu is drawn not as a hero but as a man whose stubbornness is paid for by his family. The use of Anatolian landscape is sometimes over-decorated. The plainness of Kutlu's prose slides at times into melodrama on screen. Who it's for: viewers interested in Turkish literary adaptations and period storytelling. Who it's not for: anyone wanting the political context stated more openly, or who will find the melodrama excessive.