Toss-Up

Rıdvan and Cevher did their military service in the southeast. Rıdvan lost a leg in a mine explosion and Cevher an ear. Both return to Istanbul. Rıdvan's family is in Beyoğlu; his father sees him as a shame and the neighbourhood does not know what to do with him. Cevher goes back to his family in Kadıköy, where there is an entirely different reckoning. The two stories run in parallel and the characters never meet again. Uğur Yücel writes and directs in his first film. Kenan İmirzalıoğlu plays Rıdvan and Olgun Şimşek plays Cevher. The subject is not the war but what comes after it. The service is not shown; the narrative begins with men who do not know what to do in civilian life, and the state gives them nothing. It is built in two parts, which is where the title, meaning heads or tails, comes from; they stand as two faces of the same thing. Uğur Yücel was known as an actor and this was his first work as a director; he went on making films afterwards. It opened in Turkey in 2004, won awards at the Antalya Golden Orange festival and was shown at international festivals. The tone is hard and without hope; the narrative gives none of its characters a way out. Who it is for: viewers who like Turkish independent cinema and social realist drama. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the transition between the two strands is abrupt, and the film offers no relief at any point.