Inside

A Turkish film set in Ankara. Muharrem is a civil servant at a ministry. In his forties, he lives alone and sees nobody. He looks down on everyone around him, especially his old friends, because they became writers and known while he stayed where he was. A dinner is held to give a prize to one of those old friends. Muharrem is not invited. He decides to go anyway. Nobody at the dinner ignores him; everyone is polite, and that politeness weighs on him more heavily than insult. He drinks, he talks and he breaks the evening apart himself. From there the film follows his night. He goes to a house, meets a woman and turns his own anger on her. The matter at the centre is the wish to be in the right: the man believes he is constantly wronged, and the belief makes him merciless towards everyone. The film does not take his side either. The source is Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, moved to present-day Turkey. Engin Günaydın plays Muharrem. Nergis Öztürk, Serhat Tutumluer and Serdar Orçin are in the cast. Zeki Demirkubuz directed. A strong production for anyone who likes contemporary Turkish cinema and literary adaptation. Before you watch, know this: the film carries a suffocating register and its main character is uncomfortable throughout.