Sentenced to jail in 1997 as a university student aged 22, Yusuf is released on health grounds 10 years later. He returns to his village in the eastern Black Sea region, where he's welcomed only by his elderly mother. It turns out that his father died while he was in jail and his older sister got married and moved away to the city. Economic factors mean that it's almost exclusively old people who live in the mountain village, and the only person Yusuf sees is his childhood friend Mikail. As autumn slowly gives way to winter, Yusuf goes with Mikail to a tavern where he meets Eka, a beautiful young Georgian hooker. Neither the timing nor circumstances are right for these two people from different worlds to be together. For all that, love becomes a final desperate attempt to grasp life and elude loneliness - for Yusuf at least.
Screenplay: Özcan Alper
Cinematography: Feza Çaldiran
Editing: Thomas Balkenhol
Music: Yuri Ryadchenko, Aysenur Kolivar, Sumru Agiryuruyen, Onok Bozkurt
Sound: Mohammed Mokhtary
Cast: Onur Saylak, Megi Koboladze, R. Gulefer Yenigul, Serkan Keskin, Nino Lejava
Prizes and selections:
International Film Festival Locarno 2008 (In Competition)
Production:
Kuzey Film Production
(Istanbul, T +90 212 2523605; F +90 212 2523606; fsacar@kuzeyfilm.com; www.sonbaharfilm.com)
Co-production:
Filmfabrik Spiel-und Dokumentarfilmproduktion
(Cologne, T +49 221 9347670; F +49 221 9347671; info@filmfabrik.net; www.filmfabrik.net)
6 Nov, 21:00 - Cinema Embassy [Opening Film]
9 Nov, ore 11:00 - Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Cinema)