Tulay, a restless woman whose marriage is slowly disintegrating sets out to come to terms with various traumas while continually being watched by Halit, a resident in her apartment complex. A number of enigmatic encounters between Tulay, her maid Ash, and Halit blur the lines between fantasy and reality and heighten the sense of uncertainty. —turkishfilmchannel.com
Zeki Demirkubuz was born in Isparta, Turkey, in 1964. After finishing secondary school at Gönen Teachers’ School in Isparta, he moved to Istanbul. He started high school in Istanbul, but dropped out after his first semester, going to work in factories and workshops instead. During those working class years, he engaged in leftist politics. Following the 1980 military coup he served a three-year sentence for his membership in a political organization. In prison, Demirkubuz developed a passionate interest in literature. He read the classics and started writing. Dostoyevsky and especially Crime and Punishment became a lasting inspiration in those years.
After his release, he worked as a hawker, traveling from one city to another in Anatolia. In order to postpone compulsory military service, Demirkubuz decided to go back to school. He finished high school through distance learning, and entered the Department of Communications at Istanbul University. He began his film career… read more
I think the best word to describe Block C is "meandering". It never really focuses too hard on any of the main characters that live in the building of block C, but instead beats around the bush and significantly lacks dialogue that would clarify these storylines. This isn't to say the story isn't coherent, and even reeks of American love cliches, but it is allover a bit too avant-garde to make a clear statement.
I feel sure Zeki Demirkubuz got inspiration from Ballard's Crash. And I doubt Cronenberg's cinema adaptation of Crash (from 1996) got inspiration from this movie. Who knows.
An interesting performance by the female lead fails to make this meandering work something of merit. Demirkubuz has evolved into one of the better known turkish new wave directors but one would find little evidence in this his first feature to support that. Hallucinatory and introspective are transparent shileds not disquising the works lack of maturity or development.
Above: Destiny (2006). Born in 1964 in the provincial town of Isparta in southwest Turkey, Zeki Demirkubuz's life was indelibly marked by
Today, we're launching a new retrospective, Chasing Shadows: The Films of Zeki Demirkubuz, on view for one full year. Zeki Demirkubuz (site
