Critics reviews

As a sweltering study of desolation and desire, Dry Summer’s fundamental stress is on the labor and exertion of those who toil an arid landscape, where water is not only valued but coveted and hoarded; amongst the prevailing dust and wind, it’s the “earth’s blood,” a vital resource.

..."Dry Summer" draws on Italian neo-realism in its depiction of an intensely violent love triangle in a rural village. In particular, it seems inspired by Luchino Visconti's combinations of naturalist settings and outrageous melodrama. The lush black-and-white cinematography vividly captures the florid atmosphere, worthy of Tennessee Williams.

For too long, director Metin Erksan... [repeats] the same basic scenes over and over; the villagers complain, the selfish farmer's kinder younger brother urges him to reconsider, and the bastard refuses. A mid-film plot twist in which the nice guy agrees to take his awful brother's place in jail, however, transforms Dry Summer from a stodgy peasant war into a lurid Cain-and-Abel saga...

...Even the Turkish melodrama, Dry Summer — an intensely, didactically filmed work with brutally expressive images — offers a critique of patriarchy and capitalism in a way that might make for a good double feature with, of all things, Chinatown (both involve missing water).

There’s a Biblical simplicity to the melodrama that keeps the tension running high, and Erksan encourages an atmosphere of earthy desires, playing up each flash of leg and lascivious grin. He works in themes on the limits of social dictates that tie the newlyweds to a disastrous course, and the types of justice pursued officially and unofficially, but Dry Summer is foremost a sensual experience, and it practically burns through the screen.

Metin Erksan's Dry Summer (1964), a melodrama about a love triangle, was the first Turkish film to take home the Golden Bear from the Berlin Film Festival. Most striking here is the sense of setting. The film takes place in a rural Anatolian village, and the countryside's atmosphere is made palpable by Erksan's sensual style.

Comeuppance in Dry Summer is grave, and director Metin Erksan handles the vengeful aspects of his story without devolving into melodrama.

With a kind of dark, subtle wit, Erksan contrasts the raging passions of the main characters with the powerlessness of the authorities and elites.

The film is pure melodrama, with Osman's pride broken up with shots of Hasan constantly bedding his new bride, Bahar (Hülya Koçyiğit) and the brotherly strife leading to almost ludicrous ruin, but Erksan's direction never settles too long on classical framing. Instead of fully static, intercut shots or smooth tracks, Erksan spends many shots panning after any movement or dialogue, adding a percussive visual punch to every gesture and line.