Breath (2009 film)
Encyclopedia
Breath is a 2009 Turkish
drama film
directed by Levent Semerci. The film, which tells the story of 40 soldiers in charge of protecting a relay station near the Iraqi border in southeastern Turkey, was adapted from the short stories Tales from the Southeast and Ground Minus Zero by Hakan Evrensel and is, according to Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emine Yıldırım, the first Turkish film that tackles, through an authentic perspective and convincing realness, the contemporary situation of the Turkish army and its long battle with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) .
The film, according to Today's Zaman
, sparked a growing discussion on whether it includes militaristic and nationalist elements or whether it is merely aiming to show the deadly and difficult conditions soldiers face in the vast mountainous terrain of southeastern Anatolia, fighting against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. Critics such as columnists Emre Aköz and Nedim Hazar pointed out that writer Hakan Evrensel, upon whose works the film was based, had worked at the public relations department of the National Security Council (MGK) when the terrorist activities were at their peak and claimed the film fails to be impartial and objective in indicating the genuine motives of the terrorists fighting in the mountains.
The film went on general release across Turkey on and won two awards at the 3rd Yeşilçam Awards
as well as being one of the highest grossing films of 2009, prompting its re-release on .
(PKK) at its peak point.
The film opened in 608 screens across Turkey on at number one in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$2,018,862. Some, according to Today's Zaman
journalist Mınhac Çelık, argue the timing of the highly publicized film’s release is critical because it comes almost simultaneously with the return of a small group of PKK members from neighboring Iraq who surrendered to Turkish authorities.
The film opened across Germany on and across Austria on . It later re-opened in 106 screens across Turkey on at number ten in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$7,569.
executive editor İsmet Berkan, who considered the film a masterpiece with its realist characteristics, wrote, I can claim that it is the most beautiful and meaningful Turkish movie I have ever watched. It is a real masterpiece with its perfect technical and aesthetic aspects as well as its theme. The film displays the naked realities of the war. … Thank you, Levent Semerci.
Today's Zaman
reviewer Emine Yıldırım describes the, "Full Metal Jacket
"-inspired army epic, as, one of the most disturbing films I have seen in a very long time, despite the fact he admits that he, is I still remain undecided whether the film is a masterpiece or an emotionally explosive disaster. Following a slow start in which, according to Yıldırım, the film, seems to launch into too much of an advertisement, Semerci manages to create a stunning atmosphere of abandonment, fear and camaraderie, as, we get a better inside look at these young men. The film is currently playing to a full house in almost all of Istanbul's movie theatres, he says of its popularity, 'all hypnotized throughout its 128-minute running time and especially transfixed by its final sequence. Though the film, which according to Yıldırım, remains patriotic from start to finish, does not aim to be political in the general sense, what Semerci does is to directly put the viewer in the shoes of the commandos and make the audience confront a violent truth that it has already been aware of for the past 30 years but had never seen on screen in such a continuously graphic way. The problem, he continues, is that this particular film gets lost in its own heroism while over-emotionalizing the predicament of the soldiers, and it also lacks a comprehensive and tight story structure while its political stance remains too murky. Despite its flaws, Yıldırım concludes, the film, marks a milestone in Turkish cinema by being the first film to take the risk of duly tackling an issue that has long been evaded, and, provides a succinct depiction of what being a soldier in southeastern Turkey entails. Hopefully, he adds, it will be the harbinger of a long line of films undertaking the condition of people whose lives are directly influenced by the Turkish military.
Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emrah Güler states that, the teasers and the constant delay of the release date might have fueled debates before it met audiences, but the beautifully shot film featuring unknown actors successfully refrains from making any statements, instead remaining a haunting slice-of-life film about soldiers. Semerci moves his camera skillfully, slowly and with confidence across the skies, naked mountains, and a few soldiers lost along the depressing landscape. Most of the time, the scenes of stillness are enough to give the sense of loneliness, despair and meaninglessness of war, he continues, and when the movie moves into crafty and realistic scenes of military engagement, it refuses to stay a mix of detached action scenes but turn into tales of horror for everyone touched by war. Güller commends the cast by saying, Semerci’s selection of unknown names from acting schools around the country proves to be the right choice as no one character stands out, and it helps to amplify the sense of voyeurism into the lives of a real group of soldiers. He concedes that, For the Turkish audience, the experience of watching the everyday lives of these soldiers becomes more haunting as these border stations are the epitome of the lives of thousands claimed in the last two decades, and most people don’t have a clue what they look like or what it feels like to be on the edges of a country. The film strategically moves away from putting forward any message, and simply tells the stories of young men at war. It’s easy to interpret the movie in any way, depending on your take on the war. Semerci’s simply captures a group of scared young men ready to accept death because it’s the easiest option or, if they’re lucky, about to become damaged goods, scarred for life. This Güller concludes, is where, The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies.
Sabah
columnist Emre Aköz, refuting claims that the film was anti-militaristic, said, The producers of the film, Levent Semerci, Hakan Evrensel and Mehmet İlker Altınay, have used all the symbols of Turkey’s dominant nationalist ideology: Atatürk’s sculpture on the mountain at a height of 2,365 meters, the slogan of ‘Vatan Sağolsun’ (may the country survive), a compassionate big-hearted Turkish soldier who treats a PKK militant rather than killing her, the city dwellers who do not care about the young men defending the country. After using all these symbols, how can this film not be a nationalist militarist one?
Zaman columnist Nedim Hazar, who felt it wrong to shoot a film about an ongoing war, stated, Blood is still being shed. Ambushes, raids and attacks are going on; therefore it is impossible to raise criticism, make a comprehensive analysis or sum up the fight with a film about a bloody process in which there are thousands of victims and slain soldiers with their families. Furthermore, it serves to cover up the genuine factors that are still instrumental to the war, and, he concluded, If you criticize the film, you will be an enemy of the nation and the army; in contrast, when you praise the film and its context, you will be labeled as fascist.
Galatasaray University
scholar Hülya Uğur Tanrıöver, in an interview with NTV
, criticises the film for gender discrimination, observing, The film underestimates the difficulties women face in big cities. In a phone conversation between a soldier and his lover living in İstanbul, the soldier ignores the problems she has in the city, saying, ‘What difficulties can you experience in İstanbul?’ Moreover, in the next scene, the commander tells a soldier whose girlfriend has left him, ‘This girl would cuckold you if you had not separated.’ These are clear insults to girls living in big cities, and the film, from this point of view, has definite elements of gender discrimination.
drama film
directed by Levent Semerci. The film, which tells the story of 40 soldiers in charge of protecting a relay station near the Iraqi border in southeastern Turkey, was adapted from the short stories Tales from the Southeast and Ground Minus Zero by Hakan Evrensel and is, according to Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emine Yıldırım, the first Turkish film that tackles, through an authentic perspective and convincing realness, the contemporary situation of the Turkish army and its long battle with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) .
The film, according to Today's Zaman
, sparked a growing discussion on whether it includes militaristic and nationalist elements or whether it is merely aiming to show the deadly and difficult conditions soldiers face in the vast mountainous terrain of southeastern Anatolia, fighting against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. Critics such as columnists Emre Aköz and Nedim Hazar pointed out that writer Hakan Evrensel, upon whose works the film was based, had worked at the public relations department of the National Security Council (MGK) when the terrorist activities were at their peak and claimed the film fails to be impartial and objective in indicating the genuine motives of the terrorists fighting in the mountains.
The film went on general release across Turkey on and won two awards at the 3rd Yeşilçam Awards
as well as being one of the highest grossing films of 2009, prompting its re-release on .
(PKK) at its peak point.
The film opened in 608 screens across Turkey on at number one in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$2,018,862. Some, according to Today's Zaman
journalist Mınhac Çelık, argue the timing of the highly publicized film’s release is critical because it comes almost simultaneously with the return of a small group of PKK members from neighboring Iraq who surrendered to Turkish authorities.
The film opened across Germany on and across Austria on . It later re-opened in 106 screens across Turkey on at number ten in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$7,569.
executive editor İsmet Berkan, who considered the film a masterpiece with its realist characteristics, wrote, I can claim that it is the most beautiful and meaningful Turkish movie I have ever watched. It is a real masterpiece with its perfect technical and aesthetic aspects as well as its theme. The film displays the naked realities of the war. … Thank you, Levent Semerci.
Today's Zaman
reviewer Emine Yıldırım describes the, "Full Metal Jacket
"-inspired army epic, as, one of the most disturbing films I have seen in a very long time, despite the fact he admits that he, is I still remain undecided whether the film is a masterpiece or an emotionally explosive disaster. Following a slow start in which, according to Yıldırım, the film, seems to launch into too much of an advertisement, Semerci manages to create a stunning atmosphere of abandonment, fear and camaraderie, as, we get a better inside look at these young men. The film is currently playing to a full house in almost all of Istanbul's movie theatres, he says of its popularity, 'all hypnotized throughout its 128-minute running time and especially transfixed by its final sequence. Though the film, which according to Yıldırım, remains patriotic from start to finish, does not aim to be political in the general sense, what Semerci does is to directly put the viewer in the shoes of the commandos and make the audience confront a violent truth that it has already been aware of for the past 30 years but had never seen on screen in such a continuously graphic way. The problem, he continues, is that this particular film gets lost in its own heroism while over-emotionalizing the predicament of the soldiers, and it also lacks a comprehensive and tight story structure while its political stance remains too murky. Despite its flaws, Yıldırım concludes, the film, marks a milestone in Turkish cinema by being the first film to take the risk of duly tackling an issue that has long been evaded, and, provides a succinct depiction of what being a soldier in southeastern Turkey entails. Hopefully, he adds, it will be the harbinger of a long line of films undertaking the condition of people whose lives are directly influenced by the Turkish military.
Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emrah Güler states that, the teasers and the constant delay of the release date might have fueled debates before it met audiences, but the beautifully shot film featuring unknown actors successfully refrains from making any statements, instead remaining a haunting slice-of-life film about soldiers. Semerci moves his camera skillfully, slowly and with confidence across the skies, naked mountains, and a few soldiers lost along the depressing landscape. Most of the time, the scenes of stillness are enough to give the sense of loneliness, despair and meaninglessness of war, he continues, and when the movie moves into crafty and realistic scenes of military engagement, it refuses to stay a mix of detached action scenes but turn into tales of horror for everyone touched by war. Güller commends the cast by saying, Semerci’s selection of unknown names from acting schools around the country proves to be the right choice as no one character stands out, and it helps to amplify the sense of voyeurism into the lives of a real group of soldiers. He concedes that, For the Turkish audience, the experience of watching the everyday lives of these soldiers becomes more haunting as these border stations are the epitome of the lives of thousands claimed in the last two decades, and most people don’t have a clue what they look like or what it feels like to be on the edges of a country. The film strategically moves away from putting forward any message, and simply tells the stories of young men at war. It’s easy to interpret the movie in any way, depending on your take on the war. Semerci’s simply captures a group of scared young men ready to accept death because it’s the easiest option or, if they’re lucky, about to become damaged goods, scarred for life. This Güller concludes, is where, The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies.
Sabah
columnist Emre Aköz, refuting claims that the film was anti-militaristic, said, The producers of the film, Levent Semerci, Hakan Evrensel and Mehmet İlker Altınay, have used all the symbols of Turkey’s dominant nationalist ideology: Atatürk’s sculpture on the mountain at a height of 2,365 meters, the slogan of ‘Vatan Sağolsun’ (may the country survive), a compassionate big-hearted Turkish soldier who treats a PKK militant rather than killing her, the city dwellers who do not care about the young men defending the country. After using all these symbols, how can this film not be a nationalist militarist one?
Zaman columnist Nedim Hazar, who felt it wrong to shoot a film about an ongoing war, stated, Blood is still being shed. Ambushes, raids and attacks are going on; therefore it is impossible to raise criticism, make a comprehensive analysis or sum up the fight with a film about a bloody process in which there are thousands of victims and slain soldiers with their families. Furthermore, it serves to cover up the genuine factors that are still instrumental to the war, and, he concluded, If you criticize the film, you will be an enemy of the nation and the army; in contrast, when you praise the film and its context, you will be labeled as fascist.
Galatasaray University
scholar Hülya Uğur Tanrıöver, in an interview with NTV
, criticises the film for gender discrimination, observing, The film underestimates the difficulties women face in big cities. In a phone conversation between a soldier and his lover living in İstanbul, the soldier ignores the problems she has in the city, saying, ‘What difficulties can you experience in İstanbul?’ Moreover, in the next scene, the commander tells a soldier whose girlfriend has left him, ‘This girl would cuckold you if you had not separated.’ These are clear insults to girls living in big cities, and the film, from this point of view, has definite elements of gender discrimination.
drama film
directed by Levent Semerci. The film, which tells the story of 40 soldiers in charge of protecting a relay station near the Iraqi border in southeastern Turkey, was adapted from the short stories Tales from the Southeast and Ground Minus Zero by Hakan Evrensel and is, according to Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emine Yıldırım, the first Turkish film that tackles, through an authentic perspective and convincing realness, the contemporary situation of the Turkish army and its long battle with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) .
The film, according to Today's Zaman
, sparked a growing discussion on whether it includes militaristic and nationalist elements or whether it is merely aiming to show the deadly and difficult conditions soldiers face in the vast mountainous terrain of southeastern Anatolia, fighting against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. Critics such as columnists Emre Aköz and Nedim Hazar pointed out that writer Hakan Evrensel, upon whose works the film was based, had worked at the public relations department of the National Security Council (MGK) when the terrorist activities were at their peak and claimed the film fails to be impartial and objective in indicating the genuine motives of the terrorists fighting in the mountains.
The film went on general release across Turkey on and won two awards at the 3rd Yeşilçam Awards
as well as being one of the highest grossing films of 2009, prompting its re-release on .
(PKK) at its peak point.
The film opened in 608 screens across Turkey on at number one in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$2,018,862. Some, according to Today's Zaman
journalist Mınhac Çelık, argue the timing of the highly publicized film’s release is critical because it comes almost simultaneously with the return of a small group of PKK members from neighboring Iraq who surrendered to Turkish authorities.
The film opened across Germany on and across Austria on . It later re-opened in 106 screens across Turkey on at number ten in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$7,569.
executive editor İsmet Berkan, who considered the film a masterpiece with its realist characteristics, wrote, I can claim that it is the most beautiful and meaningful Turkish movie I have ever watched. It is a real masterpiece with its perfect technical and aesthetic aspects as well as its theme. The film displays the naked realities of the war. … Thank you, Levent Semerci.
Today's Zaman
reviewer Emine Yıldırım describes the, "Full Metal Jacket
"-inspired army epic, as, one of the most disturbing films I have seen in a very long time, despite the fact he admits that he, is I still remain undecided whether the film is a masterpiece or an emotionally explosive disaster. Following a slow start in which, according to Yıldırım, the film, seems to launch into too much of an advertisement, Semerci manages to create a stunning atmosphere of abandonment, fear and camaraderie, as, we get a better inside look at these young men. The film is currently playing to a full house in almost all of Istanbul's movie theatres, he says of its popularity, 'all hypnotized throughout its 128-minute running time and especially transfixed by its final sequence. Though the film, which according to Yıldırım, remains patriotic from start to finish, does not aim to be political in the general sense, what Semerci does is to directly put the viewer in the shoes of the commandos and make the audience confront a violent truth that it has already been aware of for the past 30 years but had never seen on screen in such a continuously graphic way. The problem, he continues, is that this particular film gets lost in its own heroism while over-emotionalizing the predicament of the soldiers, and it also lacks a comprehensive and tight story structure while its political stance remains too murky. Despite its flaws, Yıldırım concludes, the film, marks a milestone in Turkish cinema by being the first film to take the risk of duly tackling an issue that has long been evaded, and, provides a succinct depiction of what being a soldier in southeastern Turkey entails. Hopefully, he adds, it will be the harbinger of a long line of films undertaking the condition of people whose lives are directly influenced by the Turkish military.
Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emrah Güler states that, the teasers and the constant delay of the release date might have fueled debates before it met audiences, but the beautifully shot film featuring unknown actors successfully refrains from making any statements, instead remaining a haunting slice-of-life film about soldiers. Semerci moves his camera skillfully, slowly and with confidence across the skies, naked mountains, and a few soldiers lost along the depressing landscape. Most of the time, the scenes of stillness are enough to give the sense of loneliness, despair and meaninglessness of war, he continues, and when the movie moves into crafty and realistic scenes of military engagement, it refuses to stay a mix of detached action scenes but turn into tales of horror for everyone touched by war. Güller commends the cast by saying, Semerci’s selection of unknown names from acting schools around the country proves to be the right choice as no one character stands out, and it helps to amplify the sense of voyeurism into the lives of a real group of soldiers. He concedes that, For the Turkish audience, the experience of watching the everyday lives of these soldiers becomes more haunting as these border stations are the epitome of the lives of thousands claimed in the last two decades, and most people don’t have a clue what they look like or what it feels like to be on the edges of a country. The film strategically moves away from putting forward any message, and simply tells the stories of young men at war. It’s easy to interpret the movie in any way, depending on your take on the war. Semerci’s simply captures a group of scared young men ready to accept death because it’s the easiest option or, if they’re lucky, about to become damaged goods, scarred for life. This Güller concludes, is where, The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies.
Sabah
columnist Emre Aköz, refuting claims that the film was anti-militaristic, said, The producers of the film, Levent Semerci, Hakan Evrensel and Mehmet İlker Altınay, have used all the symbols of Turkey’s dominant nationalist ideology: Atatürk’s sculpture on the mountain at a height of 2,365 meters, the slogan of ‘Vatan Sağolsun’ (may the country survive), a compassionate big-hearted Turkish soldier who treats a PKK militant rather than killing her, the city dwellers who do not care about the young men defending the country. After using all these symbols, how can this film not be a nationalist militarist one?
Zaman columnist Nedim Hazar, who felt it wrong to shoot a film about an ongoing war, stated, Blood is still being shed. Ambushes, raids and attacks are going on; therefore it is impossible to raise criticism, make a comprehensive analysis or sum up the fight with a film about a bloody process in which there are thousands of victims and slain soldiers with their families. Furthermore, it serves to cover up the genuine factors that are still instrumental to the war, and, he concluded, If you criticize the film, you will be an enemy of the nation and the army; in contrast, when you praise the film and its context, you will be labeled as fascist.
Galatasaray University
scholar Hülya Uğur Tanrıöver, in an interview with NTV
, criticises the film for gender discrimination, observing, The film underestimates the difficulties women face in big cities. In a phone conversation between a soldier and his lover living in İstanbul, the soldier ignores the problems she has in the city, saying, ‘What difficulties can you experience in İstanbul?’ Moreover, in the next scene, the commander tells a soldier whose girlfriend has left him, ‘This girl would cuckold you if you had not separated.’ These are clear insults to girls living in big cities, and the film, from this point of view, has definite elements of gender discrimination.
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Levent Semerci. The film, which tells the story of 40 soldiers in charge of protecting a relay station near the Iraqi border in southeastern Turkey, was adapted from the short stories Tales from the Southeast and Ground Minus Zero by Hakan Evrensel and is, according to Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emine Yıldırım, the first Turkish film that tackles, through an authentic perspective and convincing realness, the contemporary situation of the Turkish army and its long battle with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) .
The film, according to Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
, sparked a growing discussion on whether it includes militaristic and nationalist elements or whether it is merely aiming to show the deadly and difficult conditions soldiers face in the vast mountainous terrain of southeastern Anatolia, fighting against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. Critics such as columnists Emre Aköz and Nedim Hazar pointed out that writer Hakan Evrensel, upon whose works the film was based, had worked at the public relations department of the National Security Council (MGK) when the terrorist activities were at their peak and claimed the film fails to be impartial and objective in indicating the genuine motives of the terrorists fighting in the mountains.
The film went on general release across Turkey on and won two awards at the 3rd Yeşilçam Awards
3rd Yeşilçam Awards
The 3rd Yeşilçam Awards , presented by the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture and Beyoğlu Municipality, honored the best Turkish films of 2009 and took place on March 23, 2010, at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Hall in Istanbul, Turkey...
as well as being one of the highest grossing films of 2009, prompting its re-release on .
Plot
This film is about a small group of 40-Turkish soldiers in a remote patrol station in eastern Turkey facing their near-certain death during a time the conflict between Turkish Army and Kurdistan Workers' PartyKurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) at its peak point.
General Release
Thanks to cleverly edited teasers that barely gave any clue to the movie, a constant delay of the release date over the last six months and a nation overly sensitive to war, civil-military relations and nationalism, Emrah Güller, writing in the Hürriyet Daily News, states, Heated debates preceded the release of director Levent Semerci’s war drama “Nefes” (Breath) in chat rooms, Web forums, Facebook groups and mass media. Ironically, he concedes, the release of advertisement director Semerci’s debut film put a halt to many of the discussions because the audience had a hard time pinning down the message of the movie and labeling it as positive or negative propaganda for the military. The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies in its ability to put a stop to all desperate attempts to maneuver the film into a nationalistic or anti-military stance, Güller concludes.The film opened in 608 screens across Turkey on at number one in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$2,018,862. Some, according to Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
journalist Mınhac Çelık, argue the timing of the highly publicized film’s release is critical because it comes almost simultaneously with the return of a small group of PKK members from neighboring Iraq who surrendered to Turkish authorities.
The film opened across Germany on and across Austria on . It later re-opened in 106 screens across Turkey on at number ten in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$7,569.
| Date | Territory | Screens | Rank | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... |
608 | 1 | US$2,018,862 | |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
65 | 16 | US$259,166 | |
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
8 | 13 | US$38,786 | |
| Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... (re-release) |
106 | 10 | US$7,569 |
Festival screenings
- New York Turkish Film Days (opening film)
- 17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film Festival17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film FestivalThe International 17th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival was a film festival held in Adana, Turkey which ran from September 20 to 26, 2010. Prizes totalling 575,000 Turkish Liras were awarded in three categories and more than 200 films were shown at nine different locations, including the Cinebonus,...
(September 20-26, 2010)
Box office
The movie was number one at the Turkish box office for four weeks running and is the second highest grossing Turkish film of the year with a total worldwide gross of $14,727,335.Reviews
RadikalRadikal
Radikal is a daily Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. It has been published since 1997 by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group ....
executive editor İsmet Berkan, who considered the film a masterpiece with its realist characteristics, wrote, I can claim that it is the most beautiful and meaningful Turkish movie I have ever watched. It is a real masterpiece with its perfect technical and aesthetic aspects as well as its theme. The film displays the naked realities of the war. … Thank you, Levent Semerci.
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
reviewer Emine Yıldırım describes the, "Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
"-inspired army epic, as, one of the most disturbing films I have seen in a very long time, despite the fact he admits that he, is I still remain undecided whether the film is a masterpiece or an emotionally explosive disaster. Following a slow start in which, according to Yıldırım, the film, seems to launch into too much of an advertisement, Semerci manages to create a stunning atmosphere of abandonment, fear and camaraderie, as, we get a better inside look at these young men. The film is currently playing to a full house in almost all of Istanbul's movie theatres, he says of its popularity, 'all hypnotized throughout its 128-minute running time and especially transfixed by its final sequence. Though the film, which according to Yıldırım, remains patriotic from start to finish, does not aim to be political in the general sense, what Semerci does is to directly put the viewer in the shoes of the commandos and make the audience confront a violent truth that it has already been aware of for the past 30 years but had never seen on screen in such a continuously graphic way. The problem, he continues, is that this particular film gets lost in its own heroism while over-emotionalizing the predicament of the soldiers, and it also lacks a comprehensive and tight story structure while its political stance remains too murky. Despite its flaws, Yıldırım concludes, the film, marks a milestone in Turkish cinema by being the first film to take the risk of duly tackling an issue that has long been evaded, and, provides a succinct depiction of what being a soldier in southeastern Turkey entails. Hopefully, he adds, it will be the harbinger of a long line of films undertaking the condition of people whose lives are directly influenced by the Turkish military.
Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emrah Güler states that, the teasers and the constant delay of the release date might have fueled debates before it met audiences, but the beautifully shot film featuring unknown actors successfully refrains from making any statements, instead remaining a haunting slice-of-life film about soldiers. Semerci moves his camera skillfully, slowly and with confidence across the skies, naked mountains, and a few soldiers lost along the depressing landscape. Most of the time, the scenes of stillness are enough to give the sense of loneliness, despair and meaninglessness of war, he continues, and when the movie moves into crafty and realistic scenes of military engagement, it refuses to stay a mix of detached action scenes but turn into tales of horror for everyone touched by war. Güller commends the cast by saying, Semerci’s selection of unknown names from acting schools around the country proves to be the right choice as no one character stands out, and it helps to amplify the sense of voyeurism into the lives of a real group of soldiers. He concedes that, For the Turkish audience, the experience of watching the everyday lives of these soldiers becomes more haunting as these border stations are the epitome of the lives of thousands claimed in the last two decades, and most people don’t have a clue what they look like or what it feels like to be on the edges of a country. The film strategically moves away from putting forward any message, and simply tells the stories of young men at war. It’s easy to interpret the movie in any way, depending on your take on the war. Semerci’s simply captures a group of scared young men ready to accept death because it’s the easiest option or, if they’re lucky, about to become damaged goods, scarred for life. This Güller concludes, is where, The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies.
Sabah
Sabah (newspaper)
Sabah is a popular Turkish daily newspaper, with a circulation of around 330,000 as of 2011. Its name means "morning" in the Turkish language originating from Arabic...
columnist Emre Aköz, refuting claims that the film was anti-militaristic, said, The producers of the film, Levent Semerci, Hakan Evrensel and Mehmet İlker Altınay, have used all the symbols of Turkey’s dominant nationalist ideology: Atatürk’s sculpture on the mountain at a height of 2,365 meters, the slogan of ‘Vatan Sağolsun’ (may the country survive), a compassionate big-hearted Turkish soldier who treats a PKK militant rather than killing her, the city dwellers who do not care about the young men defending the country. After using all these symbols, how can this film not be a nationalist militarist one?
Zaman columnist Nedim Hazar, who felt it wrong to shoot a film about an ongoing war, stated, Blood is still being shed. Ambushes, raids and attacks are going on; therefore it is impossible to raise criticism, make a comprehensive analysis or sum up the fight with a film about a bloody process in which there are thousands of victims and slain soldiers with their families. Furthermore, it serves to cover up the genuine factors that are still instrumental to the war, and, he concluded, If you criticize the film, you will be an enemy of the nation and the army; in contrast, when you praise the film and its context, you will be labeled as fascist.
Galatasaray University
Galatasaray University
Galatasaray University or Université Galatasaray is a Turkish university established in İstanbul, Turkey in 1992, following an agreement signed with the presence of President François Mitterrand of France and President Turgut Özal of Turkey during a ceremony at Galatasaray High School, the mother...
scholar Hülya Uğur Tanrıöver, in an interview with NTV
NTV Turkey
NTV is a Turkish nationwide television news channel. NTV was founded in 1996 by Turkish businessman Cavit Çağlar as the first news channel of Turkey and has partnered with MSNBC since May 2000. Aired on this channel is usually the news but also provides football games, especially La Liga matches,...
, criticises the film for gender discrimination, observing, The film underestimates the difficulties women face in big cities. In a phone conversation between a soldier and his lover living in İstanbul, the soldier ignores the problems she has in the city, saying, ‘What difficulties can you experience in İstanbul?’ Moreover, in the next scene, the commander tells a soldier whose girlfriend has left him, ‘This girl would cuckold you if you had not separated.’ These are clear insults to girls living in big cities, and the film, from this point of view, has definite elements of gender discrimination.
Accolades
- 3rd Yeşilçam Awards3rd Yeşilçam AwardsThe 3rd Yeşilçam Awards , presented by the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture and Beyoğlu Municipality, honored the best Turkish films of 2009 and took place on March 23, 2010, at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Hall in Istanbul, Turkey...
(March 23, 2010)- Best Film Award (won)
- Turkcell First Film Award (won)
- 17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film Festival17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film FestivalThe International 17th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival was a film festival held in Adana, Turkey which ran from September 20 to 26, 2010. Prizes totalling 575,000 Turkish Liras were awarded in three categories and more than 200 films were shown at nine different locations, including the Cinebonus,...
(September 20-26, 2010)- Best Director: Levent Semerci (shared with Selim Demirdelen for The CrossingThe Crossing (2010 film)The Crossing is a 2010 Turkish drama film directed by Selim Demirdelen, which is about a devoted family man who comes home from work oneda to find his house deserted...
) - Audience Jury Best Picture (won)
- Best Director: Levent Semerci (shared with Selim Demirdelen for The Crossing
See also
- 2009 in film2009 in filmThe year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
- Turkish films of 2009Turkish films of 2009A list of films produced by the Turkish film industry in Turkey in 2009.- Highest-grossing films :- January – June :- July – December :- References :...
- Turkey – Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict
External links
Breath is a 2009 TurkishTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Levent Semerci. The film, which tells the story of 40 soldiers in charge of protecting a relay station near the Iraqi border in southeastern Turkey, was adapted from the short stories Tales from the Southeast and Ground Minus Zero by Hakan Evrensel and is, according to Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emine Yıldırım, the first Turkish film that tackles, through an authentic perspective and convincing realness, the contemporary situation of the Turkish army and its long battle with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) .
The film, according to Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
, sparked a growing discussion on whether it includes militaristic and nationalist elements or whether it is merely aiming to show the deadly and difficult conditions soldiers face in the vast mountainous terrain of southeastern Anatolia, fighting against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. Critics such as columnists Emre Aköz and Nedim Hazar pointed out that writer Hakan Evrensel, upon whose works the film was based, had worked at the public relations department of the National Security Council (MGK) when the terrorist activities were at their peak and claimed the film fails to be impartial and objective in indicating the genuine motives of the terrorists fighting in the mountains.
The film went on general release across Turkey on and won two awards at the 3rd Yeşilçam Awards
3rd Yeşilçam Awards
The 3rd Yeşilçam Awards , presented by the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture and Beyoğlu Municipality, honored the best Turkish films of 2009 and took place on March 23, 2010, at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Hall in Istanbul, Turkey...
as well as being one of the highest grossing films of 2009, prompting its re-release on .
Plot
This film is about a small group of 40-Turkish soldiers in a remote patrol station in eastern Turkey facing their near-certain death during a time the conflict between Turkish Army and Kurdistan Workers' PartyKurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) at its peak point.
General Release
Thanks to cleverly edited teasers that barely gave any clue to the movie, a constant delay of the release date over the last six months and a nation overly sensitive to war, civil-military relations and nationalism, Emrah Güller, writing in the Hürriyet Daily News, states, Heated debates preceded the release of director Levent Semerci’s war drama “Nefes” (Breath) in chat rooms, Web forums, Facebook groups and mass media. Ironically, he concedes, the release of advertisement director Semerci’s debut film put a halt to many of the discussions because the audience had a hard time pinning down the message of the movie and labeling it as positive or negative propaganda for the military. The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies in its ability to put a stop to all desperate attempts to maneuver the film into a nationalistic or anti-military stance, Güller concludes.The film opened in 608 screens across Turkey on at number one in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$2,018,862. Some, according to Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
journalist Mınhac Çelık, argue the timing of the highly publicized film’s release is critical because it comes almost simultaneously with the return of a small group of PKK members from neighboring Iraq who surrendered to Turkish authorities.
The film opened across Germany on and across Austria on . It later re-opened in 106 screens across Turkey on at number ten in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$7,569.
| Date | Territory | Screens | Rank | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... |
608 | 1 | US$2,018,862 | |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
65 | 16 | US$259,166 | |
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
8 | 13 | US$38,786 | |
| Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... (re-release) |
106 | 10 | US$7,569 |
Festival screenings
- New York Turkish Film Days (opening film)
- 17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film Festival17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film FestivalThe International 17th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival was a film festival held in Adana, Turkey which ran from September 20 to 26, 2010. Prizes totalling 575,000 Turkish Liras were awarded in three categories and more than 200 films were shown at nine different locations, including the Cinebonus,...
(September 20-26, 2010)
Box office
The movie was number one at the Turkish box office for four weeks running and is the second highest grossing Turkish film of the year with a total worldwide gross of $14,727,335.Reviews
RadikalRadikal
Radikal is a daily Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. It has been published since 1997 by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group ....
executive editor İsmet Berkan, who considered the film a masterpiece with its realist characteristics, wrote, I can claim that it is the most beautiful and meaningful Turkish movie I have ever watched. It is a real masterpiece with its perfect technical and aesthetic aspects as well as its theme. The film displays the naked realities of the war. … Thank you, Levent Semerci.
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
reviewer Emine Yıldırım describes the, "Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
"-inspired army epic, as, one of the most disturbing films I have seen in a very long time, despite the fact he admits that he, is I still remain undecided whether the film is a masterpiece or an emotionally explosive disaster. Following a slow start in which, according to Yıldırım, the film, seems to launch into too much of an advertisement, Semerci manages to create a stunning atmosphere of abandonment, fear and camaraderie, as, we get a better inside look at these young men. The film is currently playing to a full house in almost all of Istanbul's movie theatres, he says of its popularity, 'all hypnotized throughout its 128-minute running time and especially transfixed by its final sequence. Though the film, which according to Yıldırım, remains patriotic from start to finish, does not aim to be political in the general sense, what Semerci does is to directly put the viewer in the shoes of the commandos and make the audience confront a violent truth that it has already been aware of for the past 30 years but had never seen on screen in such a continuously graphic way. The problem, he continues, is that this particular film gets lost in its own heroism while over-emotionalizing the predicament of the soldiers, and it also lacks a comprehensive and tight story structure while its political stance remains too murky. Despite its flaws, Yıldırım concludes, the film, marks a milestone in Turkish cinema by being the first film to take the risk of duly tackling an issue that has long been evaded, and, provides a succinct depiction of what being a soldier in southeastern Turkey entails. Hopefully, he adds, it will be the harbinger of a long line of films undertaking the condition of people whose lives are directly influenced by the Turkish military.
Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emrah Güler states that, the teasers and the constant delay of the release date might have fueled debates before it met audiences, but the beautifully shot film featuring unknown actors successfully refrains from making any statements, instead remaining a haunting slice-of-life film about soldiers. Semerci moves his camera skillfully, slowly and with confidence across the skies, naked mountains, and a few soldiers lost along the depressing landscape. Most of the time, the scenes of stillness are enough to give the sense of loneliness, despair and meaninglessness of war, he continues, and when the movie moves into crafty and realistic scenes of military engagement, it refuses to stay a mix of detached action scenes but turn into tales of horror for everyone touched by war. Güller commends the cast by saying, Semerci’s selection of unknown names from acting schools around the country proves to be the right choice as no one character stands out, and it helps to amplify the sense of voyeurism into the lives of a real group of soldiers. He concedes that, For the Turkish audience, the experience of watching the everyday lives of these soldiers becomes more haunting as these border stations are the epitome of the lives of thousands claimed in the last two decades, and most people don’t have a clue what they look like or what it feels like to be on the edges of a country. The film strategically moves away from putting forward any message, and simply tells the stories of young men at war. It’s easy to interpret the movie in any way, depending on your take on the war. Semerci’s simply captures a group of scared young men ready to accept death because it’s the easiest option or, if they’re lucky, about to become damaged goods, scarred for life. This Güller concludes, is where, The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies.
Sabah
Sabah (newspaper)
Sabah is a popular Turkish daily newspaper, with a circulation of around 330,000 as of 2011. Its name means "morning" in the Turkish language originating from Arabic...
columnist Emre Aköz, refuting claims that the film was anti-militaristic, said, The producers of the film, Levent Semerci, Hakan Evrensel and Mehmet İlker Altınay, have used all the symbols of Turkey’s dominant nationalist ideology: Atatürk’s sculpture on the mountain at a height of 2,365 meters, the slogan of ‘Vatan Sağolsun’ (may the country survive), a compassionate big-hearted Turkish soldier who treats a PKK militant rather than killing her, the city dwellers who do not care about the young men defending the country. After using all these symbols, how can this film not be a nationalist militarist one?
Zaman columnist Nedim Hazar, who felt it wrong to shoot a film about an ongoing war, stated, Blood is still being shed. Ambushes, raids and attacks are going on; therefore it is impossible to raise criticism, make a comprehensive analysis or sum up the fight with a film about a bloody process in which there are thousands of victims and slain soldiers with their families. Furthermore, it serves to cover up the genuine factors that are still instrumental to the war, and, he concluded, If you criticize the film, you will be an enemy of the nation and the army; in contrast, when you praise the film and its context, you will be labeled as fascist.
Galatasaray University
Galatasaray University
Galatasaray University or Université Galatasaray is a Turkish university established in İstanbul, Turkey in 1992, following an agreement signed with the presence of President François Mitterrand of France and President Turgut Özal of Turkey during a ceremony at Galatasaray High School, the mother...
scholar Hülya Uğur Tanrıöver, in an interview with NTV
NTV Turkey
NTV is a Turkish nationwide television news channel. NTV was founded in 1996 by Turkish businessman Cavit Çağlar as the first news channel of Turkey and has partnered with MSNBC since May 2000. Aired on this channel is usually the news but also provides football games, especially La Liga matches,...
, criticises the film for gender discrimination, observing, The film underestimates the difficulties women face in big cities. In a phone conversation between a soldier and his lover living in İstanbul, the soldier ignores the problems she has in the city, saying, ‘What difficulties can you experience in İstanbul?’ Moreover, in the next scene, the commander tells a soldier whose girlfriend has left him, ‘This girl would cuckold you if you had not separated.’ These are clear insults to girls living in big cities, and the film, from this point of view, has definite elements of gender discrimination.
Accolades
- 3rd Yeşilçam Awards3rd Yeşilçam AwardsThe 3rd Yeşilçam Awards , presented by the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture and Beyoğlu Municipality, honored the best Turkish films of 2009 and took place on March 23, 2010, at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Hall in Istanbul, Turkey...
(March 23, 2010)- Best Film Award (won)
- Turkcell First Film Award (won)
- 17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film Festival17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film FestivalThe International 17th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival was a film festival held in Adana, Turkey which ran from September 20 to 26, 2010. Prizes totalling 575,000 Turkish Liras were awarded in three categories and more than 200 films were shown at nine different locations, including the Cinebonus,...
(September 20-26, 2010)- Best Director: Levent Semerci (shared with Selim Demirdelen for The CrossingThe Crossing (2010 film)The Crossing is a 2010 Turkish drama film directed by Selim Demirdelen, which is about a devoted family man who comes home from work oneda to find his house deserted...
) - Audience Jury Best Picture (won)
- Best Director: Levent Semerci (shared with Selim Demirdelen for The Crossing
See also
- 2009 in film2009 in filmThe year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
- Turkish films of 2009Turkish films of 2009A list of films produced by the Turkish film industry in Turkey in 2009.- Highest-grossing films :- January – June :- July – December :- References :...
- Turkey – Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict
External links
Breath is a 2009 TurkishTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Levent Semerci. The film, which tells the story of 40 soldiers in charge of protecting a relay station near the Iraqi border in southeastern Turkey, was adapted from the short stories Tales from the Southeast and Ground Minus Zero by Hakan Evrensel and is, according to Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emine Yıldırım, the first Turkish film that tackles, through an authentic perspective and convincing realness, the contemporary situation of the Turkish army and its long battle with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) .
The film, according to Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
, sparked a growing discussion on whether it includes militaristic and nationalist elements or whether it is merely aiming to show the deadly and difficult conditions soldiers face in the vast mountainous terrain of southeastern Anatolia, fighting against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. Critics such as columnists Emre Aköz and Nedim Hazar pointed out that writer Hakan Evrensel, upon whose works the film was based, had worked at the public relations department of the National Security Council (MGK) when the terrorist activities were at their peak and claimed the film fails to be impartial and objective in indicating the genuine motives of the terrorists fighting in the mountains.
The film went on general release across Turkey on and won two awards at the 3rd Yeşilçam Awards
3rd Yeşilçam Awards
The 3rd Yeşilçam Awards , presented by the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture and Beyoğlu Municipality, honored the best Turkish films of 2009 and took place on March 23, 2010, at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Hall in Istanbul, Turkey...
as well as being one of the highest grossing films of 2009, prompting its re-release on .
Plot
This film is about a small group of 40-Turkish soldiers in a remote patrol station in eastern Turkey facing their near-certain death during a time the conflict between Turkish Army and Kurdistan Workers' PartyKurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) at its peak point.
General Release
Thanks to cleverly edited teasers that barely gave any clue to the movie, a constant delay of the release date over the last six months and a nation overly sensitive to war, civil-military relations and nationalism, Emrah Güller, writing in the Hürriyet Daily News, states, Heated debates preceded the release of director Levent Semerci’s war drama “Nefes” (Breath) in chat rooms, Web forums, Facebook groups and mass media. Ironically, he concedes, the release of advertisement director Semerci’s debut film put a halt to many of the discussions because the audience had a hard time pinning down the message of the movie and labeling it as positive or negative propaganda for the military. The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies in its ability to put a stop to all desperate attempts to maneuver the film into a nationalistic or anti-military stance, Güller concludes.The film opened in 608 screens across Turkey on at number one in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$2,018,862. Some, according to Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
journalist Mınhac Çelık, argue the timing of the highly publicized film’s release is critical because it comes almost simultaneously with the return of a small group of PKK members from neighboring Iraq who surrendered to Turkish authorities.
The film opened across Germany on and across Austria on . It later re-opened in 106 screens across Turkey on at number ten in the Turkish box office chart with an opening weekend gross of US$7,569.
| Date | Territory | Screens | Rank | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... |
608 | 1 | US$2,018,862 | |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
65 | 16 | US$259,166 | |
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
8 | 13 | US$38,786 | |
| Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... (re-release) |
106 | 10 | US$7,569 |
Festival screenings
- New York Turkish Film Days (opening film)
- 17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film Festival17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film FestivalThe International 17th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival was a film festival held in Adana, Turkey which ran from September 20 to 26, 2010. Prizes totalling 575,000 Turkish Liras were awarded in three categories and more than 200 films were shown at nine different locations, including the Cinebonus,...
(September 20-26, 2010)
Box office
The movie was number one at the Turkish box office for four weeks running and is the second highest grossing Turkish film of the year with a total worldwide gross of $14,727,335.Reviews
RadikalRadikal
Radikal is a daily Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. It has been published since 1997 by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group ....
executive editor İsmet Berkan, who considered the film a masterpiece with its realist characteristics, wrote, I can claim that it is the most beautiful and meaningful Turkish movie I have ever watched. It is a real masterpiece with its perfect technical and aesthetic aspects as well as its theme. The film displays the naked realities of the war. … Thank you, Levent Semerci.
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
reviewer Emine Yıldırım describes the, "Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
"-inspired army epic, as, one of the most disturbing films I have seen in a very long time, despite the fact he admits that he, is I still remain undecided whether the film is a masterpiece or an emotionally explosive disaster. Following a slow start in which, according to Yıldırım, the film, seems to launch into too much of an advertisement, Semerci manages to create a stunning atmosphere of abandonment, fear and camaraderie, as, we get a better inside look at these young men. The film is currently playing to a full house in almost all of Istanbul's movie theatres, he says of its popularity, 'all hypnotized throughout its 128-minute running time and especially transfixed by its final sequence. Though the film, which according to Yıldırım, remains patriotic from start to finish, does not aim to be political in the general sense, what Semerci does is to directly put the viewer in the shoes of the commandos and make the audience confront a violent truth that it has already been aware of for the past 30 years but had never seen on screen in such a continuously graphic way. The problem, he continues, is that this particular film gets lost in its own heroism while over-emotionalizing the predicament of the soldiers, and it also lacks a comprehensive and tight story structure while its political stance remains too murky. Despite its flaws, Yıldırım concludes, the film, marks a milestone in Turkish cinema by being the first film to take the risk of duly tackling an issue that has long been evaded, and, provides a succinct depiction of what being a soldier in southeastern Turkey entails. Hopefully, he adds, it will be the harbinger of a long line of films undertaking the condition of people whose lives are directly influenced by the Turkish military.
Hürriyet Daily News reviewer Emrah Güler states that, the teasers and the constant delay of the release date might have fueled debates before it met audiences, but the beautifully shot film featuring unknown actors successfully refrains from making any statements, instead remaining a haunting slice-of-life film about soldiers. Semerci moves his camera skillfully, slowly and with confidence across the skies, naked mountains, and a few soldiers lost along the depressing landscape. Most of the time, the scenes of stillness are enough to give the sense of loneliness, despair and meaninglessness of war, he continues, and when the movie moves into crafty and realistic scenes of military engagement, it refuses to stay a mix of detached action scenes but turn into tales of horror for everyone touched by war. Güller commends the cast by saying, Semerci’s selection of unknown names from acting schools around the country proves to be the right choice as no one character stands out, and it helps to amplify the sense of voyeurism into the lives of a real group of soldiers. He concedes that, For the Turkish audience, the experience of watching the everyday lives of these soldiers becomes more haunting as these border stations are the epitome of the lives of thousands claimed in the last two decades, and most people don’t have a clue what they look like or what it feels like to be on the edges of a country. The film strategically moves away from putting forward any message, and simply tells the stories of young men at war. It’s easy to interpret the movie in any way, depending on your take on the war. Semerci’s simply captures a group of scared young men ready to accept death because it’s the easiest option or, if they’re lucky, about to become damaged goods, scarred for life. This Güller concludes, is where, The unprecedented success of “Nefes” lies.
Sabah
Sabah (newspaper)
Sabah is a popular Turkish daily newspaper, with a circulation of around 330,000 as of 2011. Its name means "morning" in the Turkish language originating from Arabic...
columnist Emre Aköz, refuting claims that the film was anti-militaristic, said, The producers of the film, Levent Semerci, Hakan Evrensel and Mehmet İlker Altınay, have used all the symbols of Turkey’s dominant nationalist ideology: Atatürk’s sculpture on the mountain at a height of 2,365 meters, the slogan of ‘Vatan Sağolsun’ (may the country survive), a compassionate big-hearted Turkish soldier who treats a PKK militant rather than killing her, the city dwellers who do not care about the young men defending the country. After using all these symbols, how can this film not be a nationalist militarist one?
Zaman columnist Nedim Hazar, who felt it wrong to shoot a film about an ongoing war, stated, Blood is still being shed. Ambushes, raids and attacks are going on; therefore it is impossible to raise criticism, make a comprehensive analysis or sum up the fight with a film about a bloody process in which there are thousands of victims and slain soldiers with their families. Furthermore, it serves to cover up the genuine factors that are still instrumental to the war, and, he concluded, If you criticize the film, you will be an enemy of the nation and the army; in contrast, when you praise the film and its context, you will be labeled as fascist.
Galatasaray University
Galatasaray University
Galatasaray University or Université Galatasaray is a Turkish university established in İstanbul, Turkey in 1992, following an agreement signed with the presence of President François Mitterrand of France and President Turgut Özal of Turkey during a ceremony at Galatasaray High School, the mother...
scholar Hülya Uğur Tanrıöver, in an interview with NTV
NTV Turkey
NTV is a Turkish nationwide television news channel. NTV was founded in 1996 by Turkish businessman Cavit Çağlar as the first news channel of Turkey and has partnered with MSNBC since May 2000. Aired on this channel is usually the news but also provides football games, especially La Liga matches,...
, criticises the film for gender discrimination, observing, The film underestimates the difficulties women face in big cities. In a phone conversation between a soldier and his lover living in İstanbul, the soldier ignores the problems she has in the city, saying, ‘What difficulties can you experience in İstanbul?’ Moreover, in the next scene, the commander tells a soldier whose girlfriend has left him, ‘This girl would cuckold you if you had not separated.’ These are clear insults to girls living in big cities, and the film, from this point of view, has definite elements of gender discrimination.
Accolades
- 3rd Yeşilçam Awards3rd Yeşilçam AwardsThe 3rd Yeşilçam Awards , presented by the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture and Beyoğlu Municipality, honored the best Turkish films of 2009 and took place on March 23, 2010, at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Hall in Istanbul, Turkey...
(March 23, 2010)- Best Film Award (won)
- Turkcell First Film Award (won)
- 17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film Festival17th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film FestivalThe International 17th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival was a film festival held in Adana, Turkey which ran from September 20 to 26, 2010. Prizes totalling 575,000 Turkish Liras were awarded in three categories and more than 200 films were shown at nine different locations, including the Cinebonus,...
(September 20-26, 2010)- Best Director: Levent Semerci (shared with Selim Demirdelen for The CrossingThe Crossing (2010 film)The Crossing is a 2010 Turkish drama film directed by Selim Demirdelen, which is about a devoted family man who comes home from work oneda to find his house deserted...
) - Audience Jury Best Picture (won)
- Best Director: Levent Semerci (shared with Selim Demirdelen for The Crossing
See also
- 2009 in film2009 in filmThe year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
- Turkish films of 2009Turkish films of 2009A list of films produced by the Turkish film industry in Turkey in 2009.- Highest-grossing films :- January – June :- July – December :- References :...
- Turkey – Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict