The Breath (Nefes:Vatan sagolsun)

[pro-bassoonist]

Please see post #4 (this disc is NOT recommended).

Turkish director Levent Semerci's The Breath (2009) has been released on Blu-ray. The disc arrives with optional English, French and German subtitles.

Official site and trailer:
NEFES / Vatan SaÄŸolsun

Blu-ray:
http://www.idefix.com/video/nefes-va...JVJ3MSKKOBVQRN


TodaysZaman:

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. This might be the only way to endure veteran commercial director Levent Semerci's debut feature, “Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun” (Breath), one of the most disturbing films I have seen in a very long time.

The funny thing is I still remain undecided whether the film is a masterpiece or an emotionally explosive disaster. One thing is for sure: this is 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) and thus gains respect for its initiative. Though the film does not aim to be political in the general sense and makes the right decision by this exclusion (there are no debates regarding the how and why of the conflict), it remains patriotic from start to finish -- something that is expected from a film that depicts a division of commandos who are carrying out their mandatory military service in 1992, in the fortified mountains of eastern Turkey under the constant threat of combat with the terrorist organization.

The film is currently playing to a full house in almost all of İstanbul's movie theaters and, by the look of it, in all the other cities it's being screened in. The theater in which I watched the movie was full of men and women from different backgrounds, all hypnotized throughout its 128-minute running time and especially transfixed by its final sequence, a mortifying (in every sense of the word) bloodbath that raises some significant questions about the power of cinematic works inspired by true events, especially from the front lines. In some cases, screen realism can be so nightmarish that the viewer can surpass the point of empathy and feel that the experience is his/her own. Does cinema have the right to do this? Perhaps yes or perhaps no, but 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.

If the final sequence of the film is extremely intense, the main opening sequence is not very different, through the psychological horror that the soldiers are subjected to. The task force's gung-ho captain (Mete Horozoğlu) takes his 40 men outside and gives them the lecture of a lifetime. One of the most insane yet genuine monologues in Turkish cinema history takes place; the captain explains step by step what will happen to the soldiers if they die -- what will happen to their families and how their deaths will only be mentioned on television screens for 30 seconds. The captain makes it more than clear: These boys are here to die for their country, but under no circumstances, orders the captain, will they die. And so the story ensues as the men defend the remote relay station they're located in and wait anxiously for an attack that might come from the terrorists. In almost disconnected chapters with no special plot, we watch the real disposition of Turkish soldiers appointed to the hardest and most dangerous job in the military.

The first half of the movie seems to launch into too much of an advertisement as we are not fully introduced to the characters and continuously watch various montage sequences of the men training, the men calling their families and loved ones who are far away, the men bonding and the men writing letters. The problem with such excerpts is that they remain a bit too on the surface in an attempt to give them all equal screen time.

Luckily the pace of the film takes off midway, and we get a better inside look at these young men. Semerci manages to create a stunning atmosphere of abandonment, fear and camaraderie as he shows the task force stuck in the relay station at the top of the colossal white mountains where everyone (their families and the state) has almost forgotten them, except for the enemy. They are here for their country, but they can't wait to go back home. The saddest thing is that we realize throughout the film that these boys are too naïve and are never really prepared despite their training, and even if they don't know it, we know what's coming for them.

Adapted from writer Hakan Evrensel's short stories “Tales from the Southeast” and “Ground Minus Zero,” “Nefes” provides a succinct depiction of what being a soldier in southeastern Turkey entails. Even though at times the in-your-face romanticism and the poetic aspirations become too much to handle, the incessant frames of cloudy skies and mountains prove useful in providing a much-needed break. Still, the film is beautifully shot, and some images will be embedded in our collective memories for a very long time as Semerci provides us with a film with incredibly high production value.

Despite its flaws, most of which are based on the film's length, “Nefes” 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. Hopefully 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.

Pro-B