A sweet-tempered musician from a small Turkish village is crushed by guilt after becoming part of a lynch mob in Black Night (Karanlik Gece), and his obsessive search for redemption dangerously alienates him from those still covering up their tracks. Although he is no relation to director Emin Alper, whose political thriller Burning Days just walked away with nine awards at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, writer and director Özcan Alper (Future Lasts Forever, Memories of the Wind) is certainly on the same wavelength. His new film bears a striking thematic resemblance in its condemnation of the mindless populism that infects people, turning them into murderous mobs who leave dark destruction in their wake.
It feels like a new way to view the masses, and this bloodthirsty and fearful vision could easily be applied to other countries and different scenarios. Winning the top prize for best film at Antalya, as well as best screenplay kudos for Murat Uyurkulak and Alper, Black Night reinforces the politically tinged message that now is the time for individuals to stand up for what they believe, however dangerous it may be to buck the powers-that-be and the community at large. It also touches on how viciously homophobia is used to isolate individuals outside the pack, and seamlessly integrates environmental issues within a basic thriller format.
Where Burning Days had its frightening sinkholes that suddenly opened up around town, Black Night’s environmental metaphors are even more spectacularly visual: the deep caves and crevices that dot a piece of mountainous terrain, ready to swallow up unwanted bodies in a symbolic collective repression. In the skillful hands of cinematographer Yunis Roy Imer, these extraordinary natural formations assume a majestic yet forbidding aspect, and the final scenes of the film make excellent use of them in heart-stopping shots that keep the audience on seat-edge. What reins in the enjoyment for non-Turkish audiences is the way key plot points and the ending itself are telegraphed early in film, making the story easier to comprehend perhaps, but less exciting to follow.
Berkay Ates, who was one of the leads in Emin Alper’s story of political violence and police informants, Frenzy, here plays the laid-back folk singer and musician Ishak at two crucial moments in his life. Seven years ago, living with his folks in his native village, he was a light-hearted youth interested in a pretty girl who was bound for university. Today he is a sad, somber-faced man living in the city, with a lone streak of gray hair above the ears to help set the timeframe as the editing jumps back and forth in time.
The event that changed everything for him is a truly horrible murder that is perhaps announced too soon. Working overtime, editors Osman Bayraktaroglu and Umut Sakallioglu leave a trail of clues as to what is going to happen – the biggest one being Ishak’s present self-exile from the village. When his mother falls gravely ill, he is compelled to return and rake up the coals of his past.
In any case, the viewer is fully aware that the curly-haired young naturalist Ali (popular TV star Cem Yigit Üzümoglu), who arrives from the city to embark on a job as a mountain ranger, is far too blond and idealistic for the suspicious, closed, gun-happy village. Instructed by the head ranger to turn a blind eye on poachers and their bear-traps, Ali finally chooses a solitary life in nature in a monastic cabin deep in the mountains, against the advice of his boss. But it’s already too late to placate the villagers’ xenophobia.
Among their objections to the clean-hearted boy, their avowed homophobia is not very convincing. Ishak’s buddies tease him cruelly after they see him swimming with Ali and playing music together, but this male camaraderie is not backed up by any soul-searching on Ishak’s part or any close encounters of a near-sexual nature. Rather confusingly, Ali is also accused of making advances to or even raping Sultan, the girl Ishak likes, so it feels more like a question of trumped-up charges and rabid ill will by a pack of young males worked up for a rumble, than a case of two men who are attracted to each other, like in the far more explicit and daring Burning Days.
Leaving these uncertainties behind, the final scenes aspire to and largely attain a higher level, as Ishak searches for his lost friend deep in the earth, lowering himself on homemade knotted ropes as though into the bowels of hell. But even as the cinematography and narrative merge in an exciting climax, the audience is uncomfortably aware he has left an obvious trail for the pack to follow, and once again it anticipates what will happen.
Director: Özcan Alper
Screenplay: Özcan Alper, Murat Uyurkulak
Cast: Berkay Ates, Cem Yigit Üzümoglu, Pinar Deniz, Taner Birsel, Sibel Kekilli
Producers: Soner Alper, Necati Akpinar, Ersin Celik, Bülent Makar, Marina Perales Marhuenda, Xavier Rocher
Cinematography: Yunis Roy Imer
Editing: Osman Bayraktaroglu, Umut Sakallioglu
Art directors: Elif Tasçioglu, Elif Öner
Costume design: Baran Ugurlu
Music: Kemal Cansun Kucukturk
Production companies: Nar Film (Turkey), Arthood Films (Germany), La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma (France)
World Sales: Arthood Entertainment
Venue: Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival Film Festival (National competition)
In Turkish
114 minutes
