Süt (Milk): 2008Vision date: 2.
01.2009Director: Semih Kaplano?luDuration: 1 hour 42 minutesActors: Melih Selçuk, Ba?ak Köklükaya, R?za Ak?n, ?erifErol, Saadet I??l AksoyGenre: DramaCountry: Turkey, France, Germany Süt (Milk) Film ReviewSüt (Milk) (2008) is the second film by Yusuf Trilogy(Yusuf Üçlemesi) of Semih Kaplano?lu. Süt (Milk) film, which Melih Selçuk(Yusuf) and Ba?ak Köklukaya (Zahra-Yusuf’s mothers) starring roles share, withfilms the Süt (Milk) film describes theadolescence period of Yusuf’s.
After finishing high school, Yusuf lives by selling milkand dairy products in Tire he together with own mother who is a from the ageof military services and you can not win the universityexam.Yusuf trying toget along by selling milk and dairy products, write poetry is the greatest passion to for Yusuf and he will topublish them somewhere. Yusuf sends his poems to unknown magazines. But Yusuf’swork does not make his mother happy, whose work is not going very well. Yusufis not taken to the military because of epilepsy disease. Later, with thearrival of the station chief (?erif Erol) in his mother’s life, life becomesmore difficult for Yusuf. Yusuf is physically deficient due to epilepsy disease.Despite all these physical inadequacies, Yusuf finds the escape in the depthsof a mine.
The Süt (Milk) film begins with a stunning scene which awoman is tied up and turned upside down by a snake is pulled out of her mouth andthe film ends with a scene in which Yusuf ‘s showed farewell to the poetry andshowed that he worked in the mine as his did like own age.In addition, the Yusuf Trilogy(Yusuf Üçlemesi), whichalso includes Süt (Milk) Film’s, has won numerous awards. According to Box Office Turkey the film has made a total of 58,12,50 perproceeds. In addition, it has reached 6,613 spectators. (https://boxofficeturkiye.com/film/sut-2010071) The film gives a break to past narrative forms and someaspects of that rejects the New Turkey cinema’s product New Turkish cinema portrays worried, unhappy,stressful and broken lives. It’s talks about tragic events and the animatedpeople in the movies are unhappy. (Bayrakdar, D.
, Kotaman,A,, U?ursoy, A.S.) (2009). Cambridge Scholars Publishing ,Cinema and Politics : Turkish Cinema andThe New Europe). In this film depictedYusuf character is also unhappy. The film all characters are live stressfulllifes.In the Süt (Milk) film, Yusuf steps into adulthood insearch of a father figure who will become a role model for him.
He now wants tobe the owner of the house, the power, at least as a man. Yusuf was not taken into military service, did not find areal job , and in the field of literature he could not get what he wanted yetand he is a loser. Military service is a prerequisite for being a man andrespecting in this society.
Military service is a prerequisite for being a manand respecting in this society. Thewithdrawal of troops has become traumatic for Yusuf. Yusuf does not have anystatus in the social structure.
Yusuf can notescape the masculine press throughout the entire film. Because Zehra’s femininedisturbed Yusuf, he did not approve of his mother’s relationship with thestation chief. But nothing comes at hand.
He tries to come in from ignoring andignoring the man who aspires to his mother. The main reason why Yusuf’s motherdoes not approve the relationship is social norms. According to social norms,Zehra was a mother and therefore she should not show her femininity. A womancan only exist in society as a mother or a sister. The main reason why Zehradoes not want to get married is still these social norms and woman can not livealone without a man on her head. A widow does not look good.Women must be absolutely married.
It is a threat tomorality that a lover does not end with marriage (Dönmez-Colin, G. ( 2008). TurkishCinema: Identiy,Distance and Belonging).
This film tells how statehood is shaped by people as amentality and how difficult it is for individuals to exist.The province is loaded with encirclement and encirclementfor Yusuf. Yusuf has become a source of unhappiness beyond being a country ofhappiness. Semih Kaplano?lu has made his way to becoming an”auteur” director by placing his own artistic language in the filmshe directed. It is also useful tomention the concept of “auteur” here.
Auteur is the person who wrotethe film with his own thoughts and feelings (Brenner C. (1998).Psychoanalysis:Basic Concepts).It implements the filming personality with features suchas image editing, camera movements. (Özden,Z. (2004). Film Criticism (2ndPrinting) Istanbul: ?mge Bookshop.)As an individual he puts a film on himself and becomes”auteur” with the bloom he created.
Auteur uses and repeats similarthemes and motifs in all own films that are important indicators of a director.This is the case in Semih Kaplano?lu’s every film, seeingrepeated dreams, mixing reality and thinking, breaking time-space perception,references to religious stories etc. it shows itself with elements. It isundeniable that the connection between cinema and dream is very strong. The useof dreams in cinema is a method that world cinema uses from the past. However, itis seen that usage in Turkish cinema is very low.
(Bak?r, B. (2008).Cinema andPsychoanalysis Istanbul: The Phantom Bookstore).Dream use is an important method in terms of giving thedirector clues about the world of the mind as well as giving depth to thecinema. Semih Kaplanoglu frequently uses this method in his films.
We see the use of dreams in Süt (Milk) film on Yusuf’sbroadcast fish and goosefield scene:In this scene, Yusuf catches a broadcast fish as hefollows the chief of the station, who takes his mother’s hand, in the reed tokill with stone. Station chief hunts goose.The fact that Yusuf returned to his mother with his bowtongue and that he had already begun digging, is what Yusuf lost in thiscompetition. We can interpret this scene according to Jung’s archetype theorem.In this theorem, dragon or fish as the savior hero are the most known motifs(Geçti, E. (1998) Psychoanalysis and Postmodern Istanbul: Remzi Kitabevi). Yusuf, who comes home with a big fish in his hand, wantsto show that he is also a man.
The goose seen in this dream sent Zeus to thegoose and to deceive a goddess. In mythology, Zeus deceived and acquired thegoddess Nemesis, who escaped from him and entered the goose saddle (Demiralp D.(2010), “The Most Beautiful of the Ancient Anatolian Legends: TroyHelena”, Academic View, 7, 202). The station chief also got a woman likeZeus with a goose.Finally, the director has used the heavier dose ofsymbolism in the milk film than other films. In addition, Yücel Çakmakl? says thatfilms such as this film can serve as an example for national cinema; because heconsiders such films to be internal narratives that portray our culture, ourlives and our values ?( Arslan, S.
Cinema in Turkey: A New Criticial HistoryIntroduction)
