THE BRIDE (Gelin)
Directed by Omer Lutfi Akad
Cast: Hulya Kocyigit, Kerem Yilmazer, Kahraman Kiral, Ali Sen, Aliye Rona, Kamuran Usluer, Nazan Adali, Seden Kiziltunc
1973, 97 minutes
Festivals and Awards: Best Film, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor Awards in the Golden Cocoon (Altin Koza) Film Festival, Adana, Turkey
Synopsis: The Bride, which depicts the struggles of a migrant Anatolian family to adapt to and survive in the very different conditions of urban Istanbul, is one of the best presentations of internal migration in Turkish cinema. It is also the first, and most accomplished film in Ömer Lütfi Akad's celebrated trilogy, which with The Wedding (Dügün, 1973) and Blood Money (Diyet) has earned a respected place in world cinema for its thematic unity. The Bride masterfully exposes the evolution of 'little Anatolia' in Istanbul, a phenomenon that would go on to acquire far larger dimensions.
The streets of Istanbul are paved with gold - or so people believe… The Bride portrays the migrant mentality with disarming realism: the unfaltering determination to build a 'present' and 'future' in the big city, even if that means selling everything back home. And the exceptional performance of Hülya Koçyigit in the role of Meryem reinforces the pathos. Here is a film of 'one-way' journeys: we see the young Meryem lose her ailing son as life grows ever harsher; we follow her to the local factory, where she eventually signs on; we watch parallel developments in the family she married into. And their respective odysseys are central to the 'great leaps forward' of Turkish cinema at the beginning of the 1970s.
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