A wonderful portrait of a rural family and modern city existence, told through the life (and its problems) of a teenage boy, his relatives and friends. The director tackles present day Turkish society in a subtle and attractive way.
Mertkan (21) is a passive young man who still lives with his parents and works in the office of his father’s building company. In his spare time, he hangs round with friends and visits clubs in Istanbul. His life is stable but empty, until he meets the Kurdish Gül. His dominant, uncompromising father is very negative about Kurds and opposes their contact. The question is whether Mertkan can shake off all expectations and make his own decision.
In this powerful debut, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Lion of the Future, Seren Yüce examines Turkish taboos in a delicate manner, using a complex father-son relationship, growing up, and the position of women in a society dominated by men.
There’s an important role in Majority for the architecture of the city, as a metaphor for the complexities of life. Yüce regards his film drama as self-criticism, criticism of Turkish society, of which he is himself part.
Programmer Note by Ludmila Cvikova:
If you ask me for my favourite film of 2010 then I will tell you I have got two: the Turkish film Majority and the Romanian one Tuesday, After Christmas. The former because of its seemingly uncomplicated look into complicated, modernizing society in Turkey. The latter because of its virtuosity in directing and acting of a few long shots that the film consists of.
I still freshly remember the excitement of the Majority-crew in Venice, after the premiere. They were standing there, on the stage, the whole group on the background of red colour and trying to get control over their excitement while one of them was translating into English what was being said. I followed the whole discussion and was amazed once again by the excellent work of the director with the actors. You would not recognize them outside the film - as they totally amalgamated with their characters.
When we got out of the cinema I knew: this is one of the strongest Turkish films of the year. Also for its sublime reflection of the subjects like family traditions and their hierarchy, modern youth within the society, military service and more.
TURKEY 2010
Director Seren Yüce
Producer Sevil Demirci, Önder Çakar Yeni Sinemacilik
Sales The Match Factory GmbH
Print source The Match Factory GmbH
Scenario Seren Yüce
Cast Bartu Kücükcaglayan, Settar Tanriögen, Nihal Koldas, Esme Madra
Photography Baris Özbicer
Editor Mary Stephen
Production design Meral Efe
Sound design Mustafa Bölükbasi
Music Gokce Akcelik
Length 102'
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