"Sonbahar" ("Autumn")

Set in Turkey, this is a film which follows a young man recently released from ten years in prison. He was punished as a student socialist anarchist and contracted a lung disease while incarcerated, allowing him to be released.

Traveling back to his mother’s home in the mountainous country, he struggles to find his place in a world that has moved on without him. A story of a man in quiet isolation and solitude, this film struggles for a strong through line with which to carry it dramatically. Far too many lonely shots of the main character smoking, gazing into the distance.

The main character develops a possible relationship with another lonely figure, a Georgian prostitute who reads Russian novels and works in Turkey to support her child back home.

Ultimately a story that doesn’t meet the expectations of the film it could have been.