My Only Sunshine

Hayat (Elit Işcan) is a troubled 14-year-old who seems to choose to hum constantly rather than say very much at all. Her father (Erdal Beşikçioğli) is a pimp and smuggler, catering for the large cargo ships on the Istanbul waterways. Her short-tempered grandfather (Levend Yilmaz) is ill and dying, unable to leave the bed that has been set up in the living room of the riverside shack they inhabit. Her mother (Banu Fotocan) has a new family and wants little to do with her. She's bullied at school, seems to be surrounded by sexual predators, eats chocolate whenever she can get her hands on it, and takes her frustration out on the Turkey that gets in her way. Hayat is clearly not a happy child, on the verge of becoming a woman, yet somehow, through her enduring spirit, she deals with the harsh injustices she has to face. Reha Erdem follows the celebrated Times and Winds with a poetic, bold and rewarding feature, daring in both form and content. In telling Hayat's tale, the plot itself is barely hinted at and open to interpretation, while technically, it's incredibly seductive, stunningly shot on and around the Bosphorus straits, with a striking use of sound.

Michael Hayden