SUT (MILK)
Turkey, 2008, 102 minutes, Colour.
Melih Selcuk, Basak Koklukaya.
Directed by Semih Kaplanoglu.
Milk is the second of a project trilogy, the first being Egg (2007).
The central character is a young man, recently graduated from high school, living in a village in the hinterland of the Aegean coast, behind Izmir. He lives with his mother who has a cow, sells the milk and cheese at the market as well as deliveries.
The young man is an introvert, a poet, has sent poetry to a literary magazine and does have one published. He is friendly with the professor, who mainly gets drunk and is of no practical help. He is able to show his friend, a miner in the recently established mine, his poem and his friend encourages him to continue his writing. He has one outing with a young woman but seems more interested in himself and his inner world.
When he is called to join the army, he does tests but is rejected. Later he has an epileptic fit. Meanwhile his mother, by chance since her son had not repaired the motorcycle tyres, gets some help from the station master and begins a relationship with him which has an adverse effect on the boy.
The setting is poetic, there are beautiful lyric views of the countryside and with many long takes, especially of individuals’ faces as well as of the surroundings, it is something of a contemplative film.
The film opens with some magic realism, a shaman who writes his messages on small pieces of paper and puts them in milk to see whether they will dissolve or sink. A young woman is brought to him and she is hung upside down and his incantations mean that a snake is removed from her, a kind of exorcism. Later the young man will go to the shaman and ask his help about his future life. Because the boy is epileptic – with the overtones of their being something mysterious, mysterious spirits in an epileptic, the boy has special significance. However, this part of the trilogy ends rather dramatically and sadly as the boy goes to work in the mine.
1.A poetic film, lyrical, contemplative?
2.The Turkish hinterland, the village and its extent, the homes, the environment, the historical ruins, the mines, the railway? The contrast with the city of Izmir, the bookshops, the army headquarters …? The musical score and the Turkish tones?
3.The title, the opening, the symbolic use of milk, the shaman and the message in the milk? The literal milk, the milking of the cow, Yousef and his delivering the milk – and the women later refusing because of the failure of his mother to deliver the milk?
4.The opening, the shaman, his writing, the men waiting with the young girl, her fear, her being lifted up, hanging upside down, the prayers and the exorcism, the snake emerging from her mouth? Yousef’s later visit to the shaman, his writing his message, putting it in the milk?
5.Yousef’s story, his age, schooling over, considerably introverted, writing poetry, the meetings with the professor, his drinking beer, helping him home? The poem being published and his mother’s response? Sharing it with his friend at the mine? His relationship with his mother, the bike and his not fixing the tyre, the meals at home, his loving his mother, the work, selling the cheese at the market, his going to buy shoes, outing with the girl in the ruins, the deliveries of the milk, his mother’s failure and the customers cutting him off, going to the army for the tests, meeting the girl in the bookshop, planning to meet her again and his not doing so? His crashing the bike, the epileptic fit? Seeing his mother looking in the mirror, coming to the door again and pretending he hadn’t seen? The effect of the relationship on him? Going to mines, the long single take at the end, going into the light on his miner’s hat, going to his face? His future?
6.Yousef’s mother, her age, life, love for her son, hard work, the milking, the market, the bike, the breakdown, the station and the station master helping her, the visits, the coffee grounds and the woman interpreting her future, the satisfaction of the relationship, her looking at herself in the mirror, admiring herself? The clashes with her son?
7.Yousef, the professor, his friend in the mine, the customers, the girl in the ruins, the girl in the town, the army interviews? His capacities for relating to people? Being by himself?
8.The poetic style, the contemplative gaze, the long shots, the pauses, sharing? The sadness of the ending?
