‘Edge Of Night’: Hamburg Review

Dir/scr: Türker Süer. Germany/Turkey. 2024. 85mins

Two estranged brothers from Turkey discover themselves on opposing sides in Edge Of Night time, the assured debut characteristic from Cologne-born director Türker Süer. A socio-political parable posing as a army thriller, at the least for its first hour, this strikingly shot drama is a stable calling card for Süer. The German-Turkish coproduction premiered at Venice earlier than screening at Toronto and is having its native bow at Hamburg. It ought to show itself to be an in-demand title for showcases spotlighting new expertise.

This strikingly shot drama is a stable calling card for Süer

Once we first meet Sinan (Ahmet Rifat Sungar, from Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Three Monkeys and The Wild Pear Tree), he’s a seemingly poker-faced lieutenant within the Turkish military. The establishment is portrayed as each self-important and chilly — suppose pictures of lengthy, empty but ornate corridors — in addition to barely absurd and pointless (echoes of Mahmut Fazil Coskun’s 2017 tragicomedy The Announcement, a couple of fictional coup in Turkey).

The very critical Sinan is bossed round by these in cost and is requested to accompany a soldier to a army court docket that could be a lengthy drive away. The person in query assaulted a colleague earlier than attempting to flee the nation. The twist, revealed early on, is that the detainee is Kenan (Berk Hakman, from Emin Alper’s Past The Hill), Sinan’s estranged brother. 

Although this isn’t precisely a Cain and Abel narrative, there’s lots of friction between the siblings. This has to do with their shared historical past which is revealed over the course of the narrative – although primarily from Sinan’s point-of-view, as Süer privileges a perspective near his protagonist. (The drama may have benefitted, particularly in its early going, from a extra even-keeled strategy.) The primary bone of competition is how they understand their duties in direction of their fatherland and their precise father, a army man who dedicated suicide years earlier to get out of an extended jail sentence. Sinan had an element in his father’s conviction, as he did what he thought was proper for the nation moderately than his household. The irony is that this can be a worth that their father had instilled in his offspring – although Kenan has one other view of issues.

The household drama is fascinating, particularly as a result of Süer, who additionally wrote the screenplay, deftly makes use of typically minimalistic dialogue to discover the crevices and contradictions of the boys’s opposing viewpoints. However this isn’t solely a household drama. As they journey by way of the darkish Turkish evening, a coup happens on the highest stage of presidency, throwing occasions right into a tailspin. (The movie is about in July 2016, on the time of a real-life coup try by a faction of the Turkish Armed Forces). Who do troopers reply to when the hierarchy turns into unclear? Is it even potential to achieve the army court docket or a army base that’s nearer to the protagonists?

The coup, which happens principally offscreen, overlays the household drama with a political one, and throws into excessive aid how Sinan and Kenan have displayed very completely different coping mechanisms as they’ve tried to maintain their heads above water in a inflexible hierarchy in an more and more undemocratic nation. Why threat your life for an establishment that doesn’t appear to care about yours? 

Working with Italian cinematographer Matteo Cocco, Süer reveals a formidable sense of mise-en-scene and spatial choreography that helps to inform the story visually. Ozan Tekin’s digital rating is atmospheric and builds rigidity, particularly within the extra intense first hour which performs like a thriller. If the remaining 25 minutes are much less intense they’re thematically the richest, because the advanced relationship between the siblings additional crystallises and Edge Of Night time’s thematic pursuits come to the fore.