Review of Dry Summer

I was born and raised in Turkey (Turkiye). I did watch the movie on Turkish TV more than 20 years ago. Sadly, it was only once. What I remember may not be enough for me to do justice to the movie. I may add that my knowledge of films that deal with similar themes is rather limited. I am in no position, for instance, to decide whether the theme was borrowed from a previous work, or whether it was dealt with here for the first time. What I do remember is that one of the most important moral issues that the movie dealt with was the question of whether or not water can be fairly dammed by a person (or people) upstream, if it is clear that such a dam would cause serious drought downstream. The villain (Erol Tas, a gentle person in real life, and arguably the best/most hated villain in Turkish cinema thus far) acts as if he has every right to cause such a drought. He even seems to enjoy himself taking a bath in the pool/artificial lake that he creates, while his neighbors go without water for their land and their daily use. Erol Tas's villainy is not limited only to this. However, it is interesting that this gem of a Turkish film also points out to the criminality of the Turkish Republic's construction of a series of dams that are sure to deprive Syria and Iraq of life-giving water. As far as I know, this film was the first Turkish film to receive a prestigious award and critical acclaim in Europe. It deserves to be remembered, re-watched, and made available on DVD.