"Mutluluk" is the story of three people whose lives are intersected against the backdrop of a potential honor-killing.(namus cinayeti.)For some foreigners who do not know much about the specific kind of customs here's cultural note merged with my personal assessment;Namus which is loosely translated as "honor" is an ethical category, a virtue, in Middle Eastern Muslim patriarchal character. It is a strongly gender-specific category of relations within a family described in terms of honor, attention, respect/respectability, and modesty. Here in Turkey in rural areas the honor of a woman is linked to the honor of a man. If a woman takes an independent, unwonted step that means pretty much that the man has lost the control over the woman.Whether it's an open Central Anatolian community or it's just a closed isolated eastern Kurdish community pre-marital sex is a taboo. Virginity(pureness in the local eyes)is sociological concept/quality that's still looked for in a girl.Maryam (Ozgu Namal)is found to be lying unconscious after a potential rape.Rape is something to do with being "impure" in the eyes of the patriarchal structure of the family.The family majlis decides that the eldest son,which happens to Cemal(Murat Han),who has just been back from the military service,is bound to kill Maryam and clear the honour of the family. Since the local gendarme is around, the father orders Cemal to bring her to Istanbul and finish the job on the train but Cemal cannot bring himself to kill her somehow.After having been to a few acquaintances they meet Professor Irfan(Talat Bulut), who has been disillusioned with profuse,repeating but spiritually scant academic achievements. This unexpected chance encounter gives Cemal and Irfan the chance to get to know themselves better while the supposedly "dirty" Meryem displays a pristine,immaculate soul.I do not necessarily want my comment to be a spoiler but if one wants to know something about the sweet internal pureness of a teenage girl who has been abused, if one wants to know what a persona can go through under such circumstances the flick is the just what one needs. I have not read the book but the movie accomplished its message. The directing, the acting is great too. For instance, there is a scene where Meryem pushes her hair inside her scarf right away when she sees a strange man(Irfan).That's what local village girls do. The way the villagers talk, the way they wear(their local clothing,shoes)just fits. I guess the only out-of-environment thing is Meryem's plucked eyebrows and porcelain white teeth, which is something that can be easily ruled out.
Review of Mutluluk
