Mutluluk (2007) is a Turkish film shown in the U.S. with the translated title "Bliss." It was co-written and directed by Abdullah Oguz. The movie is based on a novel by Zülfü Livaneli .
The movie opens with a young woman, laying unconscious at the side of a rural road. Everyone assumes that she has been raped, and, therefore, "dishonored." In that remote setting, the family honor can only be restored by the woman's death. A second cousin, Cemal, is chosen to kill her. She is forced to travel to Istanbul with Cemal, where the killing is going to take place.
Özgü Namal plays the young woman (Meryem), while Murat Han portrays Cemal. Both of them are superb actors, and it's a pleasure to see them display their acting skills.
The location switches to Istanbul, which is a huge cosmopolitan city. (The population of Istanbul's metropolitan municipality is over 15 million!) "Honor killing" is seen as barbaric there. The location again shifts to an area outside of Istanbul, where the mountains meet the ocean.
This movie is very compelling, because there's tension in every scene. Even when matters appear to be going well, you know that they won't remain that way. I don't want to describe it further, because I urge people to find this movie and appreciate it without knowing any more about the plot.
We saw this movie on DVD, where it worked well enough. Some of the scenery is incredibly beautiful, so that beauty is partially lost on the small screen. If you get a chance to see this film in a theater, take it. If not, watch it anyway.
"Bliss" has a very strong IMDb rating of 7.6. I think it's even better than that.
The movie opens with a young woman, laying unconscious at the side of a rural road. Everyone assumes that she has been raped, and, therefore, "dishonored." In that remote setting, the family honor can only be restored by the woman's death. A second cousin, Cemal, is chosen to kill her. She is forced to travel to Istanbul with Cemal, where the killing is going to take place.
Özgü Namal plays the young woman (Meryem), while Murat Han portrays Cemal. Both of them are superb actors, and it's a pleasure to see them display their acting skills.
The location switches to Istanbul, which is a huge cosmopolitan city. (The population of Istanbul's metropolitan municipality is over 15 million!) "Honor killing" is seen as barbaric there. The location again shifts to an area outside of Istanbul, where the mountains meet the ocean.
This movie is very compelling, because there's tension in every scene. Even when matters appear to be going well, you know that they won't remain that way. I don't want to describe it further, because I urge people to find this movie and appreciate it without knowing any more about the plot.
We saw this movie on DVD, where it worked well enough. Some of the scenery is incredibly beautiful, so that beauty is partially lost on the small screen. If you get a chance to see this film in a theater, take it. If not, watch it anyway.
"Bliss" has a very strong IMDb rating of 7.6. I think it's even better than that.