A film that takes up residence in the mind: White as Snow / Leyla Özyol

2014.06.15
İstanbul

“Ayran”, which, served cold in summer, practically brings a person back to life, this time, in its own whiteness and in an “ice”-cold landscape, becomes the means of survival and of a hope as pure as snow…

The story of White as Snow takes place in Şavşat, Artvin… Throughout the film, in a village dominated by pure white snow, the untouched state of nature and the simplicity of the people match the innocence of Hasan, who tries to look after his siblings by selling ayran. But this untouched landscape also harbours an uncanny “howling”… As the film’s narrative unfolds, apart from little Hasan’s innocence, we also encounter many stories that are not “white”: an informer whom we have seen from the start as a kindly old man; Recep, who buries himself ever deeper in his hut out of longing for his beloved; Halil, the guilty father in prison; and the forest engineer who feels quite “renowned” in this nameless village and so has left his sense of belonging behind somewhere long before boarding the minibus…

In its quiet narrative, the film in fact lets out a forceful, painful scream in Hasan’s every effort to sell the ayran in his jug, calling “Ayran, fresh ayran”.

The attention paid to detail throughout the film is one of the elements that most strengthens the narrative. The images stay in your mind like photographs. But these photographs go far beyond the ghostly pictures in an album that says nothing, or that you leaf through quickly, pictures that never settle in your mind. The colourful balloon in the tree, Halil’s dance in a joy unaware of the road to prison, a child’s feet on a swing, the ayran left on lips, the owners of happy giggles who have cheekily finished off the bread, the breakfast everyone eats separately… Within its own silence, the film actually speaks through the mouth of each character in turn. A story that gives voice to sorrow, hardship, waiting and the fire in the heart turning into real fires carries on in a style that somehow preserves hope to the very end.

And then there is the music… Mircan’s heart-touching melodies become, at times, the loudest dialogue of Hasan, at times of his mother, and sometimes of Halil in prison.

Adapted from Sabahattin Ali’s work Ayran, White as Snow is director Selim Güneş’s first film. For a first film it is very accomplished, with a flavour that leaves you eagerly awaiting the director’s next film. So much so that it raises expectations considerably…

*****