the “white as snow” of the warmest feelings / danzon

2011.05.20
danzon2008.blogspot.com.tr

“sonbahar”, “bal”, “pandora’nın kutusu”, “bulutları beklerken”, “zefir”, “hakkari’de bir mevsim”, “kosmos”, “yer demir gök bakır”: in one way or another, they are all soul twins of “white as snow”… this time, we witness the world of a little boy in the harsh nature of the eastern black sea winter.

in its story centred on 9–10-year-old hasan, “white as snow” explores the themes of longing, waiting and deprivation through the lives of different people living in and around a mountain village. “white as snow” gets under your skin!

in “white as snow”, adapted from sabahattin ali’s story “ayran”, screenwriter-director selim güneş, instead of telling the story in a straight line, conveys emotions to the audience by tacking fragments, moments and situations together one after another.

the most basic element that helps selim güneş on this path is the music by mircan kaya. mournful compositions that set the rhythm and strengthen the feeling, and a laz lullaby repeated a few times, weave the film’s canvas in arrangements led by uğur ışık’s heartfelt cello.

selim güneş being a photographic artist lifts the visual aesthetics of this first film to a higher level. happily, the 2.35 : 1 cinemascope images do not serve aesthetics alone; they match the content and themes of the story.

the story of hasan and those around him, whose troubles we come to share amid the snowy landscapes of the artvin-şavşat region with very little dialogue over 82 minutes, is left open-ended; just as befits this poem of a film!

*****

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