Surprisingly, it was Dune 2 – specifically at an IMAX cinema – that kept coming to mind as I watched because the chosen aspect ratio here of 16:9 for the image is unusual in feature films, stripping away the black bars and slimline pretensions of the more usual 1:85, and gifting a bit of verticality into the image. The recent mania for open matte presentations of 35mm films suggests perhaps cinema risks being its own anachronism in form. The screen-filling digital video here also shows the frame on the march, stretching with the phones in our hands ever upwards. BTW YouTube, no I don’t want to watch ‘Shorts’ on a widescreen laptop or anywhere else, thanks, and nor should you.
“…a bewitching little slice of Ozu in the Balkans…”
Little on Earth has the power of cinema to explain people, and this small production is an exemplar of that. Bayrak should be immensely proud of her story. It’s very satisfying to watch a Muslim and European cast in a drama that is as judicious in its use of Western cues as it is brimming with its formulation of new ones. Countries like Turkey and Kosovo sometimes seem trapped in the woeful European perceptions of the neighboring Middle East, and work like this is incredibly good at disabusing such clichés about the lives that carry on outside our view but which abut our humanity. This is a bewitching little slice of Ozu in the Balkans. Highly recommended.
Gülizar screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
"…Gülizar is assaulted en-route to her nuptials in neighboring Kosovo"
