The other passenger, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat and leaning out the window with a camera, was Jennifer Pitt, a senior researcher for the Environmental Defense Fund. Snow had fallen in the mountains during the night, and I half expected it to swirl up in the plane’s wake. “But if you ask them to count backward from a hundred by sevens they have trouble.” What struck me at that moment was not how high we were but how low: a little earlier, we had flown within what seemed like hailing distance of the sheer east face of Longs Peak, and now, as Kunkel banked steeply to the right to give a better view of a stream at the bottom of a narrow valley, his wingtip appeared to pass just feet from the jagged declivity beneath. “People don’t usually think altitude is affecting them,” he said. We were in a Maule M-7, a single-engine “backcountry” plane, and Kunkel was navigating with the help of an iPad Mini, which was resting on his legs. We had taken off from Boulder that morning, and were flying over Rocky Mountain National Park, about thirty miles to the northwest. After all, that might be the only real currency one has left to invest.Our pilot, David Kunkel, asked me to retrieve his oxygen bottle from under my seat, and when I handed it to him he gripped the plastic breathing tube with his teeth and opened the valve. Photographic portraits of villagers, poetically shot frosty vistas captured by cinematographers Cevahir Sahin and Kürsat Üresin and talky, richly executed set-pieces with side characters as memorable as the principles deepen his story of those who can use ample doses of hope regardless of how drained they might feel. Because he can write a certain type of self-absorbed and entitled male character so well with both critique and understanding, he makes sure we comprehend the source of Samet’s nihilism at the end of this enthralling sequence, as much as we admire and approve of Nuray’s commendable valour.Įlsewhere, Ceylan nurtures “About Dry Grasses” with artistic touches. But that’s too easy for Ceylan to leave it at that. It’s an impeccably written and performed quarrel during which a lesser filmmaker would only go as far as applauding Nuray’s courage and scolding Samet’s lack of enthusiasm. “What is it that you think you want to contribute to the world once you transfer to Istanbul and take your problems with you?” “What kind of a man are you?” she demands to know. Perhaps the only exception to this is a fiery dinner scene with Nuray and Samet, when she confronts his indifferent attitude with her fighting spirit. While “About Dry Grasses” isn’t a blatantly political film with spelled out partisan sentiments, social, economic, gender, religious and diversity politics are internalized everywhere on its soil, with both vigor and a dry sense of humor. He can’t stomach that Nuray might see something pure, earned and authentic in Kenan-in short, the qualities he doesn’t lean on as an apathetic individual who complains about everything, but doesn’t care to be the hero to change anything. Sean Penn Slams Movie Producers, Calls Healthcare System a Racket in Cannes Press ConferenceĪnd when the two teachers meet Nuray (an enthralling Merve Dizdar), an educator and lefty artist and activist who’s lost her leg in an explosion, Samet goes out of his way to block her friendship and possible romantic union with Kenan. So the sweet Sevim’s crush amid this nothingness is just a casual toy for him to cruelly play with. He’s bored, isolated and sometimes frighteningly snappy with his students. But he does shockingly enable and even groom Sevim’s youthful crush on him all the same, for no other reason than to prop up his own bruised ego. On paper, Samet doesn’t technically commit an offense. Samet’s demeanor towards her is just one of those questionable and uncomfortable things the grown-up eye notices quickly-the physical proximity between the two, the innocent enough yet still improper gifts given by Samet, the favoritism he displays in class that crosses a border. Our way into Samet’s headspace (and sometimes outright appalling personality) is a faint air of inappropriateness between him and his young student Sevim (Ece Bagci, who should be a star in the making), a bubbly and giggly young girl evidently pleased to be the favorite of the teacher she seems to have a crush on. With dreams of being transferred to an Istanbul school soon, Samet-the latest addition to Ceylan’s long list of misanthropic men-has been stuck at this recent mandatory post for four years, looking forward to his fast approaching departure. Cannes Day 4: Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones Return for Palais GloryĪmong the everyday people feeling the fatigue is the perennial burnout Samet (an enigmatic, often aptly prickly Deniz Celiloglu), a cynical elementary school art teacher returning to his tiny, snow-covered village in Eastern Turkey to continue his job after a school break or, let’s say, to conclude it once and for all.
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