Word: dogan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...must be the best Turkish film by default, but it has also proved its worth against some tough foreign competition--including The Pawnbroker--winning the Golden Bear award for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1964. Directed by Ismail Metin and starring and produced by Ulvi Dogan, Dry Summer is a cinema verite account of village life in Western Turkey...
...history of the making of the film is testimony to its degree of truthfulness. Dogan made the film on a paltry budget, with one hand-held camera. The finished version includes one out of every 1.2 feet of film Dogan shot; most feature-length productions shoot at a ratio of 10 to 1 or greater. Although Dry Summer was put together in only three months, using mostly peasants for the cast, Dogan was able to produce an outstanding document of an underdeveloped country's rural life...
Upon completion, Dry Summer was reviewed and banned by a Turkish censorship board because, as Dogan put it recently, "I'm not beautifying anything, I am showing things as they are." Dogan even had to sneak his film out of the country to show it in film festivals around the world, and when he arrived back home, he was arrested for misrepresenting his country and smuggling. Since then the Turkish government has legalized the film, adapted from a novel of the same name by Necati Cumali, a lawyer involved in the actual case upon which this story is based...
...brothers, Ossman (Erol Tas) and Hassan (Ulvi Dogan)own a farm with the only spring in miles; their water is vital for the irrigation of the villagers' crops. But Ossman decides to cut off the village's water supply to enlarge his own crops, despite his younger brother's opposition. In the ensuing battle for water Ossman and Hassan are arrested for murder, although only Ossman is responsible. Out of the traditional respect for his elders, Hassan admits guilt and takes Ossman's place in jail while he returns to the farm...
...DOGAN MAINTAINS that the film has an explicit political message, that it is an examination of corruption and apathy within the government. But its appeal seems to be more in its obvious good-will-win-over-evil message. Political ideology is submerged beneath the surface of individuals in conflict. The government is merely a force in the background, not the central focus of the film. And the conflict itself sometimes borders on the melodramatic...