Despite being aware of the vast quantity of films that the country has made, I have somehow never had the chance to take a glimpse of Turkish cinema. Seeing this title chosen for the main part of the ICM Film Fest,I got set for my first taste of Turkish delight.The plot:Making preparations for the ship to reach port, captain Beybaba gets a call revealing that the shipping company has gone bust,and that the owner of the ship has run off. Wanting to get paid for the job,Beybaba is told that in order to get paid,the ship must not stop at port,and a handful of crew must remain on ship. Waving goodbye to most of the crew,Beybaba and the remaining crew buckle down to carry basic work out on the anchored ship. Finding their time waiting for their wage on the ship to grow from weeks to months,the crew start getting frustrated, and feelings in the ship become as poisonous as ivy.View on the film:Working on actual ships before going behind the camera, writer/director Tolga Karaçelik & cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki crank up an incredibly isolated atmosphere that follows crew members down cramp corridors that have a submarine-level depth of limitation,and the jagged hammering of metal on the soundtrack catching the eerie silence at sea. Leaving a bare bones crew on deck, Karaçelik initially uses wide-shots to give each of them a relative level of space over the first few weeks, which get gradually worn-down by stylishly closing in on the outbursts of tension,as the crew become wrapped in a supernatural chill.Drilling into the frustrations of each crew member, the screenplay by Tolga Karaçelik casts the net to the thoughtful allegorical, with the chain of command being a battle between the corrupt elite, (who care so little for the crew,that they are prepared to leave them strained for months) and the worker caught in the daily grind of the machine,with the ghostly shadow of an "independent" Kurd always in the background. While exploring the allegorical, Karaçelik does not let any cracking tension to seep out into the water,as the crews times on the ship turns into that of a hostage situation,gripped by them waiting for the payment to arrive for their freedom, as ivy climbs up the walls of the ship.

"Sarmaşık" is a little surprise, a gripping and twisting story about six men that have to stay on board a ship when the owner of the cargo ship goes bankrupt. Till the owner is found and things can be resolved, the six men will try to keep the ship clean and in good condition. The group includes the captain, an experienced sailor, a guy that works in the kitchen, a silent and very very tall guy and a couple of pot smokers... Pretty soon things turn sour.The film is a study about solitude, the purposeless of life, the power fights between men... And it does a great job in delivering in all of those topics. The focus is clear, the direction tight and the acting helps. The characters are a little bit archetype (you know who is going to be trouble from second one) and it plays its cards with too much ambiguity (it tries to leave options open to the viewer, but sometimes it backfires). But those are minor problems, and the slow-burning pace and amazing atmosphere are the cherry on the top of a great movie, really worth checking.

Sarmaşık has taken my attention since I learned that it won 4 awards (best film, best director, best actor and best screenplay) at Golden Orange Film Festival in Antalya. First of all, I must say that it is a great success, a big start for the director Tolga Karaçelik who makes his first film. (He has short films, but this is his first professional work) Let's say I watch a film and I don't know that it is directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. I can say "This can be a Nuri Bilge Ceylan film" while watching it. I mean, the directors have their own styles. The young directors can be effected by masters, but Tolga Karaçelik differs from other young directors as it seems that he has already his own style. He has a great potential and the expectation from him is very high from now on.With a few words; the story is about six men who have to stay on a ship anchored far from the coast. The longer they stay on the ship, the more they get nervous. I don't want to give so much details about the film, but I would like to share two scenes I like so much in the film:Cenk plays and sings "Deniz Üstü Köpürür" after he tells his story. Deniz Üstü Köpürür (a popular song by Cem Karaca) means "The Surface of The Sea Foams" in Turkish. (It is a good example of using a soundtrack in a film)The captain of the ship talks to the crew on the open deck. When he is about to leave there, a hammer is thrown towards him. He takes the hammer from the floor, He orders Cenk to take it from him and put it in its box. (This is one of the subjects questioned in the film: authority fight)Good screenplay (with realistic dialogues), successful story development and great performance of the cast (especially Nadir Sarıbacak as Cenk) make Sarmasik a good film.As a summary, the surface of the sea foams...Bravo!8/10

If you're a thinker, this film is definitely on your watch list with high(est) priority. If you're not really a thinker, this film might have the power to inspire you to do so anyway.. so be warned! The timing seems to be perfect; the message it tries to convey is delightfully relevant to the confusing times of today. Tolga Karaçelik had the capacity to see this enabling him to crystallize this vision graciously weaving it into a beautiful form; a film that speaks vividly not only to the eye but also to the mind and emotions of the receiver. You will be challenged! What do you do if the the root of the problem has grown so thick that it seems impossible to eradicate it without the requirement of suffering and sacrifice? What will it take to inspire, enable us to move forward again when we're stuck, stranded and have no heading?Tolga Karaçelik has proved himself to be a gifted story teller. His voice strikes true and with strength yet remains grounded in its efficient and charming simplicity.