Turkish renaissance man Zülfü Livaneli ("Shahmaran" & "Iron Earth, Copper Sky") draws upon the reminiscences of Atatürk's lifelong friend and loyal ADC Salih Bozok for this sumptuous but shallow hagiographic retelling of the life of the Grey Wolf intended to restore Turkish pride in the wake of the more controversial biopic "Mustafa" by Can Dündar.With Atatürk on his deathbed a despondent Salih Bozok (Serhat Kılıç) begins to relate the life of the Grey Wolf from their childhood together on the streets of their beloved Thessalonica and on through their military career to the foundation of the republic and the President's tumultuous relationships with Fikriye (Özge Özpirinçci) and Latife (Ezgi Mola).The talented and prodigious Sinan Tuzcu ("Orada" and "Nefes") takes up the bulk of the screen time as Atatürk between the ages of 25 to 45 but is given very little to work with as the character is two-dimensionally rendered with no apparent emotional depth even when the actor is interacting with his own wife Dolunay Soysert as the Grey Wolf's mother.Serhat Kılıç heads up the supporting cast as the narrator Salih Bozok but seems curiously absent for all the major events depicted while Özge Özpirinçci and Ezgi Mola are required to carry what little emotional content the film has as the competing love interests and Burhan Güven, Bartunç Akbaba and Kaan Olcay round things out as various incarnations of Atatürk.The director deliberately sets out to avoid any perceived insult to the Turkish image of their founder and in this respect at least succeeds like any other uninspired hagiography with a loosely strung together episodic collection of supposedly inspiring well-worn incidents from the Grey Wolf's life which ultimately serve to give no true insight into the man himself."Unfortunately, words are not enough "

If this movie is outstanding, it is certainly by it's ability to dodge any depth. No significant analysis of any character, no solid study of the historical context or stake, just a superficial picture of the events through a soap-like art. The author's purpose to grossly suggest along the movie his narration is a jewel of subtle understatement, as a reflection of the oriental sensibility, doesn't produce any effect but a real tediousness. Confronting with such imposture, one could naturally consider this a suggested work to embellish a vanishing symbol, facing times of trouble. It's few to say this subject deserves a better handling: the birth of a modern nation, the fate of millions of people involved, yesterday and today, the difficult questions of liberty and democracy are the real, complete and achieved understatement here.

Not being a historian myself by any measure, I doubt anyone would argue that Ataturk is one of the greats who does deserve his story told in a great movie. This attempt unfortunately doesn't cut it.The storyline is quite boring, scenes are artificial in a sense that they don't facilitate the story in necessary scale. Quite many scenes seemed redundant altogether. Acting is mostly poor - overacting is often the case. I'd expect larger focus on his state matters than personal life, which seemed to be theme of this movie. I truly hope that someone takes another shot at telling Ataturk's story. A team of better writers, actors and director is essential to make it! 5/10. That high only because the movie is of some historical importance.

Mr. Livaneli, an outstanding figure in Turkey's artistic life, achieved a prominent success with his latest movie Veda. It can be clearly seen that he did not aim to tell the whole life story of Atatürk, but to express the deepness of a true friendship based on the memoirs of Salih Bozok. If you consider the movie as a documentary, you may urge yourself to find historical errors. However, that is an epic historic drama in which as viewers we will explore the images of history from Mr Livaneli's artistic point of view. From the beginning to the end, you will be impressed by the quality and beauty of the pictures as well as the music.Besides, it is worth mentioning here that after watching the international premiere of the movie in Nurnberg, General Director of FIPRESCI Klaus Eder could not hide his adoration and uttered these words: 'I wasn't expecting such an excellent production from Turkish movie makers. Direction, staging and acting were all at international level. I appreciate this remarkable success of Turkey'.As you see, not only ordinary viewers but also international authorities are proud of the movie. Of course there will be criticisms on the movie, but all 'masterpieces' are doomed to be criticised in the beginning. History will show that Livaneli and his crew signed their names under the first fictional movie on Atatürk; which is based on a true story.