What does the phrase "I Saw the Sun" mean? Does it mean that one literally sees the Sun, experiences reality, just realizes the truth or is it something much more intricate?
I Saw the Sun is a Turkish film which tries to answer the questions posed above. Set in the times of the Civil War of Turkey it explores the struggles a lone village family has to face while coming to terms with the vagaries of the war. The Altun family is large with many sons and their siblings. One of their sons, Ramazan or Ramo is urging Allah to give him a son as he has had 5 daughters. Finally when he is blessed with one he decides to offer the Gods an offering for the next 7 years. The family is living on the border which is constantly the playground for anti-insurgency operations by the Turkish Army against the guerrillas who are labeled as the terrorists. The army has been urging the family to evacuate the village but they are adamant on not doing so. When Davut Bey loses one of his sons, Serhat, who is a guerrilla in the army operations he is totally shaken and finally decides to abandon the village. Part of the family moves to the comforts of Istanbul while Davut Bey and his immediate family migrate to Norway illegally.
In Istanbul the family faces new troubles as a result of their ignorance of the modern lifestyle. Ramo's wife Havar suffers from gynaecological problems, Mamo's younger brother finds himself to be a homosexual when none in the family are ready to accept him like that and Ramo loses his only son to an accident.This plunges the family deeper into troubled waters and finally, when they can't take it anymore, they decide to return to their village. In Norway meanwhile Davut Bey settles down after some hassles with the immigration office and starts leading a comfortable life.
The story delves deep into the human conscience, between choices and chances, between love and hatred and between war and peace. The director leaves it to the audience to interpret the title of the film as the dawn of realisation or as a concept of the berfin as spoken of by Kadri, the homosexual. Many of the scenes will leave you on the verge of tears and some will actually make you cry. The depiction of the consequences of unnecessary war is not new but the portrayal is ingenious. When Mamo realises that Kadri's fate is not in his hands, when Ramo loses his only son, when Davut Bey finds solace in Norway and when Kadri says that how he wished he would have been a woman; all roads lead to one truth, I Saw the Sun. One may interpret it in ones own ways but the way I did, I just loved it.
I was not particularly impressed with the cinematography though. The scenes were very machinistic. They did not blend smoothly with each other and to that end the movie falls short of the expectations. The music was good but was not properly faded in and out of the frames. I think the editing too needed some polishing.
Nonetheless, the concept and the story was awesome and it is definitely worth a watch. I would give it a 4 on 5.
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