I am not at all interested in the harems, the palaces of the sultans, and the other necessary attributes of the rich. The only thing that could at least acquaint me with such things was watching the film Angelica and the Sultan, and from there I took out only that in the harem it is bright, colorful, and all women sharpen their teeth on each other. I don't think that's great.
This raises a natural question - why the hell did I sit down to watch Harem? I just wanted to see something from when Ben Kingsley was young. I got this movie first. He’s not so young here, but he’s still here.
Since I didn’t have any expectations, I was able to quickly recalibrate, because Harem is not a melodrama about two people, it’s not a film about the clash of two cultures, and it’s not a film about women’s wars for the first place; it’s a film about one man, about his personal drama, about his inner struggle with himself and the unsuccessful attempt to stop the ruthless passage of time to preserve what is untouchable and precious. Fans of Turkish TV series will definitely be upset, because there is no tinsel, wealth, jewelry, painted ceilings and thick carpets, the film is not about that. People who appreciate beautiful love stories such as love at first sight and until the last wheezing can also pass by, because here the love line is not the main one. Actually surprised not to find a lot of angry reviews, because the positioning of the film, its title and this intriguing poster do not dispose of psychological drama.
“Harem” gradually captured me, made me understand what they tried to convey to me, to penetrate, because every person has such a special place, the “place of the Force”, where he rests with his soul and can calmly think. Therefore, I was very worried about Selim, for me personally, any changes in the place of the Force would be not only undesirable, but horribly destructive to my inner world. And the more tragic for me was the ending, because I wanted to believe it would work. However, I have to admit that such a development would be the only way out - Selim could not live on without remembering his place of power and not wanting to return there.
I still have questions for the director. It was very difficult to watch the movie even knowing what it was about. As much as the first part of the film is consistent, so archaic is the second. It felt like the film was cut down, not shown many scenes, why some of the actions of the characters for a minute or two puzzled me.
Since the film is about one person, the main actor is one. And that's Ben Kingsley, of course. Unfortunately, due to the strange manner of which I wrote above, and due to blunders at the level of the script, his character was not fully revealed to the viewer. If there had been another actor in Kingsley’s place, the mission would certainly have failed, but Kingsley was able to complete the image and present it in such a way that it is impossible not to understand and not to be imbued with his drama. About Nastasya Kinsky I can only say that in her place could be anyone - it was necessary to play a European woman who got into an unusual situation of the East, naturally hysteria in the right place, in principle, everything, with these tasks the actress coped with a hundred.
The film left behind a very special mood of light light sadness, as well as many topics for reflection. A movie I would recommend to everyone if it wasn’t so special.
9 out of 10