A history of sad loneliness "When I'm sitting alone at night."
And images of the saints in silence
So I take it out of my soul deeply.
And the ringing verse sounds wonderful to me.
I'm happy! I don't need anyone.
The world is in me! Creating a Soul
The soul itself has the best joy.
And so I cherish it in silence.
Nikolai Ogarev
The dull and gloomy gray shades of the prison vaults are reflected in the devastated look of their exhausted prisoner. Ten years under the label of a political prisoner spent here, left a deep scar on his fate. It is simply ruined, destroyed, as well as his health. He paid for his views and is now coming home. But is this the house that used to be? The time, which seemed not to touch this quiet place, still inexorably passed. Everything changes for the lonely traveler, wandering along the familiar autumn road.
Autumn, Ozjan Elper’s debut film, is a challenge, albeit veiled. A strong but hidden message. What is happening sounds a quiet and sad echo of the events of the turn of the new millennium that took place in Turkey. For many of the locals, those years were the most difficult, and for some, they were the last. But being immersed in the sphere of hidden meanings, the picture still does not focus only on the social problem. The film slowly tells about the fate of ordinary people, including those who were grinded by the millstones of the system due to their belief in universal justice.
All these lives and events flash in the memory of one person, then popping up with archival fragments of the chronicle, and sometimes, reflected in the look, through the veil, like the one that enveloped the majestic mountains, on the slopes of which are scattered small houses of the native village of the protagonist.
The strongest visual meaning lies in the picture on the screen. Elper managed to secure his creation. In the event that such a story seems to someone foreign, he, nevertheless, can not but recognize the beauty of what is happening. On the Black Sea coast, not as we know it. Here it appears as a picturesque, untouched by civilization corner, like a whole world in which melancholic Yusuf dissolves. It would seem that only the old mother, like a beacon of former existence, waiting for him from imprisonment, connects him with the real world. He has no more relatives, and his former friends contrast him with their inner energy. He wanders through familiar places, against a backdrop of wooded mountains, trying to adapt to this new forgotten life.
Warm, free autumn is replaced by winter. Meanwhile, in this remote corner on the path of Yusuf, another man with his own story appears. Her name is Eka. An alienated stranger, without a home and support, she became a kindred soul to him. It doesn't look like a love line like many. They are like two straws in the whirlpool of life that do not allow each other to perish in obscurity. The sea surf meets them again and again on the pier, as if washing away the former with a wave. Who knows if they would have met before.
Being the embodiment of all existential meanings, the protagonist looks even more isolated and original. This gives the story a special flavor and depth. There are also controversial moments in figurative imagery. Intersections of Russian themes, in the form of films and music, are not quite clear. Except to proceed from the poetic lyrics of Chekhov. Excerpts of his works flash in some moments. The character seems to be complemented by heavy and soulful features that reveal his world, so lonely and lost. And the sad and sensual melodies of the piano permeate his actions against the background of wanderings of the restless soul.
The action, accompanied by ethnic music, is so matched, smoothly comes to an end. A lonely person surrounded by his own thoughts and memories does not fit into the framework of a still-going life, regardless of his desire. A sad look out the window, where the panorama of the mountainous edge of the Turkish village extends. Small figures of people crowd on the slope. Another life ended...