Gritty ‘Journey to the Sun’ Is Worth Taking

Yesim Ustaoglu’s “Journey to the Sun,” as bleak as it is beautiful, takes its time to develop, eschewing virtually all exposition, conveying a sense of what it’s like to be young and poor but still dare to dream of a happier future in Turkey today. Sensitive, gritty and courageous, this film gathers a power and focus not foreshadowed in its deliberately rambling earlier sequences.

Berzan (Nazmi Quirix), a Kurd from the eastern city of Zorduc near the Iraqi border, has been in Istanbul for some time, supporting himself selling music cassettes from a pushcart when he strikes up a friendship with Mehmet (Newroz Baz), who has come to the big city for a better life from the western city of Tire. Soon Mehmet finds work, shelter and a girlfriend, Arzu (Mizgin Kapazan), who works in a laundry.

Wrongly arrested during a routine police check on a public bus, Mehmet is released from jail after a week only to discover that his life has been turned upside down. A red X has been painted on his door, he’s promptly evicted by his terrified roommates, and he even loses his job. Mehmet is guilty only of having a dark enough complexion to be mistaken for a Kurd. From now on there seems no escape from this mistaken ethnic identity.

The way the picture plays out, Mehmet at a certain point in effect takes on Berzan’s identity as he embarks on a harrowing mission to Zorduc. By this time director Ustaoglu has made it clear that Turkey is engaged in a relentless destruction of rural Kurdish communities and a campaign of harassment of Kurds when they’re forced into the cities in a struggle to survive. “Journey to the Sun” is not easy to watch, but its principals are engaging, and it has a shimmering score, at once plaintive and seductive.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: adult themes, some violence.

‘Journey to the Sun’

Newroz Baz: Mehmet

Nazmi Quirix: Berzan

Mizgin Kapazan: Arzu

A Cinema Village Features release of a Turkey/Germany/the Netherlands co-production: an IFR production in collaboration with the Film Co. Amsterdam; Medias Res Berlin; Fabrica and ZDF/Arte. Writer-director Yesim Ustaoglu. Producer Behrooz Hashemian. Executive producer Ezel Akay. Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki. Editor Nicolas Gaster. Music Vlatko Stefanovski. Art director Natali Yeres. In Turkish and Kurdish, with English subtitles.

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