![]() ![]() The older women’s attempts to earn her trust and learn more about her past open her eyes to some of the restrictions on her own life. The aftermath of tragic events brings Elmas into the care of Shenaz, however. On the surface, the two women could hardly be more different. Elmas regards it as a painful obligation as she submits to a husband who shows little tenderness or concern for her wellbeing. Shenaz considers sex to be a pleasure and looks forwards to her weekends in the arms of Cem. Smoking a forbidden cigarette on the balcony is the only moment that Elmas has to herself. The set design creates an impressive apartment with a warren of rooms where each one feel like a prison. Elmas is the wife of a much older man and is a virtual slave, cooking, cleaning and tending to the needs of her demanding, disapproving mother-in-law. If Sehnaz is the lipstick-wearing face of a forward-looking Turkey then teenager Elmas (Ecem Uzun) is very much the embodiment of conservative traditions that refuse to fade away. She has professional standing, personal contentment and a sense of control over her own destiny. She is a glamorous figure, stylishly dressed with a comfortable home and a handsome lover in Cem (Mehmet Kurtulus). Sehnaz (Funda Eryigit) is a resident psychiatrist at a hospital on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Differing perspectives on those big issues gradually bind together into a heartrending, politically charged human drama that is among the strongest films from veteran writer/director Yesim Ustaoglu.Įcum Uzun is unnervingly convincing as a girl left traumatised by her marriage, catatonic in her silences and raging like a trapped animal in panic and terror at what fresh ordeal might lie aheadĪ long festival career and theatrical sales should ensue for a film that will attract followers of Ustaoglu’s work and the films of fellow Turkish directors like Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Çiğdem Vitrinel.Ĭlair Obscur is very much a tale of contrasts. Whether ostensibly liberated or emphatically oppressed, the women both inhabit a society where men dominate and women suffer. The contrasting lives of two women provide a stark insight into the turmoil of modern Turkey in Clair Obscur (Tereddut).
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