Everybody loves a good soap, Croatians no exception. There was a craze for Spanish soaps some time ago, but recently we’ve gone east for that. Turskih soaps are the thing nowadays. So, a Turkish horror movie is no more of a surprise than a romantic horror movie. The romance explains the title: Thou Gilds’t the Even.And Shakespeare is not the only classic quoted – the movie opens with another, classical this time, quote: Man is created from anxiety. (Euripides in case you are wondering.)
And proceed to tell a beautiful love triangle story, shot in black and white movie by Turkish auteur Onur Ünlü (1973.), very famous in Turkey for his TV work and outside of it for award winning films like Police (2007.) and Celal Tan ve ailesinin asiri acikli hikayesi¹ (2011.).
Thous Gild’st the Even does not lack awards either. At the Istanbul Film Festival it won awards as in the categories of Best Film, Best Script and Best Editing, as well as the International Film Critics Award.
I truly did not expect to much like a romantic horror but then, I am a bit conditioned to connecting horrors with the American production, so it does bring about images of teenagers dying bloody deaths and such. So this was refreshing, a funny, ironic and poetic movie about the ordinary, everyday troubles – life, love and loss – of some not really entirely ordinary people.
I will not retell it, lest I spoil it, but I will gladly recommend it. See the trailer here.
I would also love to hear what Australians, Americans and the British think of the movie as Turkish culture is closer to mine than theirs is.
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¹Tragic story of Celalu Tanu and his family
