Istanbul

The Storm

Firtina/Bahoz (Turkey)

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After passing his university entrance exam, Cemal (Cahit Gok) starts out from his remote hometown of Tunceli (helmer's own birthplace) to study in Istanbul. All wide-eyed in the bustling burg, he soon falls in with others in his dorm and gets interested looks from a blonde, Emel, at lectures.

Despite his lack of any strong political convictions, Cemal, partly for social reasons, drifts into a group of student activists that includes a good number of Kurds. For this group, imbued with a kind of neo-'60s idealism, any anti-establishment cause is a good one -- and that includes the Kurdish one as well. (Pic is set during the period when Turkey was still controlled by the right-wing nationalist military, with secret service goons on every street corner.)

Early scenes of meetings, discussions, secret lectures on Kurdish history and self-criticism seshes lightly satirize the way in which the idealistic students fall into "revolutionary" postures ("comrade," "friend," etc.) without trivializing the very real content. Cemal, who just wants to get good grades, goes with the flow while making it clear that he's hardly sympathetic.

Pic's first hour is pretty leisurely, and may lose some auds on the way; thereon, the script slowly tightens its narrative grip, as Cemal finally agrees to join a street demonstration in which Molotov cocktails are used. Much later, he takes part in a more elaborate demo that devolves into chaos. Still hardly a political activist, Cemal is among those arrested and tortured -- and then his dad arrives from the country, looking for him.

Running parallel to the political strand -- which is handled much less heavily than expected -- are the relationships within the group, which includes Cemal's friend Orhan (Selim Akgul), lovers Ali and the earnest Helin (Asiye Dincsoy), and the pretty Rojda (Havin Funda Sac), rebellious daughter of a political higher-up.

Young ensemble cast catches just the right tone of campus idealism and hormonal confusion, and the thesps perform easily onscreen together, with Dincsoy etching a particularly strong profile. Like Oz's seemingly laid-back direction, the performances have an underlying continuity that gathers dramatic heft as the movie progresses.

Ditto the script, which manages to tie up all its disparate strands in a satisfying way, including a neat epilogue that gives a final shape to the whole picture as it returns the focus to Cemal's own passage into adulthood.

Technical package is modest but gets the job done. For the record, main and end credits are all in Kurdish; pic's Kurdish title is "Bahoz."

Camera (color), Ercan Ozkan; editor, Oz; music, Vedat Yildirim, Ayhan Akkaya, Burak Korucu; art director, Selda Cicek; costume designer, Firat Cete; sound, Murat Senurkmez; assistant directors, Fesih Alpagu, Aziz Capkurt. Reviewed at Istanbul Film Festival (national competition), April 18, 2008. Running time: 165 MIN.