Saỷara

Can Evrenol: Saỷara (TK 2024). Saỷara (Duygu Kocabiyik) opens the body bag containing her sister's horribly mutilated corpse.

Saỷara: İntikam Meleği

Country and year: Turkey 2024

Rating: 18

Duration: 99min

Director and writer: Can Evrenol

Producer(s): Sarp Kalfaoglu, Can Okan, Ahmet Ziyalar

Cinematographer: Umut Turan

Music: Volkan Akaalp

Cast: Duygu Kocabiyik, Emre Kizilirmak, Özgül Kosar, Caner Atacan, Dogan Baris Yasar, Levent Inal, Batuhan Büyükacaroglu, Samantha Ela Özdas

Language: Turkish

Subtitles: English

Format: DCP

Viewed at Night Visions, Kinopalatsi 5, Helsinki, 14 Nov 2024

 

Night Visions 2024: "Mieleenpainuvan kostoelokuvan voi loihtia perinteisistä aineksista, kunhan henkilöhahmot ja tapahtumapaikka ovat freesejä. Saỷarassa turkmenistanilainen maahanmuuttajanainen lähtee veriselle kostoretkelle."

"Ohjaaja Can Evrenol teki kansainvälisen läpimurtonsa houreisella debyytillään Baskinilla (2015). Sitä seurasivat Lovecraft– ja Argento-vaikutteinen uskontokulttikauhu Housewife (NV 2018) sekä osio folk horror -antologiassa The Field Guide to Evil (myös NV 2018). Saỷara on askel kohti maanläheisempää kerrontaa."

"Elokuvan nimihenkilö (Duygu Kocabiyik) työskentelee siivoojana siskonsa kusipäisen rakastajan pyörittämässä kuntokeskuksessa. Ennen työvuoroja hän livahtaa tyhjälle salille pitämään yllä isänsä opettamia taistelutaitoja."

"Arkipäivän toksinen maskuliinisuus kiristää pinnaa ja siskon alistuva käytös ahdistaa. Kun salipomon kaverit satuttavat siskoa ja pomon vaikutusvaltainen isä peittelee jäljet, pato murtuu. Saỷara kirjaimellisesti silpoo ja moukaroi palasiksi turkkilaisen yhteiskunnan tunkkaisimpia epäkohtia rasismista naisvihaan. Tulilinjalle joutuu myös rakenteellinen korruptio."

"Evrenol tuo kostoteeman uudenlaiseen ympäristöön ja kumartaa samalla syvään Abel Ferraran Ms. 45:n kaltaisille lajin klassikoille. Graafisen brutaaliuskertoimensa turkkilaistylytys kohottaa Alexandre Bustillon ja Julien Mauryn Insiden (2007) tasolle."

“This astronomically violent jujutsu movie is a dark elixir of pure revenge”

– Bradley Hadcroft / The People’s Movies

“A thoughtfully constructed morality play of extremes”

– Anton Bitel / Projected Figures

“Introspective, beautifully shot and dynamic”

– Sampira Al-Fihri / The Geek Show

“The film is a unique, weird crossbreed: half grappling-based martial arts flick, half obsessive toxic relationship movie from hell.”

– Can Evrenol on Saỷara / Variety

“The latest offering from Turkish director Can Evrenol departs from the supernatural horrors of his previous works (Baskin, Housewife) and ventures into a brutal, grounded tale of revenge. With Saỷara, Evrenol has crafted an ultraviolent, nihilistic thriller that recalls the raw, unflinching energy of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher trilogy. The film is a relentless journey into the darker corners of humanity, where justice, once forsaken by law, is taken into savage hands.” – Saul Muerte / Surgeons of Horror " - Montage of quotations from Night Visions 2024

AA: Can Evrenol's Saỷara is an ultra-violent revenge tragedy, channelling one woman's confrontation with femicide, misogyny and racism to extreme consequences.

Like in La Mariée était en noir, a woman tracks down a bunch of men who killed her loved one and executes them one by one. She is a little woman against huge beefy men, but Saỷara is since childhood a master of martial arts who keeps fit by exercising every morning.

Saỷara and her family belong to the oppressed minority of Turkmens in Turkey, and they are treated like trash. In flashbacks, we see childhood memories of Saỷara and the lessons taught to her by her father, also in self-defence. 

The rampage of revenge also reveals the ways of the power elite to which they murderous gang belongs and how they can protect their offspring in case they commit crimes. 

The direction, the performances, the photography and the music all contribute to a tremendous cinematic drive.

Revenge is the opposite of justice. Saỷara starts by murdering the mother and the wife of Bariş, the keeper of the sports center where she works and who is responsible for the execution of Saỷara's big sister Yonja. Next in line are the public prosecutor and his chauffeur. Then all the rest, the first among them the big wheel Şamil, the father of Baris. It ends in a conflagration started by a kiss of fire which becomes a kiss of death.