Summer Book

In the course of two hot summer months we get to know a Turkish community and the everyday tasks in the small town of Silifk. This peaceful town is depicted in a beautiful, observing filmic language, in authentic surroundings. It is a subdued story about the world according to the eyes of ten-year-old Ali. The film opens when school is out and summer vacation starts, and ends when Ali is ready for a new school year. In the meantime, he has been through small and big experiences which all have helped form him as a human being. Summer book is very sparingly in its dramaturgical means. Its strength is in its ability to observe and to convey impressions and moods. The small unpleasant things and the larger personal challenges that create uneasiness and insecurity in a child. The director succeeds in conveying a lot of humanity through the small family Ali is part of.

Not unlike the young characters in Abbas Kiarostami’s films, Ali too has problems with school mates and the demands of the world of grown-ups. The film also tells us about the people around Ali: his big brother Veysel who wants to quit military school to move to Istanbul. Or Ali’s mother, who is sure that her husband Mustafa has a mistress. Mustafa, on the other hand, is concerned with minding his work and leading the family using traditional values. When everyone around Ali is concerned with their own matters, his uncle Hasan is a comfort to Ali. In an impressive fashion, this light and atmospheric film conveys a glimpse of everyday life in a small town, of life seen through a child’s eye and of Turkey in a time of transition between the old and the new. jo