Movie review: Times and Winds (2006)
THE SCENE: A small village in rural Turkey, about 2005
A small, very old woman, wearing a head-shawl held in place with the help of thick black glasses, is lying face down on a table in her hovel.
A man, not quite-as-old, wearing a colorful cap (a busy but friendly village elder) has just finished giving her an injection in her bum. The woman, pricked, says, Not that it's of any use!
He replies, Well, it's old age, what can you do.
With a soft groan, she begins to sit up, rubbing her backside. I pray for death to come. No use, I just can't die. He smiles, and gently scolds her. Your time will come. Wait your turn!
Having put away his implements, he walks towards the door as the old woman reaches for her cane. Gazing out her front door, down on the decrepit roof of a shelter built for animals, and for protection from the elements in the final approach to the house, he says, You have to fix this before winter.
She arrives in the front door next to him, and says softly, Hopefully my time will come before winter.
Suddenly, the shouts of a girl can be heard fast approaching. She is about 9 or 10, with big pigtails flopping on either side of her head, wearing a striped sweater with a bright red skirt. She shouts, Uncle Khalil, hurry up! Our cow is in labor, they're calling for you!!
The old man scurries down the stony path to where the girls waits. He pats her briefly on the head as he jogs past, and she sets off behind him, already rushing down the dusty road.
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This scene comes from Turkish director Reha Erdem's 2006 film Times and Winds.* Here's an unsigned summary from the movie-review website Rotten Tomatoes.
In Turkish director Reha Erdem's sumptuous 4th feature, childhood life in a rural village on a mountain overlooking the sea is the incubator for an examination of that pain as experienced through the eyes of three very different children: Ömer, the son of the imam; his best friend, Yakup: enamored with the village schoolteacher; and Yildiz, forced to balance her studies with her demanding mother's household needs. Their youthful internal struggles play out against stunning pastoral scenes of passing hours, changing seasons and rural tradition.
Although parts of the movie are sometimes hard to watch, as traditional old-world ways of disciplining children and animals are sometimes harshly portrayed, this was overall a gorgeous film, and a delightful snapshot of the day-to-day life of folks not all that far from us, either in space or time.
Especially in these times of global pandemic, the Turkish villagers’ view of death - Your time will come. Wait your turn! - is a refreshing reminder that, while different cultures bring different attitudes to the experience of death (what it means, how best to think about it), it doesn’t need to be the feared thing we so desperately wish to always turn away from. For at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, it’s the only thing of which we can ever be certain.
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* In Turkey, Erdem's film is known as Five Times: a reference to the five chapters in the film that pertain to the five times of day when Muslims are asked to pray. Its title in English is a slightly strange and unimaginative, second-rate substitute.
A small, very old woman, wearing a head-shawl held in place with the help of thick black glasses, is lying face down on a table in her hovel.
A man, not quite-as-old, wearing a colorful cap (a busy but friendly village elder) has just finished giving her an injection in her bum. The woman, pricked, says, Not that it's of any use!
He replies, Well, it's old age, what can you do.
With a soft groan, she begins to sit up, rubbing her backside. I pray for death to come. No use, I just can't die. He smiles, and gently scolds her. Your time will come. Wait your turn!
Having put away his implements, he walks towards the door as the old woman reaches for her cane. Gazing out her front door, down on the decrepit roof of a shelter built for animals, and for protection from the elements in the final approach to the house, he says, You have to fix this before winter.
She arrives in the front door next to him, and says softly, Hopefully my time will come before winter.
Suddenly, the shouts of a girl can be heard fast approaching. She is about 9 or 10, with big pigtails flopping on either side of her head, wearing a striped sweater with a bright red skirt. She shouts, Uncle Khalil, hurry up! Our cow is in labor, they're calling for you!!
The old man scurries down the stony path to where the girls waits. He pats her briefly on the head as he jogs past, and she sets off behind him, already rushing down the dusty road.
-- --
This scene comes from Turkish director Reha Erdem's 2006 film Times and Winds.* Here's an unsigned summary from the movie-review website Rotten Tomatoes.
Islam holds that prayer uttered five times every day brings man face-to-face with his five ‘phases,’ the states of mind resulting from the tensions of a workaday life: fear and desire, love and grudges, faith and pain, shouting and sobbing, passion and hate. Since every encounter in a Muslim's world is said to create new pain--whether growing up, growing old, or merely getting by--then prayer is the panacea for the inevitable tragedy of life.
In Turkish director Reha Erdem's sumptuous 4th feature, childhood life in a rural village on a mountain overlooking the sea is the incubator for an examination of that pain as experienced through the eyes of three very different children: Ömer, the son of the imam; his best friend, Yakup: enamored with the village schoolteacher; and Yildiz, forced to balance her studies with her demanding mother's household needs. Their youthful internal struggles play out against stunning pastoral scenes of passing hours, changing seasons and rural tradition.
Although parts of the movie are sometimes hard to watch, as traditional old-world ways of disciplining children and animals are sometimes harshly portrayed, this was overall a gorgeous film, and a delightful snapshot of the day-to-day life of folks not all that far from us, either in space or time.
Especially in these times of global pandemic, the Turkish villagers’ view of death - Your time will come. Wait your turn! - is a refreshing reminder that, while different cultures bring different attitudes to the experience of death (what it means, how best to think about it), it doesn’t need to be the feared thing we so desperately wish to always turn away from. For at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, it’s the only thing of which we can ever be certain.
Running time of Times and Winds - 1h 51m.
-- --
* In Turkey, Erdem's film is known as Five Times: a reference to the five chapters in the film that pertain to the five times of day when Muslims are asked to pray. Its title in English is a slightly strange and unimaginative, second-rate substitute.
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