Bliss
(2007/Turkey/First Run DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: B-
It is
constantly amazing how sad the treatment of women are in many lesser countries,
for any country that treats women as disposable is a wreck. More epidemic than you might think, the
problem is being increasingly exposed in documentary and fictional works. Abdullah Dguz’s Bliss (2007) is the sometimes painful story about honor killing, an
all-time fraud where institutionalized acceptability of killing a woman for offending
a man or family (usually when she did not do anything but exist) continues as
you read this.
In this
film (based on the Zulfu Livaneli novel) has 17-year-old Meryem found left for
dead on the side of a road. She has been
knocked out and dumped to the side of a road, to which a cousin is supposed to
kill her to keep the family honor, even if she did not have sex... and what
business it is of theirs? Even if she
was raped by another man, it is her fault and she deserves to die? To them, yes!
But
cousin Cemal cannot do their dirty work, so the two go out on the road and
discover Turkey
and beyond in this well done film. It
has some spots that do not work as well as others, but this is an acclaimed
film that deserves to be so.
Performances are a plus and it is definitely worth your time.
The letterboxed
1.78 X 1 image is soft throughout, but has some nicely shot location scenes and
good framing, but lack of detail hurts this presentation. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple and
better, but you still get some instances of problematic audio, but there are
also subtitles as this is in Turkish.
Extras include Production Notes, stills and text biographies.
- Nicholas Sheffo
