The Secret Face

This esoteric movie starts with a quote from Ferriduddin Attar and gets more obscure by the moment. A young man having defied his father by refusing to study, takes to photographing faces in late night Istanbul cafés. These he shows to a mysterious woman. She sends him off to locate one of the faces, a clockmaker in a provincial town. The woman subsequently disappears and he embarks on a year-long quest (through the City of the Sad and the City of the Hearts) to find her. The movie is hard to categorise. If the faces seen against the walls and the shots of strange lone trees remind one of Tarkovsky, the woman's Maria Casarès-like face receding into the shadows evokes the poetry of Cocteau; and the unexplained histories and motivations of the characters suggest Kafka. Director Kavur is nevertheless determinedly his own man. It's a disconcerting, captivating, spiritual journey, perfectly accompanied by atmospheric oscillating, one-note music reminiscent of Popul Vuh.