Mud

Set amid the salt flats and mud holes of the Greek/ Turkish Cypriot divide, this strange, brooding border lament is caked with metaphors of muck and muddle - not to mention bad blood, buried skeletons, submerged statues, fertility icons, sperm-bank art projects and IVF pregnancies. The central character is Ali, a Turkish soldier rendered mute by the memories of '74, who spends his hours on border-post duty clambering down a well to dig for buried treasure. It's muddy as drama, too - 30 years on, Ali and his 40-something friends are still fumbling for self-expression. But the film has a stylistic poise that bolsters its curiosity value. Scenes are often elliptical, always succinct, with some lovely location photography of fences, deserts and the horizon.