Fate

Already showcased at Cannes and Edinburgh, this first part of writer-director-editor Zeki Demirkubuz’s ‘Tales of Darkness’ trilogy reveals another uncompromising Turkish talent to merit comparisons with Nuri Bilge Ceylan. There’s a strong literary inspiration, however, in this adaptation of Camus’ ‘The Stranger’, where a customs clerk’s defiantly non-committal attitude to life – whether it’s his recently expired mother, the violent dealings of his dodgy neighbour or the tangled love life of his female co-worker – still somehow conspires to land him in hot water. Is his abnegation of moral choice a choice in itself, or is free will utterly bound to the whims of fate?

There’s no doubting Demirkubuz’s confidence with his absolutely attuned cast, or his control of the film’s slowly unfurling rhythm (not unlike a Levantine Hou Hsiao-Hsien), though the lengthy dialogue sequences in which the legal authorities battle to understand the protagonist’s seemingly opaque motives add a certain drag factor. Still, Demirkubuz shows no fear at squaring up to the big questions and Serdar Orçin is a uniquely brooding yet quizzical presence in the central role.