NNarrative CompetitionOriginal Title: Araf
Director: Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Turkey, Germany, France | Turkish
2012 | 124min. | Colour
Subtitles: Arabic and English
Format: DCP
18+Araf/Somewhere in Between is the story of those caught between a despairing present and the promise of a free future (araf means ‘purgatory’ in Turkish). It is the story of Zehra and Olgun, two young souls trying to break away from the vicious cycle of dysfunctional families and small-town lethargy. Yet the escape they choose in order to change their destinies will lead to unforeseen consequences.

Zehra and Olgun are confined to a daily routine, working double shifts at a motorway service station. Olgun is deeply in love with Zehra, yet she seems indifferent to his feelings. Outside work, they take refuge in TV-fuelled dreams of a better future, of becoming famous and rich. Their lives are turned upside down when Zehra, at a wedding, meets a taciturn truck driver, Mahur, with whom she starts a secret love affair. New desires and pleasures soon metamorphose into oppressive feelings of shame and guilt as she finally ends up abandoned and pregnant. Olgun, meanwhile, faces a deeper quandary as he tries to cope with the painful truth.

Spectacular winter landscapes from the misty Black Sea coast complement extreme close-ups that accentuate the deftly articulated performances in this highly anticipated new film by Yeşim Ustaoğlu, director of the acclaimed Waiting for the Clouds and Pandora’s Box (which screened at the Festival in 2009). Araf/Somewhere in Between is a journey of ever-evolving hope and despair, and a mirror to help make sense of life and one’s true feelings.

– Özge Calafato