Not Knowing [Bilmemek] ***½ (2019, Emir Ozden, Senan Kara, Yurdaer Okur) – Classic Movie Review 12,523

Writer-director Leyla Yilmaz’s very worthwhile and worthy 2019 film Not Knowing [Bilmemek] focuses on the life of a Turkish family, all three of whom are not satisfied with their lives. Selma (Senan Kara) and Sinan (Yurdaer Okur) are a comfortably off, middle-aged married couple who now find it difficult to get on with each other, frustrated after years of marriage. Umut (Emir Ozden), their intelligent, studious and sporty 17-year-old son, is out to prove himself, both as a scholar, getting ready to take his university entrance exams, and as a water polo champ.

But, at the end of high school, rumours start circulating that Umut is gay, and he is relentlessly bullied and persecuted by his homophobic team-mates, with devastating consequences. When Umut finds himself friendless, he suddenly disappears. While Selma and Sinan are desperately looking for their son, they realise that they have actually lost themselves.

Is he gay or not? Is he alive or not? Surprisingly, these are not the questions here. It’s all a bit bigger than that. It’s about rampant, rancid homophobia. It’s about who you are and who you should be. It’s also about what and who you should be devoting your life to, and maybe how to do it. Actually how best to negotiate your way through life. There’s a lot to think about.

But also the drama is very powerfully done, and the film is well paced, as it comes in and out of intensity, and as it sometimes takes its time, then suddenly shifts up a gear. It is extremely impactful and effective, and all three performances are special: Emir Ozden, Senan Kara, Yurdaer Okur. The focus is on all three characters, with the middle-aged parents getting at least their fair share of screen time in a film that seems, but only seems, to be about the teenage son.

The story and dialogue are impeccably achieved by writer Leyla Yilmaz. The screenplay really is very good indeed, with a powerful force behind it and a chilly cutting edge to it, and no sentimentality. It is a moral tale in an immoral world, and wants us to live better lives. Of course there are no answers, but there are plenty of pertinent questions here.

Finally everybody rallies round, and tries to behave well in the end, but by then of course it is too late. They care, but it’s too late. We’re all the bad guys, apparently, though we don’t have to be. We’re not born bad, it’s a choice.

The title Bilmemek is Turkish for Not Knowing. So, about the Not Knowing thing. The team mates don’t know the boy is gay, though they want to force him to say he is, and he refuses the say. The parents don’t know either. And finally nobody knows if the boy is alive. Nobody knows anything.

Director: Leyla Yilmaz. Writer: Leyla Yilmaz. Stars: Emir Ozden, Senan Kara, Yurdaer Okur.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,523

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com