Filming in long, meticulously sculpted takes, Kaplanoglu is especially good at emphasising elements within the frame with inventive use of focus and the positioning of the camera.
Overview
In the remote and undeveloped eastern Black Sea region, a six-year-old boy (Yusuf) wanders through the woods searching for his lost father, trying to make sense of his life.His father is a beekeeper whose bees have disappeared unexpectedly, threatening his livelihood. A bizarre accident kills the father.There is little dialogue or music in the film. The three main characters (Yusuf and his parents) are all fairly taciturn, and the soundtrack is filled out with the sounds of the forest and the creatures that live there.The environment is a recurring theme.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
A thoughtful and intelligent film, and should appeal to adventurous souls.
Like the viewer, Mr. Kaplanoglu is quite happy to let nature do the talking and cast a lyrical, mysterious spell.
The tight framing of Kaplanoglu's fixed-camera tableaux and the film's almost supernatural colors lend the scenes a glimmer of deadpan wit, as if they've been intensified and distorted by the prism of memory.
Though this graceful film is a minor addition to the canon of Middle Eastern cinema in which nothing and everything happens, Bal is still a beauty.
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