In the Blind Spot
2023 [GERMAN]
Drama / Mystery / Thriller

Plot summary
A film crew from Germany, filming in a remote village in northeastern Turkey, interviews an elderly Kurdish woman. She performs an ancient ritual to keep alive the memory of the son she lost years ago. The young woman, who helps the German crew with the Kurdish translation, is also the caretaker of seven-year-old Melek. Melek's father is a member of a shadowy organization whose true purpose is unclear. The result of all these people coming together will be devastating.
Director
Tech specs
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A Mystery in Kars, Turkey
A cleverly crafted movie
To understand this movie you have to be aware of some of Turkey's policies in Kurdistan. There are still hundreds of people whose bodies have not been found, they were killed by Turkey's illegal armed groups. Yes, these people have not been found, but their ghosts still haunt this society. This was the situation Melek kept talking about and wanted to know the name of. Because these systematic massacres were never given a name. If it continues like this, it will continue to be a bleeding wound in society.
I had the chance to watch this movie at the Kurdish film festival and I think it does justice to the opening film.
Experimental mix of a documentary and a feature film
"In The Blind Spot" experimented with an original format of building one compact story from numerous individual plot lines with the use of documentary-like features that lend the whole picture a very realistic yet also mysterious appearance, for sometimes we can't see behind the still stationary camera for the sake of deliberately hiding some actions from viewers. What was a great move, in my opinion, was separating the story lines into chapters, although not in chronological order, as it helps the audience to keep track of all the connections that are happening on the screen. Ayse Polat, the director, cleverly ended the first chapter with a huge cliffhanger that makes the viewers wanting to know more from the story and where its going. Eventhough some questions raised in the beginning are left unanswered and the audience needs maybe a little bit more imagination and power of visualization to put the puzzle pieces together in the end, I would say it is still a film worth watching because of its extraordinary approach.