Ulak (2008) User Reviews

fairy tale with a deep truth

[g-vielkind-1 · 8/10 · 13 November 2008]

this is a timeless film and a timeless story, full of hope and humanity. the actors are magnificent, especially the children and the storyteller.

altogether a beautiful experience that instills hope in everyone. in a way it is very realistic and based in a seemingly real village. then the film shifts between two stories which are linked and share some actors.

it is encouraging because it exposes evil-doers and gives hope that ethical behavior has still a great value. another plus is that the film shows a life-style of old with beautiful costumes and embellishing of the women's face and is set in a rural place which makes you quite nostalgic.

Meditation on Self-Determination, Tyranny and the Power of the Deity

[l_rawjalaurence · 7/10 · 1 October 2014]

Set in an unspecified medieval period, ULAK centers on Zekeriya, a doctor (Çetin Tekindor) who visits a village and begins to tell mysterious stories of the past, present and future to a group of children and adults. The stories focus on the power of God, the importance of remaining true to oneself and the need to overcome tyranny. The center of his tales is a crippled character Murad (Ömer Hüsnü Turat) who possesses some kind of spiritual power despite his disability.

Zekeriya's presence within the community immediately causes suspicion: what kind of power does he have over the children? For the village elders, accustomed to wielding their patriarchal power over their women and their offspring, he represents a subversive force, and therefore needs to be removed. The only snag is that he possesses the kind of resilience that is infectious - so infectious, in fact, that he encourages the children to resist their parents. Young Ferhat (Atakan Yağız) offers a case in point - despite his father's attempts to beat him into submission, he remains unbowed, and eventually departs with Zekeriya to a better world.

Part-fantasy, past religious epic, Çağan Irmak's film underlines the importance of being true to oneself, even if life's circumstances turn against you. This is way Zekeriya preaches, using his autobiographical experiences with Murad as an example. Tyrannies will never survive in a world whose inhabitants understand the existence of a higher power in whom they can trust. Such views are not only religiously important, they have an intimate bearing on contemporary politics. The film's ending is particularly satisfying, as the children and the believers go forth into a promised land, leaving the former tyrants and their families to die. ULAK is particularly harsh on those who simply follow popular sentiment without understanding anything about themselves or the societies they inhabit. They are at once the least intelligent yet most dangerous of people.

To be honest, some of the action is a little sentimental, adumbrating some of Irmak's later work such as THE SLEEPING PRINCESS (PRENSES'IN UYKUSU), especially towards the end of the the film when Zekeriye reveals the ending to his tale to the accompaniment of swirling violins on the soundtrack. There is also the question of the film's epigraph, dedicated to all children with the capacity to dream; on this view, Irmak suggests that all adults have somehow been corrupted and it is incumbent on the younger generation to create a better world. This might be true, but it suggests a view of childhood with its roots in European Romanticism rather than spirituality.

has not tried in Turkey before

[muinsoztop · 9/10 · 10 October 2008]

I am pretty sure Chagan Irmak was aware of the fact that the movie is completely different than what people was expecting. He is brave enough to discuss the issues like freedom of speech, military coups in his movies explicitly. But this time, he was indirect and he makes people to think. In most of the Turkish movies, it is a tradition to give the message in a direct way. But this makes Ulak special .. Irmak breaks those traditions. The photography, costumes are were great. Throughout the movie, I tried where/when the story takes place. What is their religion? I liked that disturbance in my mind. which make me to think and I enjoyed my mind trip!

Sometimes you may have to believe a tale that offers hope to overcome your fears.

[vyahsi · 28 January 2008]

A mysterious stranger with lots of secrets and a lot to say in his tales pays a visit to a village where people are desperate because of the fear and cruelty they have been suffering. Will the stranger give them hopes to overcome their fears? What are people afraid of? Are sins and crimes punished sooner or later?

Cagan Irmak, the successful director of the Turkish film "My father and my son" has created a new masterpiece. His new film Ulak "The Messenger" is quite different to his first film. The theme and plot are both striking. Costumes and music make the story seem to be real. Acting is spellbinding. The Turkish Cinema is certain to have a new master now.

Awesome...

[feanor2311 · 10/10 · 6 February 2008]

Another masterpiece from the one of most intellectual and creative directors of Turkey. Story is also by Irmak.

1- The incredible soundtracks that takes you away is by E.Reboutsika who won the World Soundtrack Award in 2006 by another Irmak movie "Babam ve Oglum" (My Father and My Son) 2- Cetin Tekindor presents one of the best actings I've ever seen. He paralyses the audience. Especially, the scene he begins to cry when he finishes his story and the children are talking about the Messenger they dream of.. 3- Story is very allegoric. No time and no place. And the presentation of this story is very original, since there are parts like "Dream of Ferhat", "Reality of Zekeriya", "Book of Mehmet" 4- Although lots of messages are given, the most emphasized is "The one who knows but keeps silence is as much guilty as the one who commits." In fact it seems to refer to the Military Regime started in 1980 and to the society that did not want to talk about it for years. Not only that, but also every society that stay silent against the evil kind. 5- The end is much more original. Story ends with "Dream of Saffet", which means it is your turn to dream about the end.

what was that ending

[uygaronan · 2/10 · 1 February 2008]

The movie starts great and develops amazingly. story takes you away and you are watching a breath taking movie and your expectations get higher and higher.. then something happens and the ending part comes, you start to ask yourself that questions.. "am I watching the same movie? I was just watching a great movie what is this torture?" Yes, the last part of movie is a complete torture. What a pity such great movie like this wasted so easily with an end like this..that could have been much better, even could have been one of the best Turkish movies ever. Shame on the director.

Last one about the actors; they did amazingly.. great acting skills.. congratulations..

no more clichés

[penguen · 9/10 · 6 March 2008]

That was what Cagan Irmak said before the movie was seen "if you are expecting clichés, you will not be satisfied". This movie was totally different. The style, the life, the people in the movie was kind of weird. However, everything was great, well prepared. Movie tells a tale about a "messenger" in ancient times. The tale tells people every side of a life, a woman lets men use her daughter for money, a bad man, a crazy woman, a boy and a girl that can not be together... Cetin Tekindor (Zekeriya) played nearly perfect in the movie. In addition, kids played their roles awesome. They were too natural, and they were living the environment. The soundtracks are great, images are impressive. One of the bests, 9/10.

Why and why?

[snncy2000 · 5/10 · 1 February 2008]

First of all I'm really happy to see that Turkish cinema has reached international standards in terms of technical features of film making. The movie "Ulak" has very decent camera work, lighting, costumes and scene creation. Almost half of the movie is shot in the night and everything is well done. We can see every bit of the scene yet we're convinced that it's dark. This is not we're used to see is Turkish film making.

Now let's come the movie itself. I'd never seen a Cagan IRMAK(the director) movie before. I did not have any expectations actually. I was very much neutral. After watching the movie I questioned myself and thought about it over and over but I could not figure out what all it was about! There is a promising story but it is very vague. One can get different messages from it or not. Neither I can say who the people are in the movie nor what the era it is they live in. It looks like they are one of the Turkish tribes before Ottoman Empire living in southern parts of Anatolia. But no one can say it is for sure. So, place, characters and the time is not so clear to the audience. Therefore we cannot know what to expect or how to interpret the story.

And my last but not least complaint is, and I think this is the biggest problem of Turkish Cinema, the movie looks much more like a theater play than a cinema movie. Let me say why; most of the cast is coming from theater origin yet this is the least important cause of the problem. It doesn't feel like "Cinema" because it's shot in almost three places, a hand build village stage, a barn yard and some very short outside shots. Acting can be considered quite well if they were on the stage of the theater, in front of the audience. But the acting is much more dramatic than it should. One might say it's epic, but I could not see where the saga is.

So, our directors are so keen to shot sagas and tales but before that they ought to learn how to tell a story on the big screen in a solid manner. But of course, they need to have a solid story and scenario beforehand.

Not just a messiah story

[laRDani-1 · 9/10 · 2 September 2009]

This film definitely has its own way of telling a story. While watching, it gives you the feeling of listening to a fairy tale, which I haven't felt for many years. I must admit that the film has religious implications, because of the story in the background, but they are not necessarily negative criticisms. By choosing children as the main audience in the "messiah story", this film separates itself from any other religious-story-telling films or books. The costumes, acting and conversations all have that fairy tale style as a whole. I see "hope" as the main theme of this film as "even an unrealistic hope can change people's lives". Please don't watch and judge this movie with your or others belief-defending opinions. It just shows the power of imagination. Also it is a good and a different step for Turkish cinema.

Bad...

[ulnoyman · 2/10 · 25 January 2008]

After the success of 'Babam ve Oglum' many moviegoers were herded under the impression that Cagan Irmak is a good filmmaker and his next work will be a gem. Others however, hated the straight-to-video pseudo-thriller stuff he did afterwards and their hopes were not very high about the fantastic 'Ulak'. As a member of the latter bunch I'm 'sad' to say we are vindicated by the badly-done, disorganized, no-plot, confused flop Irmak produced this time.

I really hoped to see a rare example of Turkish fantastic cinema done-decent when I agreed to pay for two expensive tickets. However, after about 20 minutes Irmak started squandering the reputation he built with 'Babam ve Oglum' with his sloppy storytelling. The movie had a very weak plot, a over-simplistic message related with no grace or subtlety, the writing was pretentious and mostly sloppy.

One thing must be said: The cast is one of the strongest one can muster in Turkey, including the child-actors. However, even such a stellar cast and their genuine acting can not save a movie this badly done.

This was a very big disappointment for me. So much wasted energy, money, and extraordinary acting talent...

Just the opposite of my expectation.

[the_eagle_slayer · 2/10 · 28 January 2008]

First of all I was not expecting too much like the critics before watching the movie. But this movie really disappointed me too, like it did the critics. According to its trailer this movie offers you a classical religious saint story which will try to teach us a humanity lesson. But after I had watched the movie as I understand that writer criticizes these religious stories of saints and miracles.He is doing that criticism with a nice polite way so everyone can not understand the same thing but according to the message that the writer gave at the end of the movie, my opinion is he blames the faithful believers as a fairy storytellers. In that message he dedicated this movie to every child who likes to listen fairy tales! By the way of this opinion which this movie tries to implant us, do we have to think like "if we believe on religious saviors/saints and stand brave to devilish people, we may be killed or we can just take our revenge in our dreams?" Because of the message that this film is trying to give us, it really disappointed me and If you are expecting these kinds of things like I was expecting before watching the movie, I have to say that beware of it! If I have to criticize it as an art I can say that costumes and acting is great. Especially acting of the little children is unexpectedly good. But I can't say the same things for ambient because seeing big buildings in the horizon of an historical village was not good.

Great idea but badly transformed...

[angaralitr · 5/10 · 1 November 2008]

First of all, the ''Turkish Cinema'' had produced the same things throughout. But this idea of making something different contrary to the meaningless, cheap movies of bad filmmakers is a very venturous business. I think that we owe Çağan Irmak therefore a debt, because his early work was ''Babam Ve Oğlum'', which was very successful in the box-office. Irmak has tried something at least but the transformation of the idea of telling a myth is done very bad to a movie. The development of the movie is very choppy, the characters are sketchy without any deepness, the music was predominantly weird and the overall performance of the actors were common to bad. But the biggest point is, that the movie was too theatrical. This attribute is not appropriated to cinema,you can find it in theaters. The director wanted to give the messages in a artless way, which made some scenes and the filmmaker funny. All in all it's a good try but nothing more...

Soul of tales

[Vincentiu · 2 January 2012]

Strange. Beautiful. Ambiguous. Piece of Oriental world in which events are just crumbs from fairy tales. A doctor. Few children. Lights, shadows and a mysterious book. Death as messenger. And trip to happiness. Action may be in Albania, Bosnia , Georgia or Dobruja. Each of them can be perfect space for that subject, mixture of blood and evening, human sins and desire of revenge. The old man is everywhere. As keeper of memories. Like master of precise pictures of past. As another Pied Piper for who not children or rats are pray but the empty soul of adults. Religion and chains of myths. Shadow of Angel of Death and his cold justice act. Search of lost son and refuge for victims. Exploration of tales soul who is only seed of reality. And new way from Gomorha.

a fairy tale. at first sigh

[Kirpianuscus · 20 March 2016]

the atmosphere. the architecture. the emotion. the words who becomes pillars. the image of wise story teller. and the magic in a not comfortable manner. a film who could be window to memories. or rediscover of pure story, from classic Oriental recipes. but, step by step, scene by scene, you discover it be more than charming introduction in mythical universe. but a parable who remains the perfect manner to describe the present as just one of forms of past. the expectation. the force of dream. the fear. and the curiosity. the challenge. and the bitter words. and, sure, the large slices of silence. a film who is more a window to a lost world than a fairy tale's exposure. because it reminds the roots of the life. and the importance of its values.