"Ask Your Heart" starts with a voice-over that notes the story is set during the second part of the nineteenth century which is mostly called as "The Tanzimat", a period of Ottoman reorganization or reformation that started in in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. In that period, Ottomans made various reforms for the diverse ethnic and religious groups to prevent the rise of the nationalist movements within the Ottoman lands. One of the most significant reforms during this period is the abolition of the capitation tax (jizyah) levied on non−Muslims.
Against the backdrop of a period on which Ottomans were trying to develop some sort of "Ottomanism" to unite both Mulism and non-Muslim ethnic groups and to prevent the imperialistic powers like Russia from intervening in internal affairs of Ottomans, "Ask Your Heart" is the story of Esma(Tuba Büyüküstün),a Muslim girl and Mustafa (Kenan Ece), a cryptic Christian who are madly in love with each other.The two lovers use their oil lamps to set the time for their secret romantic meetings. The historical Ottoman bridge in the village always seems to be the perfect place for a moonlight tryst. Their affair is known only by Esma's elder sister Feriye (Nihan Büyükagaç)and the Sister Maria (Tomris Oguzalp).While Esma hopes that she will get to marry Mustafa after the wedding of her sister, Mustafa is torn between his faith, his family and his love.
The acting in the movie is commendable. Tuba Büyüküstün in her first leading role offers a superb performance as the feisty young lover. All the actors and the actresses succeed in speaking with the proper regional accent of the Black Sea. The magnificent beauty of the Eastern Black Sea, with its authentic architectural heritage,like traditional houses (serender-Turkish horreo) wild rivers, mystical fog of the highlands, verdant wilderness, traditional dances (horon) is a real treat to your eyes.
The costumes in the movie reflect the nature of the region but for those people who live in rough, rugged, wet and muddy highlands the costumes look more than spick and span. If you can barely scrape a living in that geography, if you make your living through hard manual labor, if just a new shirt means so much to you, there is no way that you can keep your clothes new and clean all the time. On the other hand,the traditional, local head-dress of the women seems to be carefully picked yet again no woman there could have had the time to care about the foundation on her facial skin.
I understand that Yusuf Kerçenli, as he is originally from the Black Sea, tried to attract attention to the "plight" of the ancient people (namely, Greeks, Armenians, Georgians) of the Black Sea with this movie but I wish he had clarified the term "jizya" in the movie. The taxes levied on non-Muslim population of Ottomans had never been a means of oppression.Those taxes were to be levied on able bodied adult males of military age and affording power. These people may have had to pay large taxes but let's not forget that they did not have to send their sons to the wars. They people may have had to endure a local pressure because they were Christians but they enjoyed communal autonomy and the military protection.
In spite of the good acting,engaging story, careful selection of the costumes, the visual effects of the movie were questionable. In a scene in which fog renders the whole blue sky in deep white, even my little nephew said "it ain't right." I can understand that it's not easy to create these things in such a rugged geography I would still expect something better.
All in all,the quintessential, most sublime beauty of Black Sea, the traditional dance sequences, transcendent pleasingness of local songs save this movie in spite of the above-mentioned flaws.
Against the backdrop of a period on which Ottomans were trying to develop some sort of "Ottomanism" to unite both Mulism and non-Muslim ethnic groups and to prevent the imperialistic powers like Russia from intervening in internal affairs of Ottomans, "Ask Your Heart" is the story of Esma(Tuba Büyüküstün),a Muslim girl and Mustafa (Kenan Ece), a cryptic Christian who are madly in love with each other.The two lovers use their oil lamps to set the time for their secret romantic meetings. The historical Ottoman bridge in the village always seems to be the perfect place for a moonlight tryst. Their affair is known only by Esma's elder sister Feriye (Nihan Büyükagaç)and the Sister Maria (Tomris Oguzalp).While Esma hopes that she will get to marry Mustafa after the wedding of her sister, Mustafa is torn between his faith, his family and his love.
The acting in the movie is commendable. Tuba Büyüküstün in her first leading role offers a superb performance as the feisty young lover. All the actors and the actresses succeed in speaking with the proper regional accent of the Black Sea. The magnificent beauty of the Eastern Black Sea, with its authentic architectural heritage,like traditional houses (serender-Turkish horreo) wild rivers, mystical fog of the highlands, verdant wilderness, traditional dances (horon) is a real treat to your eyes.
The costumes in the movie reflect the nature of the region but for those people who live in rough, rugged, wet and muddy highlands the costumes look more than spick and span. If you can barely scrape a living in that geography, if you make your living through hard manual labor, if just a new shirt means so much to you, there is no way that you can keep your clothes new and clean all the time. On the other hand,the traditional, local head-dress of the women seems to be carefully picked yet again no woman there could have had the time to care about the foundation on her facial skin.
I understand that Yusuf Kerçenli, as he is originally from the Black Sea, tried to attract attention to the "plight" of the ancient people (namely, Greeks, Armenians, Georgians) of the Black Sea with this movie but I wish he had clarified the term "jizya" in the movie. The taxes levied on non-Muslim population of Ottomans had never been a means of oppression.Those taxes were to be levied on able bodied adult males of military age and affording power. These people may have had to pay large taxes but let's not forget that they did not have to send their sons to the wars. They people may have had to endure a local pressure because they were Christians but they enjoyed communal autonomy and the military protection.
In spite of the good acting,engaging story, careful selection of the costumes, the visual effects of the movie were questionable. In a scene in which fog renders the whole blue sky in deep white, even my little nephew said "it ain't right." I can understand that it's not easy to create these things in such a rugged geography I would still expect something better.
All in all,the quintessential, most sublime beauty of Black Sea, the traditional dance sequences, transcendent pleasingness of local songs save this movie in spite of the above-mentioned flaws.
